Beza fares better
Australia's TIC Group had set up a factory in Bangladesh to produce garment hangers with an initial investment of $10 million in the Meghna Industrial Economic Zone at Meghnaghat in Narayanganj in 2018. The facility went into commercial production in February 2019.
Since then, the company has taken all kinds of services through One Stop Service platform of the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (Beza).
"Without any hassles, we have taken necessary services regarding export, import permit, environment clearance certificate and so on," Mohammad Rafiquzzman, a local contact of TIC Group, recently told The Daily Star.
Shah Muhammad Ashequr Rahman, head of finance and commercial of Bangladesh Honda Private Limited (BHL), said the company had obtained trade licences, environment renewal certificates, export-import permission, work permits and visa assistance through the online service of OSS.
"We have made payments online and got everything in time and without any hassles," he said.
Rahman appreciated the OSS of Beza, saying his company did not need a middleman or face any bureaucratic hassle.
"Beza's OSS saves time and money in delivering services which the investors expect from public service entities," he noted.
Rahman believes that the OSS will help attract foreign investors. The Daily Star contacted around 20 companies, including multinationals and local conglomerates that expressed satisfaction over the quick response from the OSS.
The Beza is providing services to investors through its OSS platform as part of its efforts to improve the ease of doing business.
It offers 48 services of different public and private service providers under the platform, ensuring easy access to information, application processing and other facilities required by investors at home and abroad.
By improving Bangladesh's ranking on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index, the Beza hopes to attract more investment for the economic zones.
According to OSS rules, entrepreneurs investing in the economic zones are scheduled to receive all types of trade and investment services from various government agencies within 45 working days of their application.
Paban Chowdhury, executive chairman of the Beza, said the economic zones are especially designed to draw investment.
The OSS will improve the ease of doing business situation, which will be reflected in the World Bank's index, he said.
Chowdhury said it was compulsory for 25 investment facilitating agencies and regulatory authorities to give registration, issue clearance and permits and offer other documents within 45 days.
The Beza has set up a separate desk for the OSS at its office, where one responsible official from each service provider has been posted to deal with the applicants.
The agency announced the official inauguration of the OSS Centre on October 21, 2019.
As of December 31 last year, the OSS has delivered a total of 10,721 services in different categories. Of them, the OSS has delivered 58 project clearances, 7,910 import permits, 1,514 export permits, 788 visa recommendations, 45 visa assistance, 342 work permits, 47 trade licences, eight land use plans, one commercial operation permission, and eight project registrations.
Under the OSS rule, businesses are scheduled to get gas and electricity connection in seven days and 14 days respectively.
The Special Branch of the police get 45 days to submit a report on security clearance. Investors are scheduled to get investment registration in seven days and investment clearance in 20 days.
The Office of Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms has to give clearance in a single day and issue the certificate of incorporation in a week.
The rule says land registration and issuance of registration documents have to be completed in five days. The Department of Environment is scheduled to issue clearance certificates in one week to 30 days, depending on the types of factories.
Green factories will get clearance within a week while highly polluting industries will have to wait up to 30 days to get environmental clearance, according to the rule.
Investors receive clearance for land use, construction and approval for design of buildings within 30 days. They get approval from the Fire Service and Civil Defence office on fire safety in 30 days and get licences on fire safety in 15 days.
The Beza issues work permits within nine days.
The Bangladesh Bank is scheduled to give the nod to profit and dividend repatriation in 10 days.
According to the rule, investors in the economic zones are getting various documents, namely tax and VAT registration certificates, import and export permits, customs clearance and the country of origin certificate in a day.
"There is no pending applicant who is yet to get services after providing supporting documents," the Beza executive chairman said.