Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) is preparing to integrate 23 more new services to its online One-Stop Service (OSS) portal in an effort to facilitate investment in the country.
The new services include land use clearance, e-mutation, fire licence, security clearance, new electricity connection and, environment and environmental clearance certificate.
To this effect, the BIDA will ink memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 10 government agencies responsible for the services.
This was revealed at a virtual meeting of BIDA with representatives from different organisations on Thursday, according to a statement. It said BIDA executive chairman Md Sirazul Islam, Housing and Public Works secretary Md. Shahid Ullah Khandaker and other officials from respective organisations joined the meeting.
"Online services are an urgent priority, especially considering the COVID-19 pandemic. Our stakeholders in the private sector have been communicating their needs for faster, more transparent and digital services," said the BIDA chief. He also said that out of these 10 authorities, six have already prepared their application programming interface (API).
BIDA's new partners will be the Ministry of Land, RAJUK, Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, Department of Environment, Bangladesh Fire Service & Civil Defence, Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC), Northern Electricity Supply Company Limited, West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited, Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) and the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries (DCCI).
Currently, BIDA has 12 MoUs for services integration with the organisations including the Registrar of the Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC), the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Sonali Bank and the Election Commission Secretariat.
According to the statement, the country's first inter-operable online service platform the BIDA OSS now provides 18 services.
BIDA's goal is to integrate as many as 154 services from 35 agencies with technical support from International Finance Corporation (IFC), it added.
