Promote jute goods to earn more foreign currency
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday laid emphasis on branding jute products as environment-friendly ones throughout the world to expand global reach and earn more foreign currencies.
"We'll have to spread jute products throughout the world branding those as environment-friendly ones. If we can do that, we'll get a larger market (for jute products) and can earn more foreign currencies," she said.
Hasina spoke at the National Jute Day-2019 programme and inaugurated the two-day Multipurpose Jute Product Fair at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.
She urged authorities concerned to take necessary steps to make the jute sector profitable.
"Jute is such a produce, nothing of which is wasted. So, why'll it incur losses? I don't want to hear (the news of) losses. Attention is needed for making it profitable," she said.
The prime minister said the jute products will get incentives both as an agricultural produce and an industrial product.
"We'll definitely make it (jute sector) profitable through diversifying the jute products. I believe it," she said with a call to assess the local demand of jute products.
She said the Export Policy 2018-2021 has already been declared. "It'll have to concentrate on further increasing the export of jute goods."
Hasina said many products, including Sonali Bags, are now being produced from jute which is called gold fibre.
The Sonali Bag has created huge prospects for the country's jute sector, the Prime Minister said. She stressed the need for exploring markets through studying the demand of jute products across the world. She said jute has a good prospect as people are now aware of the environment. "This environmental awareness has created a good prospect for our environment-friendly jute products."
Jute is an agricultural product and it is also an industrial product at the same time, which is an environment-friendly one. "So, there's a huge prospect for the country's jute sector."
The premier said the government has been supporting research on jute and providing incentives to the sector for utilising everything of jute.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is all smiles as she looks at the exhibits at a trade fair of products made of jute at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center in the capital yesterday. Photo: BSS
She said once the jute sector had been ignored by subsequent governments after 1975, but her government had given importance to the development of the sector again.
"Returning to power, our government made efforts to further development of jute as cash corps through its multipurpose usages by boosting its production protecting it," she said.
Hasina urged the private sector and entrepreneurs to come up with more investment in the jute sector to boost the production and export of jute products.
She said the government will provide incentives to the private entrepreneurs in the jute sector like other sectors. The Ministry of Textiles and Jute organised the function with Textiles and Jute Minister Golam Dastagir Gazi in the chair.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Textiles and Jute Mirza Azam spoke on the occasion as a special guest.
At the function, the prime minister handed over National Jute Award among 14 individuals and organisations under 14 categories for their contributions to the jute sector's development.
Later, Hasina visited different stalls of the fair. Some 280 kinds of jute products are being displayed at the two-day fair.
