Govt plans to get rid of sick SoEs

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FE Report
The proposed budget has set a target to get rid of the burden of the sick state-owned enterprises (SoEs), and it keeps no fund for privatisation of other enterprises.
"The sick industries incurring loss for 15 years will either have to attain efficiency and survive by realigning their production system, or wind up," said Finance Minister AMA Muhith in his budget speech.
The government has already taken up various training programmes for the SoEs' workers to enhance their productivity, and 2,430 workers have been trained so far through 82 training courses, he said.
The budget said Tk 611.66 billion (Tk 61,166 crore) has been distributed for private sector development, and industrial loans amounting to Tk 481.18 billion (Tk 48,118 crore) has been recovered till March 2010.
It said agriculture-related and labour-intensive industries such as agro-processing, ready-made garments and knitwear, shipbuilding, light engineering, pharmaceuticals, jute, leather goods and furniture will be given priority. Besides, the export-oriented industries will get special incentive and support from the risk fund as thrust sector.
It also said jute-mills under Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) have been financed with an allocation of Tk 10.92 billion (Tk 1,092 crore) from the public exchequer, in the form of cash and bank guarantees. A refinancing fund of Tk 5.0 billion (Tk 500 crore) has been shaped for the public jute-mills to overcome their liquidity crisis.