BIDA strategic workshop promises ‘beginning of a new era’ for Bangladesh

The first strategic workshop of the new Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) has ended with the different ministries, and government agencies promising to begin a new era for the investors in the country.

“From now on we begin a new era – an era of the search for excellence, an era of the search for improvement in the world around us, the world of business and investment,” Executive Chairman Kazi M Aminul Islam said on Saturday.

He was making concluding remarks after a two-day exercise of top government officials at a Bahubal resort in Habiganj district.

The event was organised on the heels of the World Bank ranking Bangladesh 176th among 190 countries in its Doing Business 2017 report.

The study ranks the business environment of a country based on 11 indicators: 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.

The newly-created state entity BIDA aims to improve Bangladesh's ranking to at least 99 by 2021, to raise the confidence of both local and foreign investors.

Ministries and agencies, including the ministries of commerce, industries, law, power and energy, environment and forest, National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority, Bangladesh Bank, and Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission proposed the reforms they would bring following the workshop.

The Power Division said all the process of getting electricity for new industries would be reduced to 28 days while it used to take 428 days, according to the World Bank report.

RAJUK announced that they would settle the construction permits within 6O days which used to take 269 days as per the report.

The BIDA executive chairman said they would formally announce all the commitments in a media conference in Dhaka on Jan 31, giving two more days to the agencies to prepare their plan.

He identified two major achievements of the workshop. The workshop recognises “the investment and business climate as a social and national impact and the government-wide issue. It’s not a matter of one agency”.

“And it also recognises the need to have and follow the principal of inclusion which our Prime Minister has followed, and she made Bangladesh a model of development in achieving growth and at the same time not exacerbating inequality”.

He said they would “individually and collectively” engage to make Bangladesh a better place for both local and foreign investors.

The BIDA also signed a six-year agreement with the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) to get technical help to improve the business environment.

World Bank’s Senior Private Sector Specialist for Trade and Competitiveness Lars Nikolajs Grava, who helps BIDA strengthen its capacity, said he was “very optimistic” after the event.

“This is because there is a lot of goodwill generated and this is the opportunity for BIDA to demonstrate its eagerness and willingness to coordinate the reform effort,” he told bdnews24.com.

“This is a great opportunity for others to come together to understand how important is this cooperation within the government, within the ministries, within institutions and agencies, and how to collaborate with the private sector”.

He, however, said the most challenging task for BIDA would be “coordinating among the government institutions and making sure that reforms are on track”.

In this regard, he stressed on an engaging business community in the process of policy making, hearing their voices and also engaging them in the implementation process.

Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute, a private think-tank, Dr Ahsan H Mansur, who also attended the workshop, said: “it was a new process for BIDA.”

“But it’s not a one-day or one year process; it’s a multi-year process. We have to go that way. We have to be attractive enough for investors and have to strike the right balance so that we don’t lose revenue,” he told bdnews24.com, after the workshop.

As there are many ministries involved in the process, he said a “cooperative” approach and “accountability” of each ministry as a team member would be needed.

“Each ministry must be committed in a way that their performance can be monitored. This monitoring will help to increase accountability,” he said.

He, however, suggested the government not to focus in any specific sector while promoting business and investment, rather create a condition where all possible industries can be benefitted.

"We must open the space for all possible industries".