Staff Reporter :
Until ensuring the stability of the country’s forex reserves, the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) has decided not to go ahead with a Tk236 crore 5G network project under the state-owned telecom operator Teletalk.
The decision was taken at ECNEC meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina through video conference from Ganobhaban on Tuesday.
The project worth Tk 236 crore was placed in the ECNEC meeting in a view to implement the project by 2023.
It is noted that about 80 percent equipment required for the 5G expansion project would have to be imported from abroad.
Considering the ongoing dollar crisis and global economic volatile situation, the government has taken the decision not to implement the project at this moment.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked why should the 5G project be implemented now when 4G hasn’t been properly implemented in the country.
“The Prime Minister thinks that the Teletalk’s 5G project is not needed right now. 4G service needs to be ensured first in all parts of Bangladesh. Not only Teletalk, but all mobile operators have been asked to increase the coverage of 4G,” Planning Minister MA Mannan told journalists after the meeting.
“As the government is opting for austerity and Teletalk’s 5G project is largely import dependent. So the project has been dropped to reduce the pressure on the use of dollars,” he added.
Teletalk had planned to launch its 5G service on a limited basis in the capital. For this, some areas of Dhaka North and South City Corporation had been selected.
The planning minister also said that there was no discussion on whether the scope of the foreign loan project would be reduced.
On Tuesday’s meeting, seven projects were approved at a cost of Tk2,700 crore.
