Four major tasks of Board of Investment (BoI) - registration, visa, work permit and setting up liaison offices - will be fully automated from March next aiming to help investors get services quickly.
At present, only registration is done under the automated system, but other jobs are carried out manually which take enough time, said BoI Joint Secretary Tauhidur Rahman.
"But after March 1, no one has to wait for a long to get services as all these will be available online."
Under the automated system, the prospective investors will be able to complete all the procedures just within a day, he said, adding that earlier, it took them three months.
The online platform will enable the investors to complete the entire registration process, including submission of application for visas and work permits, attaching documents, tracking status, providing interactive feedback and seeking approval, without visiting the BoI office or using an intermediary.
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is helping the BoI make the organisation fully automated to simplify the whole investment registration procedures and relevant services for local and foreign investors.
The BoI introduced the online registration system in December 2010 and brought the visa system under the automation process in October last while work permit and setting up of branches and liaison offices will be brought under the new system by this month.
The BOI has already completed all necessary preparations to bring all the four services under full automation within this month and hopes to switch over to the new system by March 1.
Automation of three other services - foreign borrowing, Import Registration Certificates (IRC) and amendment to necessary rules and regulation - is also going on in full swing and likely to be completed by June, 2016.
"We have to update the IRC system with inclusion of about 6,787 HS codes in accordance with international standards," said another official who hoped to complete it within a stipulated timeframe.
The IRC contains the full details of raw materials with their specifications. Foreign investors, especially those from Japan, are continuously pressing for simplifying the IRC system that requires a lot of documents.
The BoI is also working to bring the foreign borrowing under full automated system with a view to making it easier for investors as foreign loans are significantly cost-effective for entrepreneurs.
For foreign loans, borrowers have to pay London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) plus a 4.5 per cent interest, meaning the total cost would be around 5 per cent which is almost one-third of local borrowing costs.
Bangladeshi companies started taking foreign loans on a small scale in 2010. Now local enterprises, be it apparel, telecoms, power plant, pharmaceutical or cement, are borrowing from foreign markets. According to BoI sources, the entrepreneurs have so far received more than US$ 5 billion loans from foreign banks.
As per the Investment Board Act-1989, the BoI was established to promote and facilitate investment in the private sector both from domestic and overseas sources.
mzrbd@yahoo.com
BoI to automate key services from Mar
Ziaur Rahman | Published: February 18, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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