Dhaka: Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr. Ahsan H Mansur reiterated the central bank's commitment to foster investment by approving credible proposals promptly. He emphasized efforts to liberalize capital transactions, reform the investment regime, and ensure macroeconomic stability, which aim to instill confidence among investors in profitability and profit repatriation. The governor addressed these points while speaking at a webinar as the guest of honour. According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) hosted the second session of its 'State of Investment Climate' webinar series. Dr Mansur highlighted BIDA's commendable efforts to streamline the business environment, noting that Bangladesh Bank is actively participating in this process. He explained that profit or dividend repatriation no longer requires central bank permission, allowing banks to remit amounts within existing rules. Additionally, he mentioned aligning with BIDA to process small loan applicat ions directly through them, eliminating the need for central bank intervention. Dr Mansur further detailed initiatives to simplify hard loan sanctions, enhance offshore banking operations (OBU), and lift restrictions on fund transfers between OBUs and domestic banking units (DBUs). Earlier in the session, Executive Chairman of BIDA and BEZA, Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun, delivered a keynote address outlining steps to address challenges such as improving government service quality, ensuring policy consistency, enhancing industry consultations, and tackling resource access and corruption issues. Chowdhury highlighted an initiative led by the Chief Advisor, establishing a monthly forum of heads of investment promotion wings and key ministerial units to monitor progress in improving the investor experience. Chaired by Special Envoy Lutfi Siddiqui, this forum will adopt a whole-of-government approach to facilitate seamless, time-bound execution within existing laws and regulations. He also announced several collaborative reforms achieved by BIDA and Bangladesh Bank, including consolidating loan applications with IR hedge applications for efficiency, centralizing all types of loan applications for borrowers in economic zones (EZ), export processing zones (EPZ), and other designated areas, expanding the authority of Bangladesh Bank officials embedded in BIDA teams to swiftly resolve foreign loan applications, and extending the capital machinery usance term to three years. The webinar underscored Bangladesh's commitment to fostering an investor-friendly climate through time-bound reforms and collaborative governance.
