Govt to lease closed jute mills to private sector: Adviser

The government plans to lease the closed jute mills to private sector to pave the way for their reopening, said Textiles and Jute Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin on Monday.
"Steps have been taken to reopen the closed jute mills in the country through leasing them out," he told a media briefing after inspecting operations of the Daulatpur Jute Mills, which is under the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC), in Khulna, reports BSS.
As leaseholders, businessmen will have the scope to invest in these closed jute mills to reopen those, leading to fresh employment opportunities.
Daulatpur Jute Mills is now being operated under private management, according to a Commerce Ministry press release.
Bashir, also the Commerce Adviser, said the closed, state-owned textile mills in Kurigram were leased to the private sector last week. It is expected that the process of leasing out three more mills would be completed this week, he added.
Referring to the jute mills running under government management, he said nothing became fruitful in the long-term, rather they incurred losses amounting to thousands of crores of taka. Therefore, he said, plans have been taken to lease out the government-owned jute and textile mills.
To keep all the existing jute mills in the country running, about four million tonnes of jute is required annually, but the country's jute production is only 1.2 million tonnes.
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 jute mills running alone.
Therefore, the adviser said, the conditions for leasing jute mills to the private sector are being relaxed. Also, opportunities are being provided to set up other industries along with jute-based industries.
The Textiles and Jute Adviser further said that the Daulatpur Jute Mills, after its reopening under private initiative, has so far created about 700 employment opportunities. And 3,000 more people would get jobs gradually there, he added.
Responding to a question, the adviser said that the existing syndicate in the market is not stronger than the government.
Bashir also said the government has 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.