Govt committed to implement high-impact regulatory reforms

Staff Correspondent: Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi yesterday said the government is committed to implementing high-impact regulatory reforms such as streamlining the existing company registration process and reducing administrative costs in the procedures.
“The examples of Singapore and Malaysia that have shown remarkable success in simplifying the company registration process, reducing the time to register a company to less than one hour. The Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) of Bangladesh has undergone several reforms and digitalized the registration process, but still, there is room for improvement for which collaboration of both the public and private sector is required,” he said.
The minister said this while speaking at a webinar on “Streamlining Company Registration Process in Bangladesh” as chief guest, said a press release.
The meeting was organized by Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) in collaboration with The Feed the Future Bangladesh Improving Trade and Business Enabling Environment supported by USAID.
BUILD Chairperson Abul Kasem Khan commenced the program by thanking the commerce minister for taking the lead in modernising the company act.
RJSC has digitized the registration process along with other services, he said. He mentioned that BUILD is presenting a survey conducted jointly with ‘The Feed the Future Bangladesh Improving Trade and Business Enabling Environment’ supported by USAID containing recommendations to reduce the time and costs in the company registration process.
BUILD CEO Ferdaus Ara Begum delivered the keynote presentation on ‘Removing Time, Cost and Process related Bottlenecks in Company Registration in Bangladesh’.
She presented the findings of the survey conducted during March-April, 2021 on the companies registered in the country in the past two years.
She said that new and inexperienced applicants spent more hours to obtain information on RJSC registration, thus taking 8 days to complete it which is supposed to be finished within 3 days.
Ferdaus Ara highlighted bottlenecks like manual intervention in preparing documents, consulting with 3rd parties, paying bank fees, etc.
The study found that RJSC registration requires 89 percent of 3rd party engagement and thus cost enhances up to 49.22 percent, she added.
Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh mentioned that while a remarkable number of reforms have been made, more needs to be done.
The officials must work hard to reduce the number of days for the procedure, while the cost is bearable, he added.
To avail the benefit of automation, he said, every applicant should be accustomed to the online process. The RJSC should ensure that any 3rd party can’t pose any obstacle in the smooth process.