Factory registration made easier with new website

Business Desk :
Factory owners have long said the process for registration is convoluted and complicated to the point of deterring people from ever setting up manufacturing industries.
Experts at a discussion said this adds to the lack of ease of doing business in Bangladesh. Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and German development agency GIZ jointly organized the discussion titled “Launching Web Portal on Setting up Factories, Licencing, Certification and Registration” in the capital on Sunday.
Entrepreneurs and investors taking part in the discussion expressed their dissatisfaction that it was challenging to search for necessary information and locate relevant offices to submit the documents for setting up factories.
The discussion was based on a CPD study on “Setting up a Factory in Bangladesh: Institutional, Operational and Legal Requirements in RMG, Pharmaceutical, Leather, and Food Processing Sector” conducted in collaboration with GIZ. One of the outcomes of this study is a well-designed web portal (factorysetupbd.com) that is expected to provide industrial enterprises all necessary information and establish a factory without much hassle.
The portal illustrates the process of acquiring permits, licences, certificates, and registration for setting up ready-made garment, pharmaceutical, food- processing and leather-processing factories.
CPD research director Khondaker Golam Moazzem said it was difficult to start a business in Bangladesh because of lack of information. “Although the information is available in the government offices, they are not organized, making the process time-consuming and tedious,” he added. “It is difficult for foreign organizations to start a business and set up a factory in Bangladesh because most of the information is inaccessible to them,” said Syed Moazzem Hossain, director of FBCCI. He said most of the information is in Bangla. “Since they are not available on one platform, foreign organizations spend months on licencing, registration and certification before establishing their businesses.”