The government has decided to reopen all of the country's closed textile and jute mills. As part of that plan, three closed state-owned jute mills in Khulna and Sirajganj have been leased to private companies. Two of them have gone to Pran-RFL Group, one of the country's leading industrial groups, and the third to Abdullah Battery Company (Private) Limited, a Hamko Group company.

The two mills leased by Pran-RFL are Star Jute Mills Limited at Chandanimahal in Khulna's Dighalia upazila and Jatiya Jute Mills Limited at Raipur in Sirajganj. Leased for 30 years, the two mills will receive Tk 750 crore of investment from Pran-RFL, creating direct jobs for about 11,500 people. The two factories are expected to have a combined annual turnover of Tk 1,100 crore.

The lease agreements were formally signed on Tuesday (11 August) in the Cabinet Division meeting room at the Secretariat in the presence of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) chairman Brigadier General Kabir Uddin Sikder signed for the corporation, company secretary Aminur Rahman for Pran-RFL Group and managing director ATM Mostafa for Hamko Group.

Among those present were Commerce, Industries and Textiles and Jute Minister Khandaker Abdul Muktadir, Textiles and Jute State Minister Shariful Alam, Textiles and Jute Secretary Sharf Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, Pran-RFL Group chairman and chief executive officer Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, and senior officials of the BJMC and the leasing companies.

Speaking to journalists afterwards, State Minister Md Shariful Alam said the process of reviving these industries had begun in line with the government's election pledge. Handover of the mills to the private sector is continuing, and lease notices for several other factories have been published and are being evaluated.

Under this process Pran-RFL has leased the two closed BJMC mills, while Hamko Group has leased Platinum Jubilee Jute Mill at Khalishpur in Khulna for the same 30-year term. Under the agreement, the lease covers 45.99 acres of land at Star Jute Mills in Khulna and 37.97 acres at Jatiya Jute Mills in Sirajganj.

The BJMC has 25 jute mills in all, 20 of which have been selected for leasing. So far 14 mills have been leased to the private sector; seven of them are running and the other seven are in the process of starting. The three mills leased this time are in addition to those.

Jatiya Jute Mills in Sirajganj will be used to make knitwear, woven garments, denim products, jackets, handicrafts, bags, footwear and toys, with a washing plant, and as a modern raw material, packaging and product storage facility. About Tk 500 crore will be invested there, creating direct jobs for 6,500 people, and the factory is expected to turn over Tk 600 crore a year.

At Star Jute Mills in Khulna, an investment of about Tk 250 crore will build an environment-friendly modern factory producing value-added jute goods, furniture, medium density fibre (MDF) board and other products, with modern storage for raw materials, packaging and finished goods. It will employ about 5,000 people and is expected to turn over Tk 500 crore a year.

In total, Pran-RFL's investment in the two mills will be about Tk 750 crore, with direct employment for about 11,500 people and a combined annual turnover target of Tk 1,100 crore.

Pran-RFL's Banga Building Materials Limited has already started production at Rajshahi Jute Mills, which the group leased earlier. It now employs 1,300 people and produces about 5,000 pairs of shoes, 1,300 umbrellas and about 400 tents a day.

BJMC chief operating officer Mamnur Rashid said the leaseholders were given the first 30 months to install machinery, modernise the factories and organise their operations. The mills that have started have done well from the outset, employing a large number of people and contributing substantially to exports.

Pran-RFL said its aim is to turn the two long-closed mills into modern manufacturing units, speeding up industrialisation, creating jobs and contributing to economic growth.

The group said that with rising production costs, reorganised supply chains and the search for alternative production hubs in a changing world economy, international buyers are looking for new destinations. Beyond garments, it said, there is demand for Bangladeshi shoes, bags, tents, umbrellas, toys, bicycles, light engineering and household goods.

The group plans to use the existing factory buildings to start production quickly. The goods will meet domestic demand and be exported, strengthening Bangladesh's export capacity.

The investment is expected to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs, raise industrial output, strengthen local supply chains, earn foreign currency and speed regional economic growth by developing skilled manpower and industrial infrastructure.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.