We are disappointed in the statement by the Industries Minister that the government considers the greater good of the country will not be served by selling off state-owned enterprises.
This undermines the goal of the Privatisation Commission which was formed with the goal of divesting unsuccessful SOEs, but has made little progress in the past five years.
It is a gross misuse of resources for the government to continue to bankroll eternally loss-making state-owned enterprises which show little sign of cleaning up their acts. It is lamentable that taxpayers money is wasted on inefficient subsidies while sectors that the government should indeed to looking at, such as education and health care, continue to languish from lack of money.
The government should be looking to speed up, not slow down, the work of the Commission. The Commission itself is also not acting fast enough to ensure better use of state resources, by progressing plans to lease out the large amounts of land that are not being fully used by SOEs.
It is an egregious waste of Bangladesh’s already scarce resources to leave land and assets to the inefficient mechanism of SOEs. We must allocate our resources so that they give us the best returns. Privatisation and the incentives it creates to cut losses is a valuable way to help failing state owned business.
The Privatisation Commission should not be held back from working to put assets and land to work in the most effective and efficient manner available.
