A final proposal to turn state-owned Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) into a public limited company is likely to be placed today at the meeting of the council of advisers.

“If everything goes right, the council will approve the proposal, turning the BTTB into a PLC,” said Shah Mohammed Ali, joint secretary of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.

The BTTB will become ‘Bangladesh Telecom Company Limited’ (BTCL) after the final approval from the government.

After the approval of the council of advisers the proposal will be sent to the president for his approval. The whole process to make the BTTB a PLC will be completed in 20 days, said a source with the telecommunications ministry.

Finally, ‘BTCL’ will apply to Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms for operations of the company in line with the Bangladesh Companies Act 1994.

The telecommunications ministry officials however said although the BTTB will become a PLC, the government has no plan to cut jobs in the 15,000-strong organization.

The officials said the quality of services and transparency of the BTTB will be improved if it is made a PLC.

The ‘BTCL’ will offer facilities such as optical fibre network, wireless and satellite communications technology and international gateway.

According to the proposal, post and telecommunication secretary will be the ex officio chairman of the nine-member board of directors of ‘BTCL’ , who will also include joint secretaries of finance and science and ICT ministries.

Earlier in 2003, a taskforce recommended the BTTB, one of the few profitable organisations of the government, be transformed into a public limited company.

Later, Detecon International, a Germany-based consulting firm, was selected to prepare a restructuring model for the BTTB as well as assess the BTTB’s assets and liabilities.

However, the firm is yet to assess the BTTB’s assets and liabilities mainly due to opposition from BTTB’s staff, who fear job cuts in the event of any restructuring.

“Assessment of assets and liabilities is very important for floating shares. The deadline for Detecon to provide the assessment was June 2008. But now we have asked Detecon to do it by February so that we can shortly float shares,” Shah Mohammed Ali said.

Once the liabilities and asset value of the BTTB are assessed, shares will be floated in the capital market, Ali added.