Improve ease of doing business

Bangladesh should focus on creating an effective business-friendly environment and improving the ease of doing business in the country, top businesses said in a virtual discussion yesterday.

"The ease of doing business is essential to reduce the cost of business as global trade is getting more competitive," said Rizwan Rahman, president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).

After the United Nations status graduation in 2026, Bangladesh will lose most of the preferential trade benefits, which may hurt the country's competitive export market, he said at the event.

Given these circumstances, it is high time to address the bottlenecks, reduce time, process and cost in all criteria of the doing business and streamline the entire process towards lifting the indicators of the index, he added. The Dhaka chamber organised the event on the "Current reforms in the ease of doing business in Bangladesh and preparedness for the future".

The ease of doing business is a big thing, said Sirazul Islam, executive chairman of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (Bida), as the chief guest.

"We would not like to mainly focus on scoring high. Rather, we are trying to create a business-friendly environment. Some of the reforms have already been brought about by the government, through the coordination of the Bida," he said.

He, therefore, requested the private sector to take note of the reforms and reports based on facts.

Bida needs to be strengthened more, he said, adding, "If you have any observation on the reforms made, you can tell us."

"Investors always want to know the ranking before making any investment and in that context we need to improve in the ranking," said Md Billal Hossain, additional secretary to Bida.

He requested businesspeople to get to know more about the reforms.

Jibon Krishna Saha Roy, director of Bida, gave a presentation where he highlighted the reforms already brought about by the government. Asif Ibrahim, chairman of Chittagong Stock Exchange, also spoke.