Two big groups of retailers and apparel brands have completed a major step toward advancing garment-factory safety in Bangladesh: They have finished inspecting nearly 1,700 factories in that country...The groups are working with Bangladeshi factory owners to promote safety and finance improvements, like fireproof doors or fire-sprinkler systems, that are required for garment factories 75 feet or taller in Bangladesh...The Alliance estimated that it would cost $250,000 on average for safety improvements at each factory. Alan Roberts, the Accord’s executive director for international operations, said the cost for some factories would be $1 million...The International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, will make low-interest loans available to Bangladeshi factory owners for safety improvements, so long as overseas customers of those factories guarantee the loans...The Bangladeshi government has a separate National Action Plan to inspect an additional 1,500 often smaller factories not used directly by Accord or Alliance members, but thus far only 400 of them have been inspected.