The government is giving especial emphasis on introducing One Stop Service (OSS) centre for providing all necessary investment-related services to investors of the country under a single window.
Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) have already introduced OSS centres to provide services to local and foreign entrepreneurs.
Now, BEZA is providing at least 125 types of services under OSS centre. Out of the services, investors are now getting 32 services through online.
BIDA is providing a total of 41 services through its online one-stop service portal to ensure easy and swift services for the investors in the country.
Talking to Bangladesh Post, BEZA Executive Chairman Paban Chowdhury said BEZA OSS is ensuring one-stop service to investors not only in paper but also in real sense and it will continue to do so in the future.
He further said that even during the Covid-19 period, all kinds of services were provided from BEZA's OSS Centre so that investors can make necessary decision on their investment in the country.
He hoped that as the OSS is ensuring hassle-free services to entrepreneurs, investments would go up in near future.
Read More: Bangladesh seeks US investment in railway
He said earlier investors had to contact different government offices to obtain permission for facilities such as electricity connection, land purchase and water supply and it took a lot of time to complete these processes. But now the entrepreneurs are receiving all the permission necessary for investment from a single window and it has made easier for investors to start a business in the country.
The BEZA chief said compared to its regional competitors, Bangladesh was in an advantageous position in offering online service through OSS Centre.
This is a milestone set by the current government in attracting investments," Chowdhury said adding that the OSS provides 125 different services and Bangladesh is far ahead of india and Vietnam in providing such services.
He said the government is implementing different initiatives to improve the country’s position in doing business ranking in upcoming report of the World Bank’s Global Doing Business Report.
He said Bangladesh still had a lot of scopes to ease "doing business". According to a 2020 global ranking Bangladesh secured 168th position out of 190 economies.
BIDA Director of the One Stop Service and Regulatory Reform Jibon Krishna Saha Roy said BIDA is working to provide 154 services of the 35 organisations under OSS centre. Now, BIDA is providing 41 services through OSS centre, he added.
He said BIDA is working to provide easy and swift services for ensuring investment-friendly environment in the country.
According to BIDA, the amount of proposed local and foreign investments declined by 72.16 per cent or Tk 36,165 crore in the July-September period of the current fiscal year 2020-2021 compared with that in the same period of the FY 2019-2020.
A total of 213 firms made investment proposals worth Tk 13,952 crore in the first quarter of FY21 against Tk 50,117 crore in investment proposals made by 249 entities in the same period of FY20.
Foreign direct investment proposals plummeted by 92.61 per cent or Tk 16,115 crore in the period of FY21 compared with that in the same period a year ago.
A total of 44 foreign and joint venture companies made investment proposals worth Tk 1,285 crore in July-September of FY21. The figure was Tk 17,400 crore in the same period of FY20, the data said.
Local investment proposals also dropped by 61.28 per cent or Tk 20,050 crore in the period.
Various local and global reports attributed the cause of the fall to the COVID-19 outbreak that dealt a severe blow to life and livelihood across the globe in 2020.
Suspension of air communications and slowdown in economic activities were the major reasons for such a situation in investment proposals.
