Starting a business in Bangladesh: foreigner's guide (2026)

A government economic taskforce submitted a report to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus proposing a permanent Regulatory Reform Commission (RRC) to continuously audit and streamline rules affecting business operations, taxation, and trade. The proposal specifically targets discretionary powers at the NBR and Customs as key structural barriers to starting and running a business.

The World Bank's inaugural Business Ready (B-READY) report — replacing the discontinued Ease of Doing Business index — ranked Bangladesh 29th among 50 assessed economies. Bangladesh received 74/100 in Business Entry (one of its strongest topics) but scored only 41.64 in Public Services, indicating that while the legal entry framework has improved, service delivery for new businesses remains weak.

Following the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus assumed power and announced removal of Bangladesh Bank pre-approval requirements for foreign-currency transfers — a longstanding barrier to foreign investment entry. Proposals to integrate BIDA, BEZA, BEPZA, and Hi-Tech Parks into a single investment gateway were also put forward.

The Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) began accepting OPC registrations, operationalising the Companies (Second Amendment) Act 2020. For the first time, a single individual could incorporate a limited-liability entity in Bangladesh — a significant reduction in the minimum threshold for formal business entry.

Parliament amended the Companies Act 1994 to introduce the One Person Company (OPC) — a corporate form common in the UK, India, and Singapore — allowing a single natural person to hold 100 % of shares with full limited liability. This was the most substantive reform to company formation law since 1994 and directly lowered the barrier to formal entrepreneurship.

The government issued the One Stop Service (Bangladesh Investment Development Authority) Rules 2020, giving secondary-legislation force to the OSS Act 2018. BIDA signed MoUs with 11 further institutions — including BSCIC — to integrate trade licences, environmental clearances, and fire safety certificates into the single portal, targeting over 140 services from 47 agencies.

Parliament enacted the One Stop Service Act 2018, providing the statutory foundation for a single-window business licensing regime. The Act designated BIDA, BEZA, BEPZA, and BHTPA as OSS authorities and mandated that all investment-related approvals, permits, and clearances be deliverable through unified centres — the most ambitious regulatory simplification law in Bangladesh's post-independence history.

The Bangladesh Investment Development Authority Act 2016 merged the Board of Investment (BoI) and the Privatization Commission into a single apex investment promotion agency. BIDA became the institutional anchor for all subsequent OSS and business-registration reforms, and the entity foreign investors now interact with first when entering Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's first standalone investment protection statute guaranteed foreign investors freedom from nationalisation and expropriation, permitted full repatriation of capital and profits, and extended national treatment. For over four decades it served as the primary statutory signal to foreign entrepreneurs considering entry into Bangladesh, though it is now widely criticised as too thin for modern FDI.