Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (Bida) yesterday signed five memoranda of understanding (MoU) to deliver 17 more dedicated services on its website to fast facilitate investors with necessities to implement their projects.

The MoUs were inked with the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, Directorate of Registration, Dhaka WASA, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company and Jalalabad Gas Transmission and Distribution System at the Bida auditorium in Dhaka.

Launched on February 24 in 2019, Bida's One Stop Service (OSS) web portal had been providing 41 information-related services until now.

The dedicated services are all part of ongoing reforms for Bangladesh to rise to a double-digit spot from the current three-digit one in the World Bank's ease of doing business index.

Bangladesh had first advanced one place to take up the 176th position in the 2019 assessment before making a jump to become 168th among 190 countries in the 2020 index.

Addressing the signing ceremony, Bida Executive Chairman Md Sirazul Islam urged the service providers to bring a change to their "authoritative mindset" when providing service to investors.

He said investors were playing an important role in developing the economy while the government organisations were solely providing policy support to promote them.

"Bida is dedicated to providing an effective and efficient One Stop Service as part of its overall effort to simplify the processes investors must follow to do business in Bangladesh," said Islam.

"We are working closely with our partners to achieve the target of delivering 154 services of 35 agencies through the One Stop Service," he added.