WB considers fresh proposal to revive Jute industry
28 Jul '06
1 min read
The World Bank is considering the funding of a new project to revive the ailing Jute Industry after the Jute Ministry submitted the proposal 'Revised Jute Sector Reform Programme (RJSRP) to the bank officials.
RJSRP intends to improve operational efficiency, provide working capital and other technical supports, update the existing policies and offer other loss financing supports.
The World Bank which launched US $250 million Jute Sector Adjustment Credit (JSAC) programme in 1992 had suspended the programme in 1996 after the condition set by the bank were not met by the Jute mill owners.
The conditions included among others the enhancement of management efficiency and privatization of loss making state owned jute mills.
Jute mill whether state run or private, are in bad shape due to various reasons like capital constrains, operational deficiency, mismanagement and constant losses and as a result of this 25 out of 35 private jute mills have been declared lay-offs.
State-owned jute mills have been incurring financial losses to the tune of around Tk2.0 billion annually over last ten years.
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