B Mirror Report: The Bangladesh Investment Development Authority has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with five private commercial banks to expand its Online One Stop Service (OSS), aiming to simplify investment procedures and improve the country’s business environment.

The agreement was signed today at BIDA’s conference room in the capital, where Executive Member Air Commodore Md Shaharul Huda presided over the ceremony.

In his remarks, Shaharul Huda said BIDA has been continuously strengthening the OSS platform to ensure faster, easier, and more modern services for investors. He added that the inclusion of five leading banks will allow investors to access essential banking services from a single platform.

The banks that joined the initiative are NCC Bank PLC, One Bank PLC, United Commercial Bank PLC, Shimanto Bank PLC, and Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC.

Under the agreement, investors will be able to open bank accounts online through the OSS portal, including temporary accounts for foreign investors.

Currently, the OSS platform offers 142 services and is integrated with 47 stakeholder agencies. So far, more than 215,000 applications have been processed through the system.

Officials said the addition of the five banks is expected to further expand service delivery. BIDA has already signed 68 MoUs with various service providers and plans to extend OSS services to over 150 services across 60 institutions in the coming years.

The authority is also working on developing “BanglaBiz,” a unified digital platform to integrate all investment promotion agencies under a single-window system.

At the beginning of the programme, Director (OSS & Data Analytics) Sunil Kumar Adhikari delivered the welcome speech, while a presentation on the OSS system was given by Director General Jiban Krishna Saha Roy.

Representatives from the participating banks also spoke at the event, highlighting the importance of digital banking integration for investment facilitation.