State-Owned Jute Mills in Bangladesh: Problems and Possible Way-Out

Abstract

Historically, jute is known as the golden fibre of Bangladesh, a leading cash crop and major export item for Bangladesh. Unfortunately, the production and export of jute have been declining since the 1970s due to the various internal and external problems. The Bangladesh government has recently declared to shut down the production at all state-owned jute mills. This paper aims to determine the reasons behind the state-owned jute mills failure and feasible solutions to unravel the problems. An in-depth interview with 10 (ten) industry experts was conducted to collect primary data. Secondary information has been collected from different books, websites, articles and newspapers. The demand for various and versatile jute products has been increasing globally over the last two decades. Still, in Bangladesh, the jute sector's development is no longer satisfactory to retain its glorious position towards the world because of having some major problems such as mismanagement and corruption of BJMC, lack of modern machinery, lack of skilled workers, weak marketing and government policies etc. Most state-owned jute mills under BJMC are stuck in dishonesty and lavishness alongside ageing infrastructure. They have been incurring losses for years, turning profits in just four of the last 48 years. Reform and restructuring of BJMC, modernizing factory with the latest technology, providing enough training to employees, investment in research work, improvement in the production process, efficient marketing strategy and appropriate government policies might help the state-owned jute mills to regain its position in the national and international market. There are no reasons to shut down the production where reformation is adequate to make the state-owned jute mills profitable. At least, the time to shut down state-owned jute mills is not right due to the Coronavirus pandemic.