What we should do is have a national telecommunications company that works properly and can be privatised later. Many, many other countries have done this. Unfortunately our crappy BNP and crappy AL are experts at shafting the country and nothing else.
What have the mosques got to do with telecoms? Why don't you pick on AL or BNP for a change - they are the ones who are more responsible for our nation's condition than the mosques. Though the mosques are hardly inspiring either.
Inventors of technology have every right to sell to us. But we have every right to decide what we want to buy.
QAR has written not a whit about hatred of foreigners. He is thoroughly calm and hate free relative to your hatred of our mosques and my hatred of the incompetence of AL and BNP. One day you might consider holding this government accountable for something. Until you do you cannot be taken seriously for holding our many crappy mosques to account. Standards and accountability apply across the board. Your perceived blind support for AL simply justifies another's blind support for Jamaat - or vice versa.
There is every reason for any country not to want the majority of any of it's industries owned by foreign powers. You may argue on the basis of economics - we can explore. But even then, at the very least, how can one be surprised if many people do not want most of their country's industries to be owned by foreignors? The developed economies you will quote as examples are largely on the same side with few issues that divide them. They have comprehensive trade agreements with level playing fields and region wide trade laws and policies. Asian investors in Western economies tend not to own an entire industry. And Western companies face stiff resistance in Asian economies. The politcis and economics of assembly plants cannot be compared to a nation's telecom industry.
All of which is irrelevant because if, and I am saying if, India owned 90% of our telecoms, 90% of our garments, 90% of our agro business and 90% of our banks - you would say 'so what?'. Which is far scarier than radicals on the other side objecting to India have 5%.
By the way, did you know AL won the last election and is now the government and that it is the government which should be held accountable? Just in case you thought Jamaat won the election. AL is a very old party with glorious traditions of principle. You might want to consider looking for that party. After all, as you don't want Jamaat (I don't either)...
... who do you want? BNP?
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "Turkman" <turkman@...> wrote:
>
> But what should we do when there are no Bangla companies that advance in telecommunication field?
> Had we invented Telecom or Mobile phones in our Mosques?
> Why should not inventors of technology have a right to sell their products to us?
> If you hate Foreigners so much, stop using Electricity also because it was also invented by Americans ...!
> -----
>
>
> --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, qar qrahman@ wrote:
> >
> >
> > Apart from security risk of having only foreign companies should be a national concern.
> >
> > However government company was given a near 35 year monopoly in this sector and the only thing they did consistently is make public suffer for this "Basic human right". I do not know much about these NGOs and what is their real motivation (Extract money from foreign company or representing genuine public interest!) but government entities (Despite good facilities given by our government) lost credibility with people. We do enjoy one of the lowest rates in the world and our government get more taxes from this industry than any other sectors. Unlike garment sector government does not have to provide 'Subsidy" to them to walk and survive. Rather the 'Free market" was able to lower prices and offer better customer services than what we could ever imagine.
> >
> > What government should do is to motivate Bangladeshi owners to invest in this sector and protect our national interest. Our current administration shut down all PSTN operators overnight and billions of taka worth of investment went to drain. If they violated some laws of this country, they should be penalized but shutting down companies means instantly many people were out of jobs and many hundred thousand customers were out of service for no fault of their own. Now people will think twice before taking service from PSTN operators even if government allows them to operate. These policies should be examined and some grantees should be out of their to protect BANGLADESHI investments. Our current policy effective protected foreign investments.
> >
> > I think we should offer level playing fields for all companies, so we get FDI. But that should mean we should kill our own companies to make foreign companies "Comfortable". The best start could be a re-structure of Teletalk and empower them like a modern business. They already lost a lot of ground and some help should be there to re-start our national telecom company but they also need to walk on their own within a short time. A valid business plan and Bangladeshi talents can pull this off.
> >
> > Otherwise we have to wait on foreigners for deliver us a "Digital" Bangladesh. I do not think that is what our PM should be aiming for. She still has time to make right changes to deliver a home grown digital revolution.
> >
> > Peace.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Isha Khan bdmailer@
> > To: undisclosed-recipients:;
> > Sent: Fri, Jul 8, 2011 7:05 am
> > Subject: [ALOCHONA] Monopoly of foreign companies in telecommunications
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Monopoly of foreign companies in telecommunications
> >
> >
> > On May 28, 15 civil society organizations led by EquityBD organized a rally in front of National Press Club, expressing concern over the monopoly of foreign companies in the telecommunication sector. They urged the Finance Minister to announce special allocation for the public company TeleTalk. The 15 organizations included Arpon, On line Knowldege Centre, Aeso, SDO, MABS, Lead Trust, Prodip, Protikrit, BNNRC, Voice, Bangladesh Bhumihin Samity, Bangladesh Krishok Federation, Manoush Manusher Jonnyo, Sirac Bangladesh and ACI.
> > Speakers said that telecommunications was now a basic human right and not a luxury anymore. It is also related to state sovereignty and security.
> > Mostafa Kamal Akanda of EquityBD was moderator of the programme. Addressing the programme were Rafiqul Islam Pothik of Protikrit, Zahidul Alam of BNNRC, SM Saikat of Sirac Bangladesh, Feroze Ahmed of Lead Trust, Subal Sarkar of Bangladesh Bhumihin Samity, Badrul Alam of Bangladesh Krishok Federation, Shipra Rani Das of Bangladesh Kishani Shobha, Sayeed Aminul Haque and Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of EquityBD.
> > They said that the monopoly of foreign companies in the telecommunication sector has four major problems. (i) A large section of the population is now a days dependent on foreign companies for such services. If they stop services due to any differences with the government, this will have a devastating effect. (ii) The profit bills which have to be send to their country of origin is being paid in dollars. Such a repatriation is a threat to the dollar reserve of the country, while we have priority to purchase food and other necessary items from abroad with this reserve. (iii) It is also a threat to the state security while all information is passed through the server of these companies. (iv) The foreign companies have a tendency to intervene in our national policy decisions through their Ambassadors and especially through the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
> > Badrul Alam of Bangladesh Krishok Federation said foreign direct investment has done hardly any good for developing countries, so there is need for good competition for both public and private sector. Zahidul Alam of BNNRC said foreign companies look for profit, while we need to invest in our public companies which should look to minimize growing digital divide. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of EquityBD said that the government announced massive plan for Digital Bangladesh in its Vision 2021, but if there is no state-sponsored infrastructure like Tele Talk mobile network, then the whole financial benefit will go to the foreign mobile companies. Speakers urged Finance Minister to announce a plan and allocation in budget 2011 -2012 to strengthen the public company TeleTalk in this regard.
> > http://www.probenewsmagazine.com/index.php?index=2&contentId=7190
> >
>
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