The government plans to curtail the surplus labour in the jute mills within the next two years In order to revamp the losing jute sector.

Finance Minister M Seifur Rahman in his press briefing Wednesday said, there are about 32.000 surplus workers and employees in the units under the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (IJJMC)

He said that a process, involving all the relevant quarters like workers, bankers, owners and the International development agencies, should be evolved to rationalize the performance of the jute units.

The minister said that the capacity of the jute mills would have to be reduced to make the units viable He stated that the first step in the process would be to arrest the loss.

The retrenched workers will be compensated under package deal he performed. He said that the reduction of capacity of the mills would require dismantling of the useless plants and added that new mills would be set up at their sites to create new employment opportunity.

The minister said that the process of stabilizing the mills would take about two years. He

added that the mills would be dislnvested after making them viable because their mere transfer to the private sector would bring no good to the economy.

Salfur Rahman stressed the need for Balancing. Modernization. Rationalization arid {evaluation (BMRE) of the jute units as a precondition for effective disinvestment of those. He said that the jute mills were given a financial support of about Taka 900 crore to be paid in three years after segregation of the loans. But. he stated, the loans were not repaid adding that the

banks were now not in a position to finance the Jute mills further.

The minister also revealed that about 100 crore taka was disbursed this year for purchase of raw Jute.

Commenting on the textile sector, the minister said this sector has room for further expansion and the units were not performing as poorly as other sector units. He, however, observed that Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation (BTMC) needed better management and vigorous marketing drive.