Starting a business, still a struggle

The amount of red-tape standing in the way of starting a business in our country is seriously hurting the economy as it continues to detract much-needed foreign and domestic investment. As this newspaper reported yesterday, an investor needs up to a year to get approvals from 42 desks of different government offices to start a business. When the cost in terms of time is so high, it is not difficult to connect the dots and see why Bangladesh is placed 177th among 190 economies on the "ease of doing business" ranking.

Recognising this problem, a special government cabinet last year approved the One-Stop Service Act 2017 to give investors 16 types of services faster and under one roof. Lawmakers, however, took 10 whole months to approve the proposed law—which again illustrated how business and investment are being hampered by bureaucracy.

Unfortunately, the law is yet to come into effect even after the approval because of poor progress by government agencies in developing their own capacity to provide businesses with faster services. And what is worse is that all of these are happening despite the fact that Bangladesh is still severely struggling to attract foreign direct investment even compared to its neighbours, and at a time when businesses in large numbers are looking for new countries to invest in.

At such a crucial stage of its development period, the country can ill afford to miss out on both foreign and domestic investment. Thus, we urge the government to address this issue on a priority basis.