A single person can float a limited company

The formation of a company will no longer require a minimum of two persons as per a new provision, a major breakthrough expediting entrepreneur development and the ease of doing business in the country.

The cabinet yesterday approved in principle a draft Company (Amendment) Act 2018 where a provision has been included enabling a single person to establish a company on one's own.

After the cabinet meeting, Cabinet Secretary Shafiul Alam told reporters that the existing law allows a company to be floated by more than one person and a maximum of 50 persons. He said this was a new concept and development of entrepreneurship would become easier once the company act is amended.

There are such provisions in laws of different countries but Bangladesh lacked any such law, he said, adding that New Zealand's population is only 50 lakh, but it has 10 lakh small companies.

Bangladesh ranked 176th out of 190 countries—the lowest for a South Asian nation—in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business index this year, according to the report published on October 30.

Alam said the government's target was to bring the ranking to a double digit in the next five years.

The Washington-based multilateral lender's Doing Business report, which is published every year, sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-sized business when complying with relevant regulations. The cabinet also gave the final nod to a draft of the Bangladesh Film and Television Institution (Amendment) Act 2018. Moreover, it okayed a proposal for changing the name of “National Information and Communication Technology Day” observed on December 12 to “Digital Bangladesh Day”.