The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

The Board of Investment (BOI) needs to be urgently restructured with enough skilled and proactive functionaries to make it an efficient organization capable to deal with fast changing global investment perspectives.

BOI executive chairman Kamaluddin Ahmed emphasised the point for reforming the country’s major investment promotion agency in talks with BSS on Thursday and said a new initiative is underway to reorganise the body.

He said the agency is still having its age old organogram and moreover, running short of manpower, least to speak about recruitment of new generation graduates having state of the art knowledge in business management and investment promotion activities.

Above all, the agency’s board of management needs strengthening, and departmental activities redefined in the changing context in domestic trade and investment and inflow foreign direct investment (FDI) to new business.

He said the restructuring of the agency is under process now by a specially set up committee. It held several meetings in recent past and several reform proposals would be presented to the Chief Adviser soon.

He would chair the forthcoming meeting of the BOI to consider the proposals. Kamaluddin Ahmed said, “in the globalised world attracting FDI is a major issue and it requires presentation of the country’s case in highly professional way.”

“Reforming BOI is very important in this context,” he said adding “the agency is looking forward to launching a new initiative called 'invest Bangladesh’ programme.”

The BOI will line up specialised manpower to present the package to overseas investors, he said adding only few developing countries offer such attractive investment package.

He said the country has good investment laws, highly skilled manpower and low cost workers to produce goods at competitive price. These are matters for investors’ genuine interest in making investment decisions, he added.

But it remained largely compromised now not only by poor projection of the country’s investment profile but also from insufficient infrastructure facilities such as shortage of gas and electricity. The political climate also need to be further encouraging, he emphasized. He blamed a neglect of the capacity building of the agency keeping pace with the changing time although it stands at the centre of the nation’s investment promotion activities from home and abroad.

In the first place, it remained handicapped, he said under an old law and its functionaries, especially the top functionary remained highly constrained by many restricting rules and regulations to play a pro-active role in mobilising efforts to reach investors and bring them down.

The agency should have an autonomous status, he said like the NBR to take promotional activities. Its capacity building, moreover, needs urgent attention, he said giving a bleak picture of its manpower; where scores of post are falling vacant while most in-service personnel closing retirement.

He said most functionaries in the agency work on 'current charge’ from lower posts. Eight assistant directors are working on current charge promoted from lower ranks. Out of three directors one is sick. Most deputy directors are also functioning on current charge.

A working paper on restructuring of the agency said, out of 68 post of first class officers in the present organogram, only 28 are in place and 50 percent of them are on deputation. Out of 319 post in the third grade, 205 are vacant. Of the 108 posts in the fourth grade, only 42 are in place.

Kamaluddin Ahmed said, the organization needs new set up, new recruits and new outlook to make it an effective body capable to deliver goods in the complex global investment climate. There was no recruitment in the BOI over the last 20 years, he added.

He said the present reform initiative is working towards achieving that goal.