The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE government is reportedly working on restructuring of the Board of Investment to enhance its 'capacity' to attract local and foreign investment. The move was taken earlier this year in the wake of a sharp decline in the number of proposals forwarded to the investment board by local and overseas entrepreneurs. As per BoI statistics, foreign and domestic investment proposals dipped more than 55 per cent in the period between January and November 2007 and lack of investors' confidence was largely blamed for the slump. The investment board that now works under the Chief Adviser's office lacks institutional authority to promote strategic investment. The investment board has meantime prepared its 'citizens'charter' in line with the government's recent initiative to do so for bringing dynamism to various public sector institutions. In the future formation of the board, more private sector people would be inducted to change its public sector bias. Inclusion of private sector people alone, however, will not bring the required solution since dynamism of the private sector and institutional experience of the public sector are required to run the board efficiently. The initiators of the restructuring move believe that either 'individual charisma' or 'role of the Bangladesh's missions abroad' contributed to past successes in having foreign and domestic investments.

A strategic vision and action plan is now under active consideration of the government to give the BoI a new sense of direction. The investment board under the existing structure cannot study why an investor comes or shies away. Also the board cannot carry out most of the functions because the authority to accomplish those are vested in other agencies of the government. A lot of suggestions, sermons and rhetorics are, obviously, there in the charter for restructuring, but hardly there has been any binding obligation for those in the board to follow.