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Privatization in Bangladesh has gone through various phases since its Independence. Just after the war of Independence in 16 December 1971, the Government had to step in to fill the vacuum in the economy as the then-owners, abandoned their properties and left the country. In addition, the nationalization policy of March, 1972 of major industries like Jute, Textile, Chemical and other basic industries, DFIs, Banks and Insurance etc. brought into fold nearly 90% of such enterprises under Government control. However these public sector enterprises right from inception could not run profitably and efficiently and many of them ran into severe financial difficulties and serious management problems. As stated earlier, by 1975, the Government began to reverse its policy of nationalization due to the heavy burdens created by the public sector enterprises on the national exchequer. During the period 1976-1992 about 500 SOEs had been sold or returned to their former owners. Since the creation of Privatization Commission as the special agency in March, 1993 by the Government to implement the programme of divestiture of SOEs, till to- date 33 SOEs got the final approval for sale from the GOB. It is worth mentioning that 17 (seventeen) SOEs have so far been handed over to the new buyers since March, 1993. LOI (Letter of Intent) have been issued for 9 (nine) SOEs to be handed over to the new buyers during the same period. Moreover, decission to off-load the shares of 9 (nine) public limited companies have been taken. |
