State Minister for Textiles and Jute Mirza Azam MP said on Saturday the government has a plan to establish paper mills to produce paper using jute pulp.The state minister came up with the statement while speaking as chief guest at a seminar in the city on Saturday.Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) organised the seminar, titled ‘Eco-friendly pulp and paper processing from jute’ at DCCI conference room in the capital.Md. Fazle Wahid Khondaker, Additional Secretary of Ministry of Agriculture, was special guest while Dr.Asaduzzaman, Director, Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI), made a presentation on that. Mirza Azam said Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) has enough land, if private sector is interested they can get land from BJMC to establish paper or textiles mills using pulp and viscose.He said our importers have to pay Tk 800-1000 crore for viscose import every year.Mirza Azam said at present the country import 90 precent jute seeds from India, there is very important to redevelop dependency on local seed to regain its glory. He said our jute has lost its glory but the present government is working hard to regain that glory. In 2010, government enacted mandatory jute packaging act to protect local jute and discourage export, he said.Md. Fazle Wahid Khondaker said if Bangladesh produces pulp for paper and viscose alone it will help our economy a lot.He said the Ministry of Agriculture will help private sector for jute diversification. He also urged for strengthening research work for newer innovation. DCCI President Abul Kasem Khan said, “We need to create the revival of jute through innovation and diversification. Bangladesh has the potential to become a major pulp and paper producer from green jute”.He said, “Currently, Bangladesh imports 500-600 tonnes of pulp annually worth of US$600 million. We need to set up mills to produce high quality pulp from green jute which can meet its entire demand for making paper and also leave surplus from export.” Dr. Asaduzzaman said we can process pulp from jute and from pulp we can produce eco-friendly paper. Moreover, from our green jute we can process viscose and from viscose we can produce quality fibre.
