The government is considering forming a joint-venture (JV) company to successfully operate the country's first proposed satellite, expected to be launched by 2017.
"We hope that companies will engage themselves in our joint-venture initiative for operating the much-hyped national satellite project worth Tk 29.67 billion," said Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) chairman Sunil Kanti Bose.
Mr Bose said this at a press conference at BTRC in the capital, following signing of orbital slot procurement deal with the Moscow-based multinational space organisation on Thursday.
Intersputnik International Organisation of Space Communication director general Vadim E Belov, business director Timofey Abramov and technical director Grigory Baitsur, among others, were present in the briefing.
According to the agreement, Bangladesh got ownership of 119.1 degree east longitude orbital slot to setup its first-ever satellite, Bangabandhu-1, costing $28 million, to be paid in 42 instalments.
However, the BTRC chief identified two major challenges of the project - lack of required skilled manpower, and launching the satellite within the stipulated timeframe.
"Regrettably, we don't have such skilled manpower and required equipments to run such a sophisticated project by own. Besides, according to the existing rules of International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Bangladesh will need to launch the satellite by September 2018."
He said due to these reasons they are considering forming the joint-venture company, and the government will gradually hand over complete operational power to the company.
The chairman hoped that the regulator will invite tender to start work process of the project. "We hope that by the end of the ongoing calendar year, we can give them work order."
khairulislamdu@gmail.com
