Dr. Akbar Ali Khan, Chairman, Regularity Reforms Commission addressing at the question and answer session on "Regulatory Reforms Commission - The Hope and Aspiration of the Business Community"
International Business Forum of Bangladesh (IBFB) felt the necessity that the newly formed Regulatory Reforms Commission (RRC) should open up in front of the business community so that the business community can express their hope and aspiration openly for strengthening the acts of RRC to unlock the areas of intervention.
Keep this in mind, a question and answer session was organized on December 13, 2007 with the presence of RRC Chairman Dr. Akber Ali Khan and the business community representatives with an aim to openly discuss the issues that need to be reformed in priority basis to create a business enabling environment in the country for overall economic growth of the country. Amongst the others the Chairman of Political Science of Dhaka University, former Vice Chairman of FBCCI, First Secretary, Economic & Political Affairs of US Embassy, IIFC Managing Director, EVP of Islami Bank Ltd, ED of AMCHAM, business journalist, business community leaders and the member of IBFB were present They also openly discuss the challenges they are facing and conveyed their reforms expectation to the RRC Chairman that would expedite the business growth in the country. IBFB President Mahmudul Islam Chowdhury facilitated the session.
Dr. Akbar Ali Khan, Chairman, Regularity Reforms Commission addressing at the question and answer session on "Regulatory Reforms Commission - The Hope and Aspiration of the Business Community"
The objective of the session was:
# To understand the structure, the role and future plan of Regulatory Reforms Commission to remove unnecessary business barriers
# To understand the hope and aspiration of the business community from the Regulatory Reforms Commission
# To suggest some intervention that the commission should undertake to improve the overall business environment of the country.
Dr. Akber Ali Khan appealed to the business community to forward their suggestions directly to help the commission to act on the important issues in priority basis.
The followings recommendations came out from the discussion :
1. The reforms decision of the Regulatory Reforms Commission should be made to the public in regular basis so that it will put pressure on the Govt. to act accordingly.
2. More sectoral studies to be done to reform the existing regulations so that they will be supported by evidence.
3. While proposing reformed regulations to the Govt. proper authority, more consultation to be done with different sectoral representative to make it more representative.
4. The priority should go to reform business regulations that hinder business growth as business is the engine for growth. The existing systems should be made more business friendly.
5. There should be more accountability in legislation as most of the legislation missed accountability and parliamentary control. Therefore there should be less bureaucratic control in the legislations.
6. All the regulations should be made open and transparent to the stakeholders so that they are well aware of the rules and regulations and their explanations/implications.
7. Rules and regulations should be made pre published to make it transparent and democratic and therefore to reduce the power of bureaucrats.
8. Regulatory Reforms Commission (RRC) should develop such a system so that the reformed regulations to be maintained and honored by the next elected Government.
9. The Commission should not be called as “ Regulator” rather “ Facilitator”
10. The RRC should not only focus on reforming in the non infrastructure side but also more regulatory reforms to be made in infrastructure side like: Telecom, DESA, Power & Energy, Roads, Ports.
11. Government should constitute separate Regulatory Commission for agriculture particularly in fertilizer, Roads and Ports as they are the vital sector for economic growth.
12. The “Rule of Silence is Consent” can be incorporated in respect of licensing and obtaining approval from the concerned authority in possible areas. That means if the administration fails to act within the prescribed time limit, in that case whether the beneficiaries can take that the permission is automatically granted from the respective authority.
13. The Bank Companies Act should be made in English as lot of investors in this financial sector is overseas investors.
14. RRC should address the high fees on the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) for obtaining permission for public issues, right issues and increase of companies’ capital.
15. The RRC should give immediate attention of reforms the rules and regulations for unnecessary income tax harassment for tax evasion.
