Dhaka, Riyadh to ink defence co-op deal

Diplomatic Correspondent

Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia are set to sign a defence cooperation deal, to boost their military relationship, when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visits the Kingdom tomorrow.

Regarding the signing of the “Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia” in Riyadh, a highly placed official of the Bangladesh government said the defence pact would initiate a new era of military relationship between Dhaka and Riyadh.

However, when asked about the details of the MoU, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali did not elaborate. “You will know when it is signed,” he said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave Dhaka at 3:30pm today for Riyadh on a four-day visit at the invitation of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Ali said.

The foreign minister, among others, will accompany her.

Addressing a pre-departure press conference at State Guesthouse Padma yesterday afternoon, Ali said the prime minister would hold a meeting with the Saudi king tomorrow and the two countries would strike another deal on cooperation in the ICT sector.

He said the PM would inaugurate the newly constructed permanent Chancery building of Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh tomorrow afternoon and was also scheduled to attend a business seminar to be oraganised by the Council of Saudi Chambers.

Hasina will leave for Madina tomorrow night and will offer Fatehah at the “rouza mubarak” (sacred chambers) of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) on Thursday morning.

The PM will then depart Madina for Makkah and perform Umrah on Thursday night.

On the same day, she will also lay the foundation stone of the Bangladesh Consulate in Jeddah on the land Bangladesh has recently purchased.

Hasina will then head for Dhaka in the early hours of Friday.

Ali said at the press conference that Hasina would highlight Bangladesh's socioeconomic development and the successes and achievements of different sectors in recent years to the Saudi leadership.

She will also discuss Saudi Arabia's partnership and cooperation in various sectors in Bangladesh for establishing a poverty- and deprivation-free Bangladesh.

Issues regarding labour recruitment from Bangladesh, trade and investment, development cooperation, and prosperity of the Mulsim Ummah, and cooperation in regional and international forums would dominate talks with the Saudi king during the official meeting.

Dhaka was also expecting to sign several MoUs, related to public and private sectors, during the visit.

Speaking to The Daily Star over the phone, Bangladesh Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Golam Moshi said that the PM would prioritise new labour recruitment from Bangladesh as the Kingdom takes up new mega projects.

“The PM will stress on streamlining the labour migration process through relevant ministries of the countries.

“She will also seek more investments in Bangladesh, including in solar power, cement, special economic zones, and oil refining,” he said.

In April, Bangladesh Armed Forces for the first time took part in a 22-nation joint military exercise in Saudi Arabia.

Hasina attended the concluding ceremony of the month-long military exercise styled “Gulf Shield -1” in which an 18-member delegation from the Bangladesh Armed Forces participated.

The government is considering taking action against all three private mobile operators in the country for not complying with the telecom regulator's order to send short messages to their subscribers.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on September 29 asked all four mobile operators to send their subscribers 10 short messages with slogans on development and success stories of the government.

But of them, only state-owned Teletalk, which has 39 lakh active connections, carried out the order, said a BTRC high-up seeking anonymity.

The official mentioned that all the operators were asked to send each of the 10 SMS every day to all their users.

But the three private operators -- Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink -- with 15.15 crore active connections refused to disseminate those as free text messages, terming those “political”.

The operators argued that they are supposed to disseminate government texts on “national emergency or security matters” for free, not on any other issues.

However, the three operators had sent the first of the 10 messages to some of their subscribers without going through the content of the message, said several officials of the private mobile companies.

Several BTRC officials said the posts and telecommunication ministry prepared the 10 SMS highlighting the success of the Awami League-led government as the national election is approaching. The ministry also prepared 50 more similar SMS.

In a joint letter to the BTRC on October 1, the three operators said they can circulate those SMS only under commercial agreements.

“Under these circumstances, should the content of such bulk SMS is acceptable, we need to send them through commercial agreement,” read the letter signed by Grameenphone Chief Executive Officer Michael Foley, Robi Managing Director and CEO Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, and Banglalink Managing Director and CEO Erik Aas.

Seeking anonymity, a top executive of a leading private mobile operator said if they disseminate these messages as government information for free, it would go against their own policy.

“The total cost of sending the messages to subscribers would be around Tk 25 crore,” said the executive, adding that operators charge Tk 0.17 to Tk 0.20 for sending a bulk SMS to subscribers.

A number of BTRC officials, however, said the non-compliance of the regulator's order was a clear violation of the 2G, 3G, and 4G licensing conditions for the operators.

They said the operators could be fined up to Tk 200 crore each for violating the provisions of the Telecommunication Act 2001.

The BTRC will issue show-cause notices to the three operators soon. It sent its observations to the telecom minister on Sunday to decide on the issue, they added.

“The telecom act clearly says the operators are bound to comply with any order or directive from the regulatory authority. But they refused to follow our order, which is a complete violation of the law,” acting BTRC chairman MD Jahirul Haque told this correspondent last night.

Talking to The Daily Star, Telecom Minister Mustafa Jabbar said, “The [private] operators have termed the short messages political. But it is not correct as the prime minister did not seek vote for boat [in those messages] or urged people to elect the Awami League again.

“If any licensee does not comply with government orders, it has to face consequences.”

He further said the operators, funded by foreign companies, are doing business in Bangladesh but they refused to send government messages to the people.

“We will take some steps, but those will not create any complications.”

Earlier in June, the BTRC asked all the mobile operators to disseminate the PM's voicemail with greetings to their subscribers on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr, but only Teletalk complied with the instructions, the minister mentioned.

Later, the telecom regulator formed a five-member probe committee to look into the issue. The committee is yet to submit its report.

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