The government has undertaken a move to modernise the decades-old 24 state-owned jute mills for producing diversified jute goods. Under the project titled Balancing, Modernisation, Rehabilitation and Expansion (BMRE) of Public Sector Mills, primarily three jute mills will be upgraded at an estimated cost of US$340m under the Chinese assistance. If the project is implemented under the supervision of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC), the production will be increased to 2,75,500 metric tonnes high quality traditional and multipurpose jute goods annually. Products like dash boards, doors, windows and seats of the expensive vehicles, which are now in high demand of car manufacturers, will be produced, using the jute goods. To this effect, Vice President of China Textile Industrial Corporation for Foreign Economic and Technical Cooperation Fang Eei and BJMC Chàirman major general (retd) Humayun Khaled signed a MoU on behalf of their respective organisations at the secretariat yesterday. State minister for jute Miza Azam also attended the meeting. According to the BJMC, currently it has 26 mills, which are 60 to 70 years old. Of which, 24 mills, which is now in operation, are annually producing 2,08,642 metric tones jute goods from their original annual production capacity of 3,45,000 metric tones. BJMC officials said the production capacity of those decades-old mills came down to between 50% and 100%.
