The government has formulated rules to provide 23 types of required services from a central authority for the country's eight export processing zones under BEPZA, officials said.
The Prime Minister's Office on June 25 issued a gazette notification on the 'one stop service (Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority - BEPZA) rules 2019'.
The services to be provided are related to visa, work permit, company registration, trade license, tax related registration, certificates related to environment, explosive, fire fighting and release of export-import goods, containers and cargo, tax and duty, narcotic licence, utility including gas and electricity connections, banking and acid transportation.
The services would be provided within a certain time - one day to highest 30 days, according to the rules.
According to the rules, a central one stop service (OSS) authority would be formed that would formulate standard operating procedures.
The proposed authority would render required services to regional OSS centres and focal points, define their activities and monitor them, it said.
BEPZA would develop an OSS portal to provide the required services, it said.
When asked, BEPZA general manager (public relation) Nazma Binte Alamgir said the move would help provide all the investment related services under one umbrella not only related to BEPZA but also others like customs, NBR and environment.
It would help simplify doing business procedures, reduce cost of doing business and also attract investments in the country, she said.
"Once we can provide all the relevant services from one umbrella, it would help attract more investments," she noted.
She, however, opined that the investors would enjoy benefit of the one stop service once all the concerned authorities or agencies work with same pace and provide their services within the set timeframe.
BEPZA currently provides a good number of services related to export-import activities, work permit and others while it pursues for other relevant services to the agencies concerned, she noted.
A total of 456 industries are operating in the country's eight EPZs that has created employment for some 0.51 million people, according to BEPZA officials.
About US$ 4.99 billion have been invested till May 2019, they said, adding that export earnings from the zones stood at $ 7.02 billion during July-May period of the fiscal year 2018-19, according to BEPZA.
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