We aren't part of anything going on with Dr Yunus

Telenor Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sigve Brekke has said they are not part of anything going on with Grameen Telecom and Dr Muhammad Yunus.
"Yes, we're reading the news about our partner Professor Muhammad Yunus and also Grameen Telecom, but we aren't part of that," he said while talking to reporters on Wednesday during a two-day visit to Dhaka.
The Telenor CEO said as a majority shareholder in Grameenphone, their management team is focusing on their business.
In an interview with journalists at the Grameenphone head office, he said they do not know more than news stories published about this issue.
Telenor owns a 55.8-percent share of Grameenphone, Grameen Telecom owns 34.2per cent and the remaining 10 per cent is publicly held.
Replying to a question whether they would leave management part of their operation to local partner, he ruled out any such possibilities.
"Telenor is not a financial investor only, Telenor is an operator; we think that we can create value through our engagement," he said.
He said if Telenor doesn't have operational influence on Grameenphone, they would leave the market.
"We have to be driving the performance of operations," he said.
Replying to a question about the speculation that Telenor is exiting the Bangladesh market, he said this speculation will continue to go on for another 100 years.
Telenor is very happy about their Bangladesh market, he added.
"We are very happy and very successful here," he said, questioning why they would exit.
Talking about the topic in his meeting with State Minister for Posts, Telecommunication and ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak, he said the telecom industry and the government need to work together.
"We need to look at how the government and industry work together, we are not enemies, we should be friends," he said, recommending working more on the public private partnership model.
He said if the Prime Minister wants to transform the country into a digital and smart Bangladesh, the government needs to work with the mobile operator.
He said regulations in every market are different from one another.
He expressed his dissatisfaction over the ban on Grameenphone SIM that lasted around six month in the last half of 2022.
"SIM ban was not good, that was unfair," he said.
However, he said that as the largest foreign investor in Bangladesh, their experience is good.
"We are making money, we wouldn't be here if we couldn't make money," he said.
Despite regulatory challenges, he said, Telenor remains committed to its investments in Bangladesh, aiming to enhance customer experiences through network upgrades and technological advancements.
He said there must be dialogue between regulator and operator and dialogue must be two ways.
Expressing frustration about high taxation on telecom, he said tax needs to be reduced for digital transformation of the country.
Mr Brekke acknowledged the importance of regulatory compliance while emphasizing the need for constructive dialogues with regulators to address concerns.
"We have been talking about unified licence, now government listens. Then we have been talking about need of lower-end spectrum and today minister said he would look into that, and we have been talking about cutting down taxes on telcos for a long time, tax hasn't been reduced and we have to respect that with continuous dialogue," he said.
The Telenor CEO said 5G doesn't have any use case in Bangladesh.
"5G in Bangladesh would only add another 'G', nothing more," he said.
He said that he also told the state minister, "If you want to move into 5G, do that with some use cases, pick some examples where we could use 5G."
"Just rolling out 5G as a new G, there is no business model there," he said.
He said Telenor has been contributing to the growth of Bangladesh for last 27 years and has strong commitment to collaborating with the government and stakeholders to drive digital transformation across the nation.
"With 27 years of experience in the telecommunications sector, Telenor aims to leverage data-driven services to fuel the next phase of growth in Bangladesh."
Brekke emphasised the importance of making smartphones more affordable to expand mobile internet usage, particularly as the world embraces artificial intelligence (AI).
Recognising Bangladesh's potential to leapfrog technologically, Telenor emphasises the importance of providing valuable data and internet-based services to meet the needs of consumers, businesses, and government sectors.

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