Muhith focuses on PPP concept

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has stressed the need for adopting public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement to rejuvenate the ailing public-sector jute mills.

In the proposed budget for fiscal year 2018-19 he said, "Nowadays jute and jute products are being highly preferred for its quality of being environment-friendly."

The finance minister said they want to seize this opportunity as the grower of best quality jute in the world.

He added: "Alongside production and promotion of improved technology-based jute and seeds, we are carrying out BMRE (Balancing, Modernisation, Rehabilitation and Expansion) of mills under Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) to make the entity self-reliant."

He also said, "Centralised management of public sector jute industry is not suitable for the growth of this sector. To get rid of this situation, we must adopt public-private partnership (PPP) concept to run the jute mills."

Now the BJMC is operating 26 jute mills including three non-jute industries.

There are seven jute mills in Dhaka zone, 10 in Chattogram zone and nine in Khulna zone.

The BJMC has two zonal offices for supervising and coordinating the activities of regional jute mills, according to its website.

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