BD fails to attract investments due to licence issuance hitch

Bangladesh has failed to attract fresh foreign and joint venture investments in several commercial service sectors due to the problem of licence issuance.
In the last 18 months a good number of willing investors went back as they failed to get licences in shipping, airlines, logistics, travel and some other sectors.
The problem of issuance and renewal of licenses both for fresh and existing investors was caused by a High Court (HC) rule nisi in October 2012. Businesspersons expressed their surprise and frustration that the government did not move legally in this regard in the last 18 months, sources said.
The High Court issued a rule nisi against a writ petition filed by an individual in October 2012.
In the writ petition one Mirza Walid Hossain said the government had failed to implement the directives of the Board of Investment (BoI) in allowing both foreign and joint venture investments in some commercial service based sectors.
It said the BoI in 2005 issued directives discouraging cent per cent foreign or joint venture companies in local commercial service based industries particularly in shipping, logistics, airlines, travel agencies and few other sectors.
But a local representative in a cent per cent foreign-owned logistics company said as per gazette notification published in 2008 cent per cent foreign and joint investments are allowed.
The High Court issued the rule nisi against the writ petition and sent letters to different ministries and departments to stop providing licences.
Logistics, shipping, airlines, distribution, travel agencies and some other sectors were specially mentioned in the writ petition that in these sectors the officials were not maintaining proper rules.
As per the rule nisi, some government organisations like Bangladesh Bank, Dhaka Customs House and other ministries and departments stopped issuing licences for fresh foreign and joint venture investments in these sectors.
Different business sources said the writ was filed against government's secretaries and head of different departments.
They said the government did not move in this regard in the last 18 months. So within this time no new fresh investments took place in these commercial service based sectors.
They said in the national interest the government should put in some effort to solve the problem legally through the High Court.
A local investor who wanted to open a joint venture shipping company said, "I was really frustrated when I came to learn that a legal problem is lingering in the court for 18 months."
He said in the greater interest of the country such a problem should not remain idle for months in the court.
The local agent of a foreign shipping company said, "My own company faced trouble when I went to renew the licence."
He said, "With huge amount of labour and collecting papers from different places finally we got temporary renewal under the court's order for the time being."