Jabbar urges Facebook for setting up office in Bangladesh

Telecom and ICT Minister Mustafa Jabbar has urged the Facebook authority to establish an office in Dhaka to run their smooth business in Bangladesh.

The minister made the call at a meeting with the popular social media site at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona of Spain on Tuesday.

In the meeting with senior officials of Facebook, Jabbar also said they will have to pay taxes according to the laws of the land and for that, if you have any suggestion can share with their government.

The government has a concern on tax issues and made mandatory for pay tax to the top social media platforms like Facebook and Google.

“They are earning millions of dollar from Bangladesh market and obsoleting different traditional business then why don’t they pay tax,” Jabbar today told The Daily Star over the phone after the meeting.

He said Bangladeshi delegate placed the issue over there and told them more than three and a half crore people are using Facebook in Bangladesh so it is a big market and that also needs to consider.

“We said them, we have no intention to block Facebook if you help us, we will co-operate you to run your business,” said Jabbar. 

The minister also asked them to comply with the Bangladesh government’s law for social issues.

Jabbar also reminding the country’s law, traditional culture, values, rules and regulations, the minister urged to authorities to maintain the FB contents and other issues following Bangladesh’s law.

Bangladeshi team informed them they have earned about Tk 1,000 crore every year

He also urged them to respond immediately if the government asked them to attend any content filter which is not matched with the local laws and harmful for the country.

Facebook Global Policy Solution vice-president Richard Allan and South Asian Head of Policy Ashwani Rana attended the meeting on behalf of the social media networking company.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Chairman Md Jahirul Haque and senior officials of the telecom ministry also present in the meeting.