Migration to a universal licensing regime could be a game-changer for the country's telecom sector, as it will open up all kinds of possibilities for the mobile operators, which are very much standard practice in the rest of the world, said a top official of Robi Axiata.
In an exclusive interview with The Financial Express, just-outgoing chairman of Robi Axiata's board of directors Thayaparan Sangarapillai said building fibre across the country in a short period of time would revolutionise the telecom services in the country.
"And for this, licensing should be liberalised, and telecom operators should be allowed to build their own fibre," he said while talking to FE in a city hotel on Monday.
Mr Sangarapillai said the government has to liberalise licensing to move towards enterprise to transform telco to techco -- the concept of changing from a telecom operator to a technology company.
"Telco is just an enabler, but techco is an all-digital service provider," he said, adding that the transformation requires new investment and partnerships.
"Even though the industry is quite mature here, it still has plenty of room to entice foreign investment."
The concept of a telco turning into a "techco" has been widely promoted over the last couple of years, to help telecom firms more effectively win new business in the fields of cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and digital transformation at enterprises.
He said allowing mobile operators to build a fibre optic network could entice foreign investment.
He said there are a limited number of operators building fibre for the industry, which is taking a lot of time and the environment is not competitive.
"If telcos are allowed to build fibre, the environment would be competitive," he said.
The seasoned professional said there should also be infrastructure sharing for a better change in the industry.
The former board chairman of Robi said Bangladesh has a large pool of talent, but the question is how the country utilises it.
He said Bangladesh is now the 35th biggest economy in the world. Without a doubt, it is one of the most promising economies in the region.
"Research, however, shows that to transform Bangladesh into a high-income country, it would need to raise its investment-to-GDP ratio to around 40-44 per cent of GDP, which currently hovers around 30 per cent," he said.
"The rate of FDI inflow in Bangladesh is only around 1 per cent of GDP, one of the lowest in Asia," he said, adding, "The key for me is to raise Bangladesh's competitiveness to attract the kind of FDI it deserves."
"Nobody would come to Bangladesh to do a favour to the country, the country has to be competitive, as foreign investors always look into where to put their money."
He said political stability, stable connectivity and communication, the ability to repatriate dividends, tax incentives and FDI-favoured government policy are key to being attractive.
"Why would an investor come if he can't take his profits from the investment," he questioned.
Thayaparan Sangarapillai, a Malaysian national and fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, has been a director of Robi’s board of directors since 2015, and Chairman of the Robi board since 2021.
Reflecting on his nine years with the Robi board he said, the journey Robi had during this period was nothing short of phenomenal.
"The company went through epoch-making changes both on the inside and out…. I think what laid the foundation for this evolution was the success of the merger between Robi and Airtel," he said.
Robi currently holds more than 30 per cent market share in both revenue and subscribers, which was nearly 27 per cent back in 2016 combining Robi and Airtel's numbers.
Airtel brand contributes more than 30 per cent of total revenue and Airtel data subscribers have the highest data subscriber consumption per month.
Sangarapillai said this suggests the merger enabled the company to have a high data-consuming base as well.
He thinks that Robi is now ready to convert its digital supremacy into stellar financial performance.
"Having registered the highest revenue growth [20.6 per cent] in Q2'23 among all the mobile operators in the Asia Pacific region, I believe Robi has made that announcement loud and clear."
"Robi's IPO in December 2020, where it raised Tk 5.23 billion, is widely considered a resounding success," he said, adding that the offering garnered significant investor interest and the oversubscription for its shares was 5 times higher than the raised amount.
He said since Robi's IPO in 2020, its revenue grew by 13.5 per cent at the end of 2022.
"Amidst the ongoing global economic crisis following the pandemic, Robi managed to ensure that its profit increased by 17.6 per cent between 2020 and 2022; this, in turn, led to a 5.7 per cent increase in EPS [Earnings Per Share] at the end of 2022."
The former board chair said corporate governance at Robi is synonymous with unwavering principles.
"We uphold stringent policies, processes and standards, leaving no room for bribery, corruption or unethical conduct."
He said the Digital Bangladesh vision in so many ways defines Bangladesh as a nation. The true colour of Digital Bangladesh was revealed during the pandemic.
"When the whole world shut down, Bangladesh kept trudging along by going online," he said.
"I am very happy to note that, just like Digital Bangladesh, the government is pursuing the Smart Bangladesh vision through a structured framework of four pillars, namely-Smart Citizen, Smart Government, Smart Economy and Smart Society.
"I am sure Bangladesh will offer an excellent case study on advanced digitalisation by successfully implementing the Smart Bangladesh vision," he added.