The Sheikh Hasina government is planning to revive the jute sector in cooperation with the Chinese government to increase the production of jute goods through a process of balancing, modernisation, rehabilitation and expansion (BMRE) of 23 state-owned jute mills in the country, after a lull of a decade or so.
In the first phase, among a total of 24 jute mills. three state-owned jute mills—Karim Jute Mills in Dhaka, Amin Jute Mills in Chittagong and Platinum Jubilee Jute Mills in Khulna—would come under the BMRE process, which would start soon, said sources in the jute and textiles ministry.
To bring the jute mills under the BMRE process, the government is going to appoint a state-owned Chinese company—the China Textile Industrial Corporation for Foreign Economic and Technical Cooperation (CTEXIC)—under a project called "BMRE of Public Sector Jute Mills (Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation)", the sources added.
The jute and textiles ministry has already prepared the proposal to appoint CTEXIC, the Chinese state-owned jute company, under a direct procurement process to bring the jute mills under the BMRE process.
In his proposal, the secretary of the jute and textiles ministry, MA Kader Sarker, said the jute ministry recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with CTEXIC. Some USD 350 million would be required to bring the jute mills under the BMRE process. “This amount would be arranged from the Chinese government through a preferential loan,” the proposal said.
“For receiving this amount from the Chinese government as a preferential loan, the jute ministry has prepared a summary. It was sent to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) seeking the approval of the PM, and the Premier approved it on August 10,” the proposal added.
A Chinese delegation, headed by the economic and commercial counsellor of the Chinese embassy in Dhaka, recently held discussions with officials of the jute ministry, the proposal said. A six-member CTEXIC team has also visited Bangladesh and already initiated the process of BMRE of the three state-owned jute mills—Karim Jute Mills in Dhaka, Amin Jute Mills in Chittagong and Platinum Jubilee Jute Mills in Khulna, the proposal disclosed. The proposal also said that 275,500 metric tonnes of jute products would be produced after the BMRE process. The Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) is currently operating 26 mills (including 3 non-jute industrial units). There are seven mills in Dhaka zone, 10 mills in Chittagong and nine in Khulna zone. As the largest manufacturer in the jute sector, the BJMC produces mainly hessian cloth, different types of hessian bags, sacking cloth, different types of sacking bags, yarn, geo-jute, blanket, jute canvas and carpet backing cloth (CBC) from jute, the longest natural fibre in the world. During the visit of Chinese president Xi Jinping on October 14, seven Chinese state-owned companies signed investment and import agreements worth USD 186 million with 13 Bangladeshi companies, with the aim to boost bilateral trade.  Of these Bangladeshi companies, 12 are from the private sector. The sole state-owned company is the BJMC.