Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the officials concerned to expedite the process to merge two state bodies - Board of Investment (BoI) and Privatisation Commission (PC), official sources said.
The process has been slow due to wide differences in opinions among high government officials.
Early last year, the government decided to merge the two autonomous bodies under the Prime Minister’s Office, and formed a seven-member committee to draft necessary laws on the merger.
The merger is aimed at reducing public expenditure and boosting efficiency in the organisations.
“Prime Minister at a recent Ecnec meeting ordered officials concerned to speed up the process of BoI and PC merger,” said an official, who was present at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec).
Since formation of the committee, the work for merger got stuck as there varying opinions among the PMO senior stakeholders regarding the matter, said another source at the Privatisation Commission.
The unified BoI and PC may be named “Bangladesh Investment and Industries Development Authority.”
For years, the two bodies have been known for their ineffectiveness. By amalgamating them the government would now try to see some positive outcomes.
The PC has long alleged that ministries and divisions concerned have never co-operated with it, making its function difficult.
Over the years, the Ministry of Finance took several attempts to close down the PC as per the directive of the Prime Minister’s Office. However, the ministry later changed its mind.
The foreign direct investment in Bangladesh, particularly in the industrial sector, has been very low for many years.
But both foreign and local investors have been increasingly frustrated over the very slow and inefficient services of the BoI.
The cabinet division issued a circular on April 30 last year for forming a seven-member merger proposal preparation committee headed by Additional Secretary M Mainuddin. The other six were from the PC, BoI, public administration division, Prime Minister’s Office and cabinet division.
According to the circular, the committee would enact a new law on merger of the two agencies, submit a report within three months and would prepare a coordinated administrative structure.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sent a letter to the cabinet division which said merger of the two agencies would be good for the development of the country’s investment and business sectors and asked the cabinet division to take necessary steps.
For long, there have differences between ministries and the PC regarding privatisation of state-owned enterprises under the ministries. The commission has always alleged that the ministries have never taken any initiative to ensure profits for the firms that have been making losses.
In 1993, the government formed the Privatisation Board which was turned into the Privatisation Commission in 2000. At present, a total of 70 officials and workers work at the commission.
The PC failed to make a fresh list of divestment of State-owned enterprises (SoEs) since 2009, although the government spent Tk17 crore annually, no public firms were divested during the period. It may also be noted that PC deposited more than Tk700 crore in the national exchequer since 1993.
PC’s works have been stuck because of non-cooperation from the ministries which have SoEs.
By now the cumulative loss of SoEs has stood at a huge sum. Other than reflection in the Economic Review of the Ministry of Finance, it has no visible effect and actions.
The BoI, on the other hand, was established in 1989 to draw increased volumes of local and foreign investments in the country. But many from the private sector have expressed their utter disappointment over the Board’s performance in attracting FDI.
BoI began its journey with 495 employees. Of them, 359 posts now lie vacant.
