Cabinet moves to merge BoI, Privatisation Commission
The cabinet yesterday approved the draft of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority Act-2015 that will merge the Board of Investment (BoI) with the Privatisation Commission. A new entity -- Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) -- will be set up instead, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said.
He said BIDA is being formed to further expedite investment.
The decision was taken at the instruction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to speed up the work of the organisations and reduce bureaucratic tangles in implementing government decisions, said officials present at the meeting.
Hasina said she has to chair both the organisations' meetings, which wastes time, and the two organisations frequently lack coordination, according to the officials.
Making one organisation would help implement government decisions faster, she told the meeting. Her proposal was unanimously supported by the ministers and secretaries, they said.
The cabinet secretary said all assets and liabilities of BoI and the Privatisation Commission would be transferred to BIDA, and all the officials and employees of the two organisations would be posted under it as well.
A 17-member governing board would be formed, headed by the PM, where the finance minister would remain as vice chairman and concerned ministers will be members, he added.
Under the proposed law, BIDA will register the new private sector companies as well as the foreign trade liaison branch offices.
BIDA will issue 'no objection certificates', declare areas as industrial zones through gazette notifications, help authorities to acquire land, ensure efficient use of land, make a list of unused land and structures and frame a policy for their utilisation, and frame a guideline for allotment and transfer of plots, he said.
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