The government needs to develop integrated service system among its various institutions and enforce the laws and policies to improve regulatory delivery for the private sector, analysts have said.
They said although the country made significant improvement in the economic sector, there was a lot to be done in regulatory framework to achieve the goal of becoming a middle-income country by 2021.
They said these at the launch of a report "Agile Regulatory Delivery for Improved Investment Competiveness in Bangladesh (Current State and Policy Option)" by International Finance Corporation at Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel on Monday.
The report was co-authored by senior private sector specialist Miah Rahmat Ali, Lars Grava and senior economist M Mansur Reza.
"We have business-friendly laws and policies in the country but what we lack is the effective use of the laws. The economic sector is performing very good but there is lot of scope for improvement," said M Mansur Reza while presenting the report.
He said to attain the Vision 2021, the government needed to create another 2.2 million jobs.
"And these are not just jobs. We need quality and high paid jobs to attain the goal. The private sector needs to be facilitated for that," he said.
Mentioning the current state, Mansur said that the investment to GDP ratio was not up to the mark if compared to neighbouring countries and foreign direct investment was low.
"The matter of concern is that we don’t have export diversification, which is very important," he said.
Mia Rahmat Ali said that the dialogue between the government and private sector should be more efficient.
"We see the government holds dialogues with the private sector people, take their views but never explain the reason for accepting or rejecting any proposal," he mentioned.
He said complex process of availing government service and lack of coordination among different government authorities was a problem for the business to reach up to the expected level.
The report finds that inadequate capacity of the government officials hinders formulation, effective regulation and implementation of the policies.
"Sometimes for a single government permit it takes a very long time. Also the business sometime has to move door to door just to get information on how to submit the proposal," Ali said.
He suggested that the government should develop an integrated ICT-based model to deliver regulatory services.
In the panel discussion, World Bank Group program leader Yutaka Yoshino said the report covered almost all aspects of the government service delivery.
"Two aspects I felt should have been included — first, procurement and the second, access to finance," he said, noting that Bangladesh made a great progress in so many ways.
"To sustain this development we need to put emphasis on some aspects. The export base of the country is very narrow. FDI to GDP ratio is only 0.7% whereas in Vietnam the ratio is 6%. These things needed to be taken care of," he suggested.
Policy Research Institute Vice Chairman Sadiq Ahmed said the expansion of business was also a part of globalization.
"As the world is changing, we also need to update the government service delivery," he said.
Speaking as chief guest, Prime Minister's Advisor Salman Fazlur Rahman said that to boost the other export sectors like the garments industry, the government would provide tax and bonded warehouse facility.
IFC country manager for Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan Wendy Werner, Bangladesh Investment Development Authority Chairman Md Shirajul Islam, PRI Executive Director Ahsan H Mansur were also present at the event.
