The cabinet on Monday approved, in principle, the draft of “The Bangladesh Investment Development Authority Law, 2015” with a view to setting up a new authority by merging the Board of Investment (BoI) and the Privatisation Commission. The approval came through a regular cabinet meeting held at Secretariat in the capital with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. As per the decision, the BoI and Privatisation Commission will be merged into Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) to boost investment and industrialisation in the country. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said that a new authority titled “Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA)” would be established abolishing together the BoI and the Privatisation Commission after initiation of the law. “The BIDA would help boost investment in the country and ensure proper use of unused lands of the public sector industries,” he said. As per the proposal of the draft law, all officials and employees working under the two bodies — the BoI and the Privatisation Commission — will be transferred to BIDA. The assets and liabilities of the BoI and the Privatisation Commission would also be owned by the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority. About the structure of the new authority, Bhuiyan said a 17-member governing board of the BIDA would be formed with the Prime Minister as its chairman and the finance minister as its vice-chairman. “The ministers of the ministries concerned like Commerce, Industries, Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and Land would be the members of the board,” he said. The cabinet secretary said the chief executive officer of the BIDA would be its executive chairman who will also be a member of its governing board. “As per the proposed law, the authority would conduct registration of the industries to be set up in private sector and the foreign trade liaison branch offices for making investment in the country,” he said. It was learnt that investment proposals under the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA), Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA), private EPZ, BSCIC and Hi-Tech Parks would remain outside the purview of the BIDA. The cabinet secretary said the BoI has been functioning in the country under the Board of Investment Act, 1989 with a current manpower of 293. “The Privatisation Commission was formed earlier as a board in 1993 and later turned into a commission in 2000 through the Privatisation Act, 2000. The total manpower of the commission is now 70,” he informed. On Monday, the cabinet also approved a proposal for transferring fund allocated by the government for meeting the salaries, allowances and other related expenditures of the officers and employees of the offices handed over to Upazila Parishad under the Upazila Parishad Act 1998. Bhuiyan said the government has taken the initiative as part of its efforts to further ensure accountability of the offices as the government believes in people’s empowerment. The cabinet secretary said the move will also enhance the accountability of the public servants of the offices transferred to the Upazila Parishad.
