Bangladesh Investment Development Authority

Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) Formed on 1 September 2016 by the government of Bangladesh as the apex investment promotion agency of Bangladesh. The organization was created through the merger of Board of Investment (formed in 1989) and Privatisation Commission (initially formed as Privatisation Board in 1993, converted to Privatisation Commission in 2000). It encourages and facilitates domestic and foreign private investment in Bangladesh. The authority has a 17-member governing body with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh as the chairman and the Finance Minister as the vice chairman. The mandate of the authority includes encouraging investment in private sector, identifying hindrances to investment and providing necessary facilities and assistance in the establishment of industries. BIDA provides counseling and aftercare services to the investors, acts to enhance international competitiveness and to contribute to overall social and economic development of Bangladesh.

One of the major activities of BIDA is the work in promoting ease of doing business in Bangladesh and according to World Bank’s Doing Business (DB) 2020 report, the country has moved up eight notches to secure the 168th position in 2019. The World bank report also noted that of the ten indicators for measuring regulatory processes that impact business climate, the score of Bangladesh improved in five such indicators and of these, reforms were successfully claimed in three indicators namely, Starting a Business, Getting Electricity and Getting Credit. Bangladesh lowered the name clearance fee for new company registration, abolished digital certification fees and reduced registration fee calculations based on share capital. In Dhaka, the electricity supplier cut the security deposit for a new connection by half and undertook major investments to expand its staffing and digitization of processes; licensing times by the Office of Electrical Adviser and Chief Electrical Inspector were also reduced. Bangladesh’s credit information bureau improved access to credit by expanding its coverage to include five years of records and data on loans of any amount. The report further said that the score of Bangladesh also improved in the indicators for Registering Property and Dealing with Construction Permits. The 2020 DB score is 45.0, which is 3.03 points higher than that of last year. Earlier, Bangladesh was recognized by the World Bank as being one of the Top-20 Improvers, for the first time, in a statement released in September. Bangladesh aims to achieve double-digit ranking by 2021.

BIDA has been working on the agenda of Doing Business reforms in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which provides technical support in developing the Reform Action Plan and its implementation. According to the statement of the BIDA officials, there is an institutional arrangement in working and strategic levels and close monitoring from BIDA, PMO and the Cabinet and to reach its target, Bangladesh has to accelerate reform momentum and implement big-ticket reforms including amendment of Companies Act, Bankruptcy Act, Arbitration Act and Imarat Nirman Bidhimalas, enactment of Secured Transaction Bill, establishment of Commercial Dispute Resolution bench, and introduction of efficient inspection systems for border compliance by developing risk-profiles of businesses. [S M Mahfuzur Rahman]