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Jute mills to get new lease of life

Rejaul Karim Byron
The government will modernise 24 public sector jute mills with Chinese funding - a move expected to generate annual net profits of $ 119 million and 24,000 new jobs.
The state-owned jute mills have been loss-making units for several years now, and in the last fiscal year their losses amounted to Tk 588 crore.
The production capacity of the mills is 275,500 tonnes but the actual annual production is 108,656 tonnes,
yielding Tk 1,041 crore Or $130 million in revenue. About 82,000 are employed in the mills and the government has to give subsidy every year to keep the mills running.
Subsequently, the government has decided to take up a project worth $350 million or Tk 2,800 crore for balancing, modernising, rehabilitating and expanding the mills, where China will put in about $280 million orTk 2,240 crore.
China Textile Engineering Corporation has already conducted a feasibility study
on the jute mills, said an official of the textile and jute ministry.
Due to a lag in technology, low efficiency, obsolete equipment, single product focus, lack of competitiveness and confused management, Bangladesh is losing its leading position in the global jute industry, according to the Chinese company's feasibility study.
The mills suffered losses every year over the last nine years, save for fiscal 2010-11, when only a profit ofTk 14 crore was made. From fiscal 2006-07 onwards, they made losses of Tk 66 crore to Tk 700 crore each year, according to the finance ministry statistics.
Once the project is complete, the mills' total revenues would more than treble to Tk 3,743 crore.
Besides the traditional jute goods, the mills would also be able to manufacture various non-traditional items like high value car dashboard, window and curtains, linen cloth, car seat cover and so on.
The Chinese company will also buy back some of the products after the completion of the project.
The study also found that the amount of land that the jute mills currently occupy can also be brought down. At present, the 24 jute mills sit on 2,228 acres.
The project will take off with three jute mills -- Karim Jute Mills (Dhaka), Amin Jute Mills (Chittagong) and Platinum Jubilee Jute Mills (Khulna), the official said.