The New Nation - Internet Edition

M. Mizanur Rahman

Once jute was called the golden fibre of East Bengal. Jute and jute goods became then a legend of our earning a huge foreign exchange, especially the eastern part of Bengal as the best jute producers had been given the name 'Golden Bengal'. After the political partition of Bengal as the East and the West Bengal, the glamour of the partitioned Bengal became though faded yet the portion of the Eastern part (then East Pakistan- now Bangladesh) was blossomed worldwide as the best seller of jute and jute goods produced and manufactured in mills and factories lying at the riversides of Narayanganj, Khulna, Mymensingh and Pabna. Some non-Bengali jute mill owners like Adamji, Bawani and Ispahani were the most well organised expertise masterminds behind flourishing this business all over the world while Calcutta (of West Bengal, India) based huge jute mills by the banks of the Ganges remained almost unfed and idle due to the shortage of jutes mainly supplied to them from East Bengal (now Bangladesh). The then East Pakistan was called the Manchester of the East, famous for its jute industries.

Once it made a hue and cry of agitation politically that the major shares of its jute trade financial benefits were taken away by West Pakistani or non-Bengali jute entrepreneurs and this created a sort of distrust between the people of the two wings of the then Pakistan. However, after the Liberation War this distrust and hatred caused expulsion of the non-Bengali people en masse from Bangladesh. Bangladesh lost a very valuable business community out of them. Whereas politically motivated influential persons took the opportunity meanwhile to employ their own inexperienced and corrupt people in all-important posts of jute mills and factories. This ultimately resulted with disastrous failure in management. Even in all such cases heavy subsidy support of the government in power could not meet the end. One of the biggest jute mills in the world Adamji Jute Mills at Narayanganj had to be dismantled and sold on auction by the immediate past government in its privatisation scheme. All those business enterprises of the non-Bengali business community became losing concerns at the hands of the most inexperienced Bengali managers with great financial loss to the government of Bangladesh.

After the successful revolution in 1917 in Russia neither Lenin nor Stalin did expel a single industrialist or businessman from Russia though most of them opposed communism. Rather they took some purgatorial actions against most of their compatriot revolutionists in the interest of the nation. The lesson of this history had never been applied in the interest of our country after the Liberation War. For the lack of patriotism and with the stink of corruption we are suffering till now as a nation.

Now some young jute entrepreneurs appeared anew in the firmament of Bangladesh. It would only be their firm resolution to stand with perseverance to put their business in the zenith of success to restore the past glory of Bangladesh.

The foremost contribution of the rising entrepreneur and the Managing Director Mr. Md. Abdul Hye of M/S Satabdi Hye Bangladesh Ltd. is to be taken into account towards the establishment of the following enterprises. He bought jute machineries of the now defunct Adamji Jute Mills Ltd. on auction and sold them to various young but rising entrepreneurs of different places of the country at very nominal prices. Now those machineries have been used absolutely to make twenty new jute mills around different places of the country. Meanwhile some eager entrepreneurs could establish many more jute mills in different places of our country in which production of jute goods have already been started. Besides some mills have already increased production by these jute machineries. The following mills among them are noted. Sadia Jute Mills Ltd. 2. Poddar Agro Best Ltd. 3.J.K. Jute Processing Works. 4. H.R. Enterprise.5. North Bengal Jute Industries Ltd. 6. S.R Jute Fibres. 7. Usha Jute Mills. 8. Nysa International. 9. Mauna Jute Mills Ltd.

In spite of the above noted jute mills many other jute mills along with Akmal Jute Mills, Anwar Jute Mills, Madina Jute Mills and Shah Sultan Jute Fibres bought our machineries and have already completed B.M.R.I. in which about five thousand workers have been employed. As a result the social unemployment problems have been solved to some extent. On the other hand, by selling and exporting jute and jute goods produced by these Jute Mills the government have been gaining financial benefits by VAT and other taxes including foreign exchange earnings.

When the last siren of the laid down Adamji Jute Mills tolled, the entire mill employees burst into tears because of the fact that their only source of income ceased to exist now. On the spree of the moment MIS Satabdi Hye Bangladesh Ltd., in consultation with the concerned businessmen of the northern region of Bangladesh, took advantage of purchasing jute machineries in the form of scrap of Adamji Jute Mills on auction from the government and felt that the suffering employees could make worth of produces if employed. So they made up their mind in establishing jute mills by purchasing jute machineries from the government. Now most of those expert jute workers were employed in those jute mills. Hence jute grower farmers of the northern region are benefited while the entrepreneurs of the same areas have been making huge profit by exporting jute and jute goods abroad. Nowadays demand of jute and jute goods is increasing abroad. The demand of jute goods abroad is doubled now than raw jute. It brings home huge foreign exchange earnings, whereas the income of raw jute export is limited.

Earlier in Europe many such jute factories were established but they needed many workers to run them and the amount of their wages were too high. In Europe a sum of about Taka one and half lakh per worker is to be paid while in Bangladesh a worker of the same standard can be had at Taka two and half or at best at taka three thousand only.

There exists crisis of raw jute as well as jute workers in Europe and as such, their factories are closed whereas both of them can be had here in plenty. Their machineries have the capacity of 70 to 80 years' duration that can be imported here provided our government give us good hands to that end which can tend to flourish huge jute industries all over Bangladesh paving the way for the brightest future towards earning huge foreign exchange said one of the exponents of the jute industries. This should be taken into consideration for future progress of our industrial development, -especially in jute industries.