BoI functioning sans executive chairman
Friday, 2 November 2007
Doulot Akter Mala
The Board of Investment (BoI) is functioning without its head for the past 10 days following a major reshuffle in the civil administration.
The post of the BoI executive chairman remained vacant since the transfer of Mohammad Mohsin as secretary to the energy ministry through the reshuffle on October 18. Five top bureaucrats were changed from their positions under the move.
In the order, the government made replacements in all the positions excepting the executive chairman of the BoI.
BoI officials are now in a state of confusion in the absence of the executive chairman as the meeting with the Chief Adviser scheduled for November 8 is approaching. The meeting is due to discuss overall investment scenario, sources said.
The BoI also has to postpone board meetings due to absence of its chief, BoI insiders said.
A significant decline in registration of investment proposals has already worried the BoI officials as both local and foreign investors are adopting wait and see approach, they said.
Bangladesh received US$ 792 million foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2006, 6.0 per cent less than that of 2005, according the World investment Report-2007.
In 2005, the actual FDI inflow was $845 million, the highest ever in a single year.
BoI insiders feared that this year investment might decline sharply because of an adverse affect of last year's political turmoil and sluggish trend of registration of new investment proposals.
Registration of investment proposals, both foreign and local, declined by about 30 per cent in the first nine months of calendar 2007.
The Board of Investment (BoI) is functioning without its head for the past 10 days following a major reshuffle in the civil administration.
The post of the BoI executive chairman remained vacant since the transfer of Mohammad Mohsin as secretary to the energy ministry through the reshuffle on October 18. Five top bureaucrats were changed from their positions under the move.
In the order, the government made replacements in all the positions excepting the executive chairman of the BoI.
BoI officials are now in a state of confusion in the absence of the executive chairman as the meeting with the Chief Adviser scheduled for November 8 is approaching. The meeting is due to discuss overall investment scenario, sources said.
The BoI also has to postpone board meetings due to absence of its chief, BoI insiders said.
A significant decline in registration of investment proposals has already worried the BoI officials as both local and foreign investors are adopting wait and see approach, they said.
Bangladesh received US$ 792 million foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2006, 6.0 per cent less than that of 2005, according the World investment Report-2007.
In 2005, the actual FDI inflow was $845 million, the highest ever in a single year.
BoI insiders feared that this year investment might decline sharply because of an adverse affect of last year's political turmoil and sluggish trend of registration of new investment proposals.
Registration of investment proposals, both foreign and local, declined by about 30 per cent in the first nine months of calendar 2007.