| June 8: Speakers at a seminar in the port city demanded yesterday review of the jute policy, formation of an independent jute board and establishment of a jute college to save the jute sector. Addressing the seminar, chairman of Privatisation Commission Dr Mirza Abdul Jalil stressed the transparency of tender procedures for state owned industries for privatisation as well as cooperation of the ministry concerned for completing the process of hand- over of the privatised industries.
Dr Jalil said, "the present Awami League government is committed to the well-being of the nation and making the country a digital one. The government is trying to remove the obstacles to privatisation of the listed state owned industries (SOEs)."
The seminar titled Role of Privatised Industries, Jute Industries in Particular, in Bangladesh Economy was organised by the Privatisation Commission (PC) at a hotel in the port city.
Dr Mirza Abdul Jalil added, "the Privatisation Commission is part of the government and we will function as per directives of the government. For the economic development of the country, a total of 62 state owned industries are under the process of privatisation."
"We will be transparent in the procedure of tender and we will also try to remove the obstacles to handing over the industries to the private sector. We will be trying to introduce one-stop service for the privatisation of the state owned industries," he said.
At the seminar, Dr Khondakher Golam Moazzem and Sharmin Chowdhury presented the keynote paper on Role of Privatised Industries, Jute Industries in Particular, in Bangladesh Economy. At the seminar M A Salam, senior vice president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industries, also presented a paper on the jute sector.
In their papers the researchers said, the jute manufacturing sector, which is one of the oldest traditional manufacturing sectors of Bangladesh, has experienced many ups and downs.
They said, as a move towards restructuring the jute mills, the immediate past caretaker government decided to close four mills and, subsequently retrenched 14,000 workers. These initiatives were taken by the government at a time when the Indian jute sector adopted an expansionary strategy for enhancing their production and, more importantly, exports.
At present 129 jute mills are in operation, of which 18 mills operate under the public sector and the remaining 111 under the private sector. According to the available data for June in 2008, there were 88,956 registered workers at the public and private jute mills, of which 46,958 (52.8 per cent) were engaged in public mills and 41, 998 in private jute mills.
Maintaining a strong marketing network was important for manufacturers to get assurance of orders and ensuring better price for products ordered, the speakers observed.
The large size of public jute mills, mismatch between capacity utilisation of machines and level of production, and the number of workers employed are factors behind the crisis in the public sector jute mills, they added.
The speakers and experts concerned recommended extending support to jute mills, improvement in productivity, reduction of cost of production, increase in the use of jute products at local level, review of the jute policy, formation of an independent jute board, establishment of a jute college etc for the development of the sector.
President of Chittagong North District Awami League Nurul Alam Chowdhury, general secretary M A Salam, president of Bangladesh Shippers Council Mahabub Ali, chairman of KDS Group Alhaj Khalilur Rahman were present as special guests. Director of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industries Mahfuzul Haque Shah, Sheikh Motahar Hossain and Anwara Begum of Privatisation Commission also addressed the seminar. Around 200 participants including businessmen, journalists, and officials concerned took part in the seminar.
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