Page 26 - ICE BUSINESS TIMES March 2020

BTRC TO EXTEND TELCOS’ SERVICE
QUALITY TEST TO VILLAGES

extend its quality of service awarded the job will be
(QoS) measurement test for conducting drive tests for
mobile phone network coverage measuring and assessing the
and capacity to upazila and coverage, capacity and quality of
village level. The telecom service of cellular mobile
regulator on February 19 issued networks throughout the
an expression of interest (EoI) country. The interested firms or
for the interested parties to joint venture companies were
conduct the test drive in asked to respond to the EoI by
The Bangladesh designated highways, district, March 15. The tentative timeline
Telecommunication Regulatory upazila, union and village roads of the test drive to measure QoS
Commission has decided to and at selected spots. The firm will be from May to October.

INDONESIA WANTS TO MERGE
STOCKS AND OIL PRICES TOP LENDER BRI WITH TWO
SLIDE AMID VIRUS SWEEP STATE FIRMS
GLOBALLY Indonesia's state-owned enterprises minister said the government
Stock markets and oil prices slid again Wednesday, as is looking to merge state-controlled Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI)
major companies began to count the financial cost of with two state financial firms in June, but the bank's CEO said a
the spreading coronavirus. Heavy selling followed final decision on that was still pending. BRI, the country's largest
another rout Tuesday on Wall Street where all three lender by assets, will be merged with pawnshop chain Pegadaian
main indices lost around three percent after officials and Permodalan Nasional Madani (PNM), a financing firm
said COVID-19 would likely take hold in the United focusing on micro businesses. Thohir has said he wants to cut
States. With cases being reported in more countries -- back the number of state companies from about 140 by merging
and lockdowns in nations including Austria, Italy and or closing underperforming firms and their units, to improve
Spain -- traders are growing increasingly fearful about profitability. The government owns a 57.3 per cent stake in BRI,
the impact on the global economy. London's whose loan portfolio is dominated by financing for micro, small
benchmark FTSE 100 index dropped below 7,000 and medium enterprises. Pegadaian and PNM are fully owned by
points, erasing all gains won over the past year, while the state. BRI shares were down 0.4 per cent, compared with a
oil prices slid to the lowest levels in more than a year. nearly 1.5 per cent drop in the main index. They are up around 2
per cent so far in 2020.
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