Cabinet Approves 'Bangladesh Investment Development Authority Law-2015'

The approval was given at the regular weekly cabinet meeting held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan briefed reporters after the meeting.

He said that once the law comes into effect, a new authority titled "Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA)" would be established abolishing together the BoI and the Privatisation Commission.

"The BIDA would help boost investment in the country and ensure efficient use of unused lands of the public sector industries," the cabinet secretary said.

According to the draft law, he said, all officials and employees working under the BoI and the Privatisation Commission would be transferred to the BIDA.

Besides, all the assets and liabilities of the BoI and the Privatisation Commission would also be owned by the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority or BIDA.

About the structure of the new authority, the cabinet secretary said that a 17-member governing board of the BIDA would be formed with the Prime Minister as its chairman and the finance minister as its vice-chairman.

The ministers of the ministries concerned like Commerce, Industries, Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and Land would be members of the board, he said.

The cabinet secretary said the chief executive officer of the BIDA would be its executive chairman who will also be a member of its governing board. Under the executive committee of the authority, there will be maximum six members apart from the executive chairman to be appointed by the government.

Under the proposed law, he said, the authority would conduct registration of the industries to be set up in private sector and the foreign trade liaison branch offices for making investment in the country.

Meanwhile, investment proposals under the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones

Authority (BEPZA), Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA), private EPZ, BSCIC, Hi-Tech Parks would remain outside the purview of the BIDA.

The cabinet secretary said that the government wants to ensure more efficient use of unused lands and industries under the public sector since selling those in private sector was not such profitable due to unavailability of appropriate price and some other matters.

He said that the BIDA would determine import settlement and NOC issue and could declare a certain area as industrial zone through gazette notification and help the authority concerned in land acquisition.

It would also work for ensuring efficient use of land, prepare a list of unused land and structures and thus frame a policy for its utilization, enact a guideline for allotting and transferring plots, form one-stop service ensuring committee for making more effective the one-stop service delivery.

The cabinet secretary said that the BoI has been functioning in the country under the Board of Investment Act, 1989 with a current manpower of 293. On the other hand, the Privatization Commission was formed earlier as a board in 1993 and later turned into a commission in 2000 through the Privatization Act, 2000. Currently the commission has manpower of 70.

Bhuiyan said that the since its inception, the performance of the Privatization Commission is not up to the mark as some 58 non-profit state owned enterprises (SoEs) have so far been privatized while some 23 SoEs have offloaded their shares.

In the last four years, the commission could only privatize one SoE, while one SoE offloaded its shares.

Replying to a question, the cabinet secretary said the BIDA would be an improved version of the BoI while the manpower to the new authority would be roughly 363.

The cabinet also endorsed a proposal for transferring fund allocated by the government for meeting the salaries, allowances and other related expenditures of the officers and employees of the offices handed over to Upazila Parishad under the Upazila Parishad Act 1998.

The cabinet secretary said the initiative has been taken as part of the government's efforts to further ensure accountability of the offices as the government believes in the people's empowerment.

He said that the move would also enhance the accountability of the public servants of the offices transferred to the Upazila Parishad.

Besides, the Cabinet was also apprised of the participation of Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed in an informal meeting of the Commerce Ministers from a number of important WTO member countries held in Paris on June 4 last.

Ministers and state ministers concerned attended the meeting, while the secretaries concerned were present.

Source: BSS