Teletalk to merge with foreign firm

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today in a meeting directed the state owned mobile operator Teletalk to find out a suitable foreign company for probable merger.

“To become a competitive player in the market the prime minister gave an order to them to search for an appropriate foreign company for merging with them and offer better service to their customers,” AHM Mustafa Kamal, the planning minister, told journalists after the meeting.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) at a meeting at the NEC conference room in Dhaka's Sher-e-Banglanagar with Prime Minister and ECNEC Chairperson Sheikh Hasina in the chair also approved a project of the state owned mobile operator of Tk 675 crore to expand its network.

Teletalk will get the money from the government as equity supply that the company will return from the earnings.

Earlier the State Minister of the telecom division, Tarana Halim, also shouted investments for Teletalk from the Malaysian government and Indian company Tata as part of its efforts to turn the state-run mobile operator into a vibrant company.

Tarana is not available for comment on the issue.

However, Shyam Sunder Sikder, secretary of the telecom division and chairman of the Teletalk board, said prime minister directed them to become a vibrant company in this field.