Govt considering incentives for Bangladeshis bringing foreign investment

The government is considering providing incentives to Bangladeshis who bring in foreign investments, said Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud bin Harun, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (Bida).

He made the remarks at a press conference held yesterday (13 April) at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka's Bailey Road.

Also present were the Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam, Bida's Business Development Chief Nahiyan Rahman, and others.

"A governing board meeting of Beza [Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority] and Bida was held on Saturday [12 April] under the chairmanship of the chief adviser. Discussions took place on whether incentives could be provided to Bangladeshis who bring in foreign investments, similar to the incentives given for remittance earnings. They were asked to find ways to implement this."

"Currently, there is a one-stop service [OSS] from several organisations, including Beza and Bida, to facilitate investment. However, many organisations offer online and offline application options," Ashik said.

He said the chief adviser on Saturday directed that all organisations with online service capabilities must discontinue their manual service processes within one month. "A decision was also made to create a single portal combining all OSS services."

The Bida chief said there was a previous proposal to bring the Korean EPZ [export processing zone] under Beza's authority. "This was formally approved at Saturday's Beza governing board meeting. As a result, KEPZ will now operate under Beza," he added.

Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has previously announced plans to establish a special economic zone for Nepal. Ashik said decisions were made to bring eight investment-related organisations under the same umbrella and hold Beza and Bida governing board meetings every three months.

He said the chief adviser has instructed to take steps toward creating a Free Trade Zone around the Matarbari deep-sea port and to ensure that upstream countries like Nepal, Bhutan, and China can benefit from these facilities.

"It was decided in the meeting that future economic zones will be established after inter-ministerial meetings. All utility service providers must be involved in these discussions and commit to providing services to these zones once declared," added the Bida chief. 

Besides being the chairman of Bida, Ashik Chowdhury is also the chairman of the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (Beza). During yesterday's press conference, he spoke about Beza's proposed economic zones and mentioned that the chief adviser has directed the establishment of an economic zone for Nepal.