Implementation the main challenge, concludes BIDA workshop

Implementation of laws and plans are a major challenge in Bangladesh, top officials and experts told a workshop discussing ways to make the country more investment-friendly.

The newly-created Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) in partnership with the World Bank Group met top officials of all relevant ministries on Friday for a two-day strategic workshop at a Bahubal resort in the north-east Habiganj district.

Their aim is to devise an “action plan” aimed at improving Bangladesh's position in the World Bank’s 'Ease of Doing Business' rankings and make it an attractive investment destination for global business.

The World Bank has ranked Bangladesh 176th among 190 countries in its Doing Business 2017 report. It is behind of all SAARC countries, except war-torn Afghanistan.

BIDA, created by a merger of the Privatization Commission and the Board of Investment, aims to improve Bangladesh's ranking to 100 or even better by 2021.

That is also the deadline set by the current government to make Bangladesh a higher middle-income country.

It plans to make Bangladesh a developed country by 2041. The workshop will end on Saturday.

 “It's easier to make legislation but difficult to implement. We all must focus on implementation,” Chairman of the National Board of Revenue Md Nojibur Rahman said while speaking at a session on Friday.

“I see disconnect between policy level enthusiasm and field level implementation,” he said, adding that NBR itself has deep commitment to make the procedures easy for doing businesses.

The ‘Doing Business’ report sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations.

The study ranks the business environment of a country based on 11 indicator sets: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labour market regulations.

“We have identified all the problems. We know the problems. But we cannot implement. Now we need to set specific timeframe by when we want to implement,” corporate lawyer Barrister Tanjib ul Alam said.

He gave the example of how the tanneries could not be shifted to Savar from Dhaka in the last several years despite court orders and executive decisions.

Senior Secretary for Industries Md Mosharraf Hossain promised to move the tanneries in the next six months. “This time it’ll take place,” he asserted.

The workshop brought top bureaucrats including the Cabinet secretary and principal secretary of the prime minister's office, World Bank experts, think-tanks and corporate lawyers together in brain-storming sessions.

 BIDA Executive Chairman Kazi M Aminul Islam was present and interacted in all sessions on Friday. “We have to go far and go fast,” he repeatedly reminded the officials attending the workshop.

“We have laws which are hackneyed, rules which are unnecessary and sometimes mindless and meaningless… processes which are redundant and procedures which are cumbersome,” he said, adding that all of those have been reflected in the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking.

BIDA has also finalised an “effective” one-stop service that now awaits parliamentary approval to become law.

World Bank’s Lead Economist for Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice Sanjay Kathuria said Bangladesh is an “attractive destination” for trade and investment, but some reforms were needed for trade policy and trade facilitation.

He gave the Korean and Cambodian example and said the Korean government recognised the role of small and medium enterprises and reduced tax and regulatory burdens on them.

As a result, he said, at the end of 2OO8, Korea’s three million small and medium-size enterprises accounted for 99.9 percent of all companies in the economy, almost 90 percent of employment and about 5O percent of production.

Commerce Ministry WTO Cell’s Director Md Hafizur Rahman called for a “fundamental policy shift that is geared towards international competitiveness and is neutral to the interests of the domestic producer, exporter and consumer”.

Secretary in charge ministry of environment and forests Md Ishtiaq Ahmed said they cannot go public on “weakness” that exists in the department.

“This is a department with huge mandate, but we have limited resources and manpower. We have 102 first and second class officers against 330 approved posts. Those who come for clearance are not supposed to know our weaknesses,” he said.