Interested investors can view the shuttered jute mills from next week

Investors interested in taking up the recently shuttered state-owned 25 jute mills will be able to see the condition of the factories and other properties in the next one week, said the Ministry of Textiles and Jute in a statement yesterday.

The government closed the mills, employing 24,886 permanent workers and a large number of casual workers, from 1 July to bring an end to continuing losses resulting from use of decades-old machinery, corruption, mismanagement and operational costs racking up higher than those in the private sector.

The government allocated Tk 5,000 crore giving the golden handshake to the workers.

Since making the closure declaration, the government has been maintaining that it would give the factories, which were nationalised in 1972, a new lease on life under either public-private partnerships, government-to-government initiatives, joint ventures or lease basis.

As part of the plan, the ministry formed two panels to recommend measures to run the mills and rationalise the number of employees under Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC). The committees started working, said the ministry statement.

And the decision to give scope to entrepreneurs to visit the closed factories was taken at a meeting of the committee headed by Textiles and Jute Minister Golam Dastagir Gazi on 5 August.

As per the decision, the BJMC issued a notice on 11 August to facilitate visits to mills of those interested.

Interested investors will be able to inspect the mills by 20 August and get an idea of the mills' equipment, installation and other properties, the BJMC said.

The closed mills, mostly in Chattogram, Khulna and Dhaka divisions and established in the 50s and 60s, produced hessian, sacking and carpet backing and have land totalling more than 1,100 acres, according to a notice issued by the Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA) for its members.

The mills under the BJMC had nearly 11,000 looms and the state agency could operate only half to make jute goods.

Bangladesh has 260 private jute mills, including those employing spinning processes, according to data by the Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association (BJSA), whose members contribute more than 60 per cent of the total export receipts from jute produced by tens of thousands of farmers.

With the BJMC's 25, the total number of factories shut down so far is about 100. Public and private mills combined had nearly 200,000 workers.