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Bangladesh Better Business Forum

Overview
The Bangladesh Better Business Forum was announced by the Chief kdviscr on 6 September 200"’ and established in November 2007, as a broad platform for dialogue between the public and private sectors of Bangladesh, incorporating high level representation from the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the private sector. It is chaired by the Chief Adviser, (Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, and is composed of 1" members from the Government and 22 members drawn from the private sector and civil society
Hie Bangladesh Better Business Forum (BBBF) is an unprecedented • • - . ‘ recommendations for policy regulator,
organizing apparatus for partnership between the public and private sectors in Bangladesh It aims to implement reforms to improve the business environment. Ihe BBBF planned to achieve concrete results in the shortterm through ministerial action, and a pragmatic and focused approach was taken, knowing that certain long-term reforms would require legislative action
The BBBF seeks to brand a stronger Bangladesh to foreign investors and to improve the overall business climate in this country with short-term high-value policy decisions, also initiating long-term structural improvements in a various areas that affect doing business. The result should be an increase in business activity, investment, domestic demand and well-being by-building up local enterprises.
The BBBF seeks progress and solutions through building a coalition of partners in national development among a broad range of relevant stakeholders, rather than capture and con-frontation. Stakeholder consultation has brought in a diverse range of interests and views to the table. Ihe stakeholder process was based on a sufficiently broad balance of interests to give the BBBF recommendations the economic and social support their needs. It focused on priorities, and delivering time-bound and workable action plans. Recommendations cut across government jurisdictions with the aim of unifying the government behind a common set of goals.
How it works
Ihe BBBF is composed of 5 working groups, which are co-chaired by and composed of senior Government and private sector representatives. Ihe Working Groups focus on 5 broad thematic areas related to private sector development - Business Finance, Infrastructure, Macroeconomic Policy, Business Entry’ and Operations and Skills Development. These Working Groups prepare and submit detailed
ry, institutional or infrastructural reforms to the plenary session, which prioritizes them for implementation. The BBBF is supported by a Secretariat based at the Board of Investment.
Progress
To date, the BBBF Working Groups have met a total of 40 times and submitted a total of 249 recommenda- Ilea 9WBl3ftBH rn-'’ ■
lions, of which 113 have been approved for implementation. Out of these, 52 recommendations have already been implemented, whereas the remaining 61 arc under implementation.
Business Entry and Operations Salient reforms include the following: RJSCF to computerize company registration process, City corporations to simplify trade license issuance; NBR to provide VAT certificates online and expedited VAT registration; discontinue duplication of data submission for VAT and TIN certificates; setting publicprivate monitoring cells in all customs houses; all customer applications should get receipts and timeframe for approvals; for food production or similar business, health divisions of the city corporations must provide certificates within three (03) day’s.
Business Finance
Salient reforms include the following: Accounting audits of business enter-
prises by’ accredited accounting firms only, take punitive action against fraudulent audits; Bangladesh Bank (BB) to advise all commercial banks and financial institutions (FI) to reduce and rationalize their interest rate, L/C, and other fees charges so that the weighted average spread is less the 5.00%; BB to secure Bangladesh sovereign country rating; BB and Ministry of Commerce to include clear guidelines on exports imports of Services in the Export Import Policy. Use of Incoterms’ in international trade; BB has already implemented guidelines for cpmpiodity and currency hedging: BB to rationalize all government forms related to imports and exports.
Skills Development
Salient reforms include the following: enhanced coordination between public and private sector TVET institutes; Training of Teachers (TOT) programmes by internationally certified master trainers; comprehensive orientation training of would-be migrant workers; English and IT proficiency training; develop practical microentrepreneurship skills and SME skills: Convert boards of BLM. BTRI, and PDU to 50 50 public-private partnership; establish a national HRD fond: formulate a National Policy on skills development and vocational training; allocate a higher percentage of the national budget on TVET.
Infrastructure
This working group, in consultation and partnership with the respective line ministries, made ll” recommendations originally, including 25 related "We will not allow this forum to become a talking shop. We shall rather emphasize result-onented decisions and output. Elaborate mechanisms will be put in place to monitor the implementation of our decisions."
Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed
Chief Adviser
to the ICT sector, and 90 related to the energy sector, physical infrastructure development such as roads and highways. communications, etc.
Macroeconomic Policy
Salient reforms include: Restructuring of the Board of Investment for greater efficiencies; NBR will ensure that import duty on raw materials is lower than finished goods in every industry, and provide facilities to publicly listed companies to plough back profits into industry; and many more
For more information, or to provide feedback to the BBBF directly, please visit our website at http://www. bbbf.org.bd