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Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) has received around 55 proposals from home and abroad till date seeking to invest in 25 state-run jute mills shuttered in July 2020 for modernisation, said BJMC Chairman Md Abdur Rouf yesterday.
The government has decided to lease out all 25 to the private sector to reopen them either through joint ventures, public private partnerships or government-to-government (G2G) agreements, he told The Daily Star.
Besides, an inter-ministerial committee finalised the terms and conditions to run the jute mills through private sector.
The BJMC floated a tender in March and the last date for submitting expressions of interest is August 31, he said.
Earlier the BJMC chairman told The Daily Star that the government would not spend any money behind modernising the mills. At most, it could remove the old machinery if the investors wanted, he said.
The BJMC will remain as a monitoring body to oversee whether investors were complying with the terms and conditions. It will also lay off 90 per cent of its 2,900 staff and officials and maintain a small workforce only to monitor compliance issues.
Meanwhile, Golam Dastagir Gazi, minister for textile and jute, said Saudi Arabia was interested in investing in the production of jute products by resuming production at the closed mills.
He said this after a meeting with Issa bin Youssef Al-Duhailan, Saudi ambassador to Bangladesh, at Bangladesh Secretariat yesterday.
Gazi said to have hoped for Saudi Arabia to invest more in expanding its trade in textiles and jute.
The minister assured that jute produced in Bangladesh was of high standard, using which high quality and attractive multi-purpose products were being produced now.
He said jute products were completely environmentally friendly and Bangladesh was interested in exporting more jute products to Saudi Arabia.
Demand for jute has grown significantly in Saudi Arabia recently due to increasing awareness. Now Bangladeshi jute products are exported to different countries, including Saudi Arabia.
(TDS)
