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Biman's new identity

Monday, 30 July 2007


AT the last, Biman, the state-run national flag carrier, officially started its journey as a public limited company (PLC). With complete ownership of the government, it will now operate as Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited (BBAL). So a hope is created among all who wanted this national image-building carrier to work efficiently about its gaining ability to revive its lost reputation and, thus, becoming a profitable company, providing sound and competitive service to all its passengers.
But there is doubt among many people about its proper functioning because of the government still retaining its total ownership. Although the government has a plan to float up to 49 per cent of the share of the new company, it has already formed a seven-member board of directors with some secretaries and joint secretaries of different ministries to run the company.
Without representation of the private sector in the management, it seems that Biman has been placed at this stage from the hands of an old set of people to a new one. It is now hard to believe that all mismanagement in Biman would be removed under the new arrangement because of our previous bad experience about any bureaucracy-controlled commercial organisation.
It was reported earlier that the government would shoulder the existing liabilities of the now-defunct Biman Bangladesh Corporation with a view to stopping mismanagement and rationalising its manpower aiming to convert the loss-making organisation into a profitable one. So we expect that the government would do more to make the Biman's management really efficient for ensuring its sound operation in order to make it a commercially viable organisation.
Abdur Razzak
Naya Paltan, Dhaka