Introduction

Privatization transactions have covered a wide spectrum of geographic and economic sectors in a variety of countries at vastly different stages of development. The study of privatization in Bangladesh has been undertaken for two reasons. First, privatization is increasingly recognized as a legitimate and effective tool for economic transformation and development. Second, Bangladesh has been chosen for the study both because it is a country with monumental social and economic development problems, and because it has divested more state-owned enterprises than any other less developed country (LDC). One of the more encouraging aspects of the privatization picture in the Third World is that the impetus for much of the activity has originated from the LDCs themselves, rather than from aid-donor countries attempting to shove western free-enterprise down their throats. Bangladesh is somewhat atypical in that the majority of its many privatization transactions have been divestitures. Privatization has been at the center of the process and the accompanying controversy.