Bangladesh, July 7 -- The government has ruled out selling state-owned mobile operator Teletalk despite interest from several companies in buying or partnering with it.

It has instead planned to upgrade the operator to strengthen its position in the telecom market.

On Tuesday, Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Faqir Mahbub Anam made the announcement during an exchange of views with journalists.

He said a number of companies had expressed interest in acquiring Teletalk, but the government had no plans to sell it as it wanted to retain a presence in the competitive mobile market.

Recently, VEON, the parent company of private mobile operator Banglalink, wrote to the government expressing interest in partnerin...