Government is to lease out the closed jute mills to private sector to pave the way for reopening those, said adviser to the Ministry of Textiles and Jute Sk Bashir Uddin on Monday.
鈥楽teps have been taken to re-open the closed down jute mills in the country through leasing those out,鈥� he told a media briefing after inspecting operations of the Daulatpur Jute Mills under the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation in Khulna.
In this connection, he said that as leaseholders, businessmen were getting scope to invest in the closed down jute mills to reopen those and as a result fresh employment opportunities would be generated there.
Daulatpur Jute Mills are being operated under private management, according to a commerce ministry press release.
Bashir, also commerce adviser, said that the closed down government textile mills in Kurigram were leased out to the private last week. It is expected that the process of leasing out three more mills would be completed by this week, he added.聽
In case of running jute mills under government management, he said that nothing became fruitful in the long-term except for incurring losses of a thousand crore taka. Therefore, he said that there was a plan to lease out the government-owned jute and textile mills to private sector.聽
To keep all the existing jute mills in the country running, about 4 million tonnes of jute is required annually, but the country鈥檚 jute production is only 1.2 million tonnes.聽
In addition, the annual production of jute worldwide is only 2.5 million tonnes. In that case, it is not realistic to keep so many mills running with jute alone.聽
Therefore, the adviser said that the conditions for leasing out jute mills to the private sector were being relaxed side by side opportunities were being provided to set up other industries along with jute-based industries.聽
The adviser further said that the Daulatpur Jute Mills in Khulna after reopening its operations under private initiative had so far created about 700 employment opportunities. Employment opportunities for 3,000 more people will gradually be created there, he added.聽
Mentioning that such successful initiatives and investments will open up the path for employments, the adviser said that efforts were on to move forward the mills under private initiative in a positive and profitable process by continuing the production of jute products and shoes simultaneously.
Such innovative initiatives are not as effective when implemented by the government, he opined.聽
Responding to questions, the adviser further said that the existing syndicate in the market was not stronger than the government.
Bashir said that the government had been strictly monitoring the stockpile and supply of various commodities in the country. Temporary crisis to some extent in the edible oil market would be over in a few days, he added.聽
Deputy commissioner of Khulna Mohammad Saiful Islam and officials of Daulatpur Jute Mills were present on the occasion.
