The government is prepared to sell off shares in Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) by next year, Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam indicated on September 10. However the adviser said the process of corporatising BTTB must be completed before the shares can be sold.

“The government has already decided to corporatise BTTB, and the organisation might be ready to offload its shares after completing all formalities to become a corporate body,” Azizul said at the inauguration of Dhaka Stock Exchange Training Academy at DSE’s conference room. “The offloading of BTTB’s shares will take a little time as the valuation of its assets is time-consuming,” the adviser said, adding that a World Bank consultant team is working on a value assessment of BTTB.

He said the government is getting ready to offload shares in several state-owned enterprises, including some oil companies, banks, Titas Gas and Jamuna Multi-purpose Bridge to enhance the supply of securities to the market. The adviser said there is likely to be some progress in the offloading of shares of Jamuna Bridge this year.

Although Azizul stressed that the government or regularly bodies could not force private companies to list, he criticised private sector enterprises, especially family-owned companies, for not listing on the capital market to raise their capital base. He said family owned companies still lacked the vision for expansion, and should instead follow the examples of Indian companies like Tata and Reliance, which have adopted the trend of global expansion.

The Indian business giants have spread their position across the globe, opening or taking over businesses in the Middle East and as far as Europe, said Azizul, a former chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He said the government realised less taxes from listed companies than unlisted ones to encourage more to come to the market and suggested the bourse organise road shows in order to attract more companies to the market.

Azizul was chief guest at the event which was chaired by Abdullah Bokhari, president of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), with Faruq Ahmad Siddiqui, SEC chairman, Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, DSE chief executive officer, and Kaiser A Chowdhury, managing director of AB Bank, also spoke at the function.

The SEC chairman said in the recent past there had been a demand crisis in the capital market. But now the market was vibrant. He said to sustain the market trends, more supply of securities is required.