Govt resolves to run seven closed SoEs

The government has taken a decision not to privatise seven of its closed entities and run those on its own in a bid to ensure their contribution to the country's economy, officials have said.
The state-owned enterprises (SoEs) are: Khulna Newsprint Mills, Khulna Hardboard Mills, Dhaka Leather Company, Bangladesh Insulator and Sanitary Ware Factory Ltd, North Bengal Paper Mills Ltd, Chittagong Chemical Complex Ltd (CCCL) under the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) and the RR Textile Mills Ltd under the Ministry of Textiles and Jute (MoTJ) that have remained closed for long, according to the Ministry of Industries (MoI).
An inter-ministerial meeting was held at the MoI late last month to review a proposal of the Privatisation Commission (PC) in this connection and devise a new strategy. Secretary of the ministry Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan presided over the meeting.
"The meeting took a decision to operate the state-run entities again. The MoTJ and the BCIC will take necessary initiatives to begin operation of the closed SoEs," a high official of the MoI who attended the meeting said.
Earlier, the PC had made a proposal to privatise the SoEs; but, there was no opportunity to consider the proposal of the PC, he said.  
"The seven closed state-owned mills and factories would resume operation soon and this was decided in the recent inter-ministerial meeting," Deputy Secretary of the MoI A K M Masudur Rahman told the FE.
A source concerned said industrial or IT parks might be established under private initiatives, if the BCIC fails to reopen the closed mills and factories. The land owned by the entities may be handed over to private entrepreneurs on condition that they would establish industrial and IT parks there.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had directed the authorities concerned to start the process of reopening the closed firms instead of their privatisation.
A meeting held last year decided to reopen the seven closed entities within six months, but the MoTJ and the BCIC failed to make any visible progress in reopening the closed entities by the deadline.
However, only the CCCL could do it, according to an official of the MoI.
A project involving Tk 1.5 billion (150 crore) was taken to reopen CCCL which is being implemented presently. Over 52 per cent of the project was completed until April last, according to sources at the MoI.
The MoI officials expressed the hope that the CCCL would resume operation sometime next year.
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