CORPORATISATION OF GOVT OWNED BANKS
The council of advisers to the caretaker government yesterday
approved the draft bylaws required to turn the nationalised commercial banks
(NCBs)--Sonali, Janata and Agrani--into public limited companies ,according to
news reports. An advisory council meeting at the Chief Adviser's Office gave
the approval to the draft Memorandum and Articles of Association..
It is reported that corporatisation of these Banks was a condition
of the World Bank (WB) set for the release of $200-million fourth installment
of Development Support Credit.
This step as stated is clearly a decision forced on the government
by the World Bank and there was no opportunity for the Parliament to scrutinize
or discuss the matter. Any such major step without a discussion in the
Parliament is not good.
The World Bank advises many times in the past have not proved good
in many countries of South-East Asia and Latin America. They essentially carry
out the agenda of neo capitalism and neo-imperialism. Their prescriptions many
times are aimed at opening the market of developing countries to the products
of the West. We have seen how in Bangladesh we have repeatedly reduced duty
rates which only increased our imports at the cost of our well-earned foreign
exchange.
How far this corporatisation will help efficiency we are not sure
but it will put the government in difficulty in supporting certain sectors of
economy. A Bank is not only a profit-making institution it can also serve the
weaker sections if some Banks remain with the government.
We ask the government to place the whole thing before the next
Parliament for a full discussion on all aspects of the matter as it appears
that they can not do any other thing at this stage..
( Editorial dated 5th February of Asia Post, an affiliate of Naya
diganta, Dhaka )
