WB earns flak for AJM closure

Speakers at a dialogue yesterday came down heavily on the World Bank saying Adamjee Jute Mills was closed in line with a prescription of the bank.

They said the Bank had earlier suggested halving annual production, which resulted in pushing up production cost. "It was the World Bank that recommended to reduce the production to 50,000 tons annually from 99,000 tons which pushed the cost of Adamjee up," said Shahidullah Chowdhury, a trade union leader.

The dialogue on 'Closure of the Adamjee Jute Mills and Future of Industrialisation in Bangladesh' was organised by the Centre for Studies in Social Transformation (CSST) at the Planning Academy in the city.

Professor Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, president of CSST, chaired the session while Professor Abul Barkat of the Department of Economics of Dhaka University presented the keynote paper.

Speaking at the dialogue, Professor Muzaffor Ahmed of the Institute of Business Administration noted wage issue did not link to the productivity for which industries in Bangladesh faced different problems.

"Bangladesh could not take the benefit of product diversification in the jute sector but some other countries are expanding their market by doing so," Prof Ahmed told the dialogue.

Dr Kazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, president of Bangladesh Economic Association, said Adamjee was not only a company but also a strong pillar of jute industries.

"It is not a very good sign for a country that even cabinet ministers are not informed about many serious issues," he added.

In his key-note presentation, Prof Barkat said World Bank's prescriptions are to down size the production capacity of jute mills and privatise and subsequently close down those units. "It is very mysterious that World Bank is providing assistance to India for expanding its jute sector while it is providing a sunshine package for the jute sector in Bangladesh."

M Ali Behrouze Ispahani, vice-chairman of Ispahani Group and immediate past president of Jute Mills Association, said three expert committees were constituted in three regimes to salvage the Adamjee Jute Mills (AJM).

The first committee in 1978 by late president Zia, second in 1988 by former president Ershad and third one in 1998 by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina but none of these committees suggested the closure of the AJM. Rather, these committees suggested re-organisation and modernisation of AJM, he said.

Two sections of the AJM were highly profitable but all BJMC mills were incurring huge losses due to mismanagement and rampant corruption, Ispahani added.

"We should run the mills in a business-like manner and not as a political unit. It is a great shame that the mills in India and Pakistan are making huge profits whilst mills in Bangladesh are being closed down one by one," he mentioned.

K R Hasan, former executive director of Adamjee, mentioned several examples of corruption in Adamjee and said a chief whip of the parliament asked him to manage Tk two lakh.

Besides, the attitude of the national leaders in case of Adamjee was not in favour of Adamjee and it was one of the other reasons for closure of the largest jute mills, he said.