Chief Adviser's Special Envoy Lutfey Siddiqi on Monday said increasing private investment is a national priority and it holds the key to a full spectrum of challenges from jobs to inflation.
"We have to make it easier for investors to do business in Bangladesh and as a pre-requisite, we must make it easier for officials to do business within government," he said at an inter-authority, inter-ministerial coordination meeting on investment facilitation held at the Chief Adviser’s Office.
Siddiqi said they expect an attitude of teamwork and timeliness with which government officials deal with each other, without compromising on due process.
He said there are already some excellent examples that can be replicated more widely.
“Having a monthly forum where we report on progress and share common challenges should keep us focused on delivery of outcomes," he added.
It was decided at an earlier meeting chaired by the Chief Adviser on October 29 that a monthly forum of the heads of investment promotion agencies and key ministries will be convened to track progress in improving the investor experience.
Chaired by Special Envoy Lutfey Siddiqi, this forum takes a whole-of-government approach to the journey of an investor to facilitate smooth execution, in a time-bound manner, within existing laws and regulations.
A secondary objective is to recommend changes to laws and regulations where required.
The meeting was attended by, among others, Executive Chair of BIDA/BEZA Ashik Chowdhury, Senior Secretary Ministry of Land SM Saleh Ahmed, NBR Chairman Abdur Rahman Khan, Chittagong Port Authority Chairman Rear Admiral SM Moniruzzam, Chairman BEPZA Major General Abul Kalam Mohammad Ziaur Rahman, Secretary Energy Division Mohammad Saiful Islam, MD High Tech Park Authority AKM Amirul Islam, DG PPP Authority AKM Abul Kalam Azad, ICT Policy Advisor Faiz Taiyeb Ahmed, Secretary CAO Saifullah Panna, Director GIU Dr Shameema Nasreen.
Some of the takeaways from the meeting are as follows:
* Virtually every agency noted a significant improvement in dialogue with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) with specific examples of positive outcomes. NBR has committed to further improvements in customs and trade facilitation and digitalisation in a time-bound manner.
* All the agencies will adopt BIDA’s approach of converting critics into promoters (“Project Ambassador”) to generate the next cycle of investments.
* BIDA/BEZA, ICT Park Authority, BEPZA and PPP Authority to enhance mid-level connectivity amongst them to avoid duplications and enhance sharing of best practice.
* Bangladesh bank will re-iterate its role as a facilitator of investments, make it easier to provide feedback and share updates on their responses to feedback.
* Chittagong Port Authority highlighted recent improvement in their cargo handling statistics and positive stakeholder management.
* ICT ministry will initiate a taskforce on interoperability of systems within government.
* All the agencies will assist the energy and power ministry with their investment and purchase plans, where relevant.
* Special Envoy’s office will coordinate a meeting of all relevant authorities to ensure that they use the single window once the window is up and running.
* Special Envoy’s office will look into the issues related to land registration and suggest next steps in consultation with the relevant ministries.
* Special Envoy’s office will follow up on instances where inter-ministry approvals (between the ministries of industry and environment for example) might be speeded up to reduce unnecessary business costs.
