The government has been considering creating a Tk 4800 crore fund for Export Development Fund (EDF), at a 2 per cent interest rate, to help boost the purchasing capacity of government and non government organizations to raw jute, officials said.Under the move, the Commerce Ministry has suggested that the Finance Ministry take required steps in this regard, they added.The Finance Ministry is working on the issue, an official who deals with the issue said on Wednesday.Currently, exporters producing products using imported raw materials are enjoying loan facility at only 2 per cent interest rate from the EDF. The size of the EDF is TK 200.5 crore that created in 1988. Millers have been facing hard times due to the fund constraint. Jute- procurement activities of the mills get deadlocked every year, industry insiders said.They have been demanding to create a fund repeatedly to help procure raw jute, they said.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared in March that jute and jute goods will be considered as agro-based products.In this regard, the government has taken different initiative to revive the glorious history of country’s jute industry. The government has taken steps to conduct BMRE (balancing, modernisation, renovation and expansion) of existing state-run jute mills at a cost of Tk 6000 crore with the support of China.The present government opened five state-run jute mills. These mills are — Doulatpur Jute Mills, Karnaphuli Jute Mills, Forat-Karnaphuli Jute Mills, People’s Jute Mills (presently named Khalishpur Jute Mills), Quwami Jute Mills (presently named Jatiya Jute Mills). Bangladesh generally exports jute to India, Nepal, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran, China, Germany, Korea, Brazil, Djibouti, Russia, Vietnam, Ivory Coast, the USA, the UK and El Salvador.The government made it mandatory to use jute bags for packaging a good number of items under a law formulated in 2010.For the first time, the government observed the Jute Day on March 6, 2017.The country earned US$ 794.58 million from export of jute goods and US$ 167.84 million from exports of raw jute in the fiscal year (FY) 2016-17 while US$746.41 million from jute goods and US$ 173.17 million from raw jute exports in the FY 2015-16.A total of 170 jute mills are running under the Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA), 94 under Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association (BJSA) and 26 mills (including 3 non jute industries) under Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC). More than 50 million people are directly or indirectly involved with jute and jute industry.
