DORTMUND, Germany: BASUG in collaboration with the Germany-based organisation, Verein Kamerunischer Ingenieure und Informatiker (VKII) (www.vkii.org) will organize a Workshop on ‘Jute instead of  Plastic’ on Saturday, 14 July 2018 from 11 am to 4 pm at Rathaus (City hall), Friedensplatz 1, 44135 Dortmund, Germany. The workshop is a part of the ongoing Project of BASUG titled, “Jute instead of Plastic” with support from the German development organisation, Environment and Development Foundation (SUE-NRW). The first workshop on the same subject was held in Cologne, Germany on 23 June 2018 which was attended among others by the Bangladesh Ambassador in Germany Mr. Imtiaz Ahmed as chief guest and Member of NRW State Assembly Ms. Berivan Aymaz and Mayor of the Cologne City Dr. Ralf Heinen as special guests.

The main objectives of the workshop among others are: to sensitize the international community to the advantages of jute, to discuss how this fibre can replace plastic without damaging the ecosystem and to share the key issues concerning plastic pollution.

Different stakeholders including development and civil society organisations, policy makers and climate activists will attend the workshop. The Mayor of the City of Dortmund, Dr. Ullrich Sierau is likely to attend the program as Chief Guest, while the Honorary Consul General of Nepalese Consulate in Cologne, Mr Ram Thapa and Dr. Syed Masum Ahmed Chowdhury, Commercial Counselor of Bangladesh Embassy in Germany will attend as Special Guests.

The keynote paper on the subject “Alternative to Plastic and Eco-friendly Packaging material: Comparative analysis between jute and seaweed” will be presented by Dr. M A K Azad, Co-founder of AltEco-Manager (Forschung und Entwicklung), Scubet Deutschland. The Research finding report of BASUG on “Jute instead of plastic in NRW” will be presented by Mr Khurshid Hassan, Former Scientific Researcher, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Science and Member of BASUG. Others speakers are: Mr Armel Djine, Verein Kamerunischer Ingenieure und Informatiker VKII, Ms Laura Hebling, Vamos e.V. Münster, Mr Bikash Chowdhury Barua, Chairman BASUG and Mr M. K. Ibrahim, Director Overseas, Jutetex Bangladesh, Mr. Mahamud Chowdhury, Project Officer and AHM Abdul Hai, Project Coordinator, both of BASUG Germany.