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Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) has fully digitised its royalty payment approval service, reducing processing time from nearly two months to just seven to 10 working days through its One Stop Service (OSS) platform.
Officials said the move has made approval of royalty payments, technical assistance fees and outward remittances significantly easier, faster and more transparent for foreign investors operating in Bangladesh.
The online royalty service was formally launched in January 2026. Prior to digitisation, approval processing usually required one and a half to two months.
With the new automated system, workflow efficiency has increased almost sixfold while overall processing time has been reduced by nearly 83 percent.
Investors can now submit applications through the OSS portal and track progress online, ensuring greater transparency throughout the approval process.
In April alone, BIDA approved four royalty payment applications through the upgraded system.
Previously, foreign companies had to manually submit nearly 500 pages of supporting documents. Verification, preparation of summaries, internal review and final approval often took several weeks.
Under the new digital process, structured online data input and document highlighting have streamlined verification and decision-making. Service fee payments can also now be completed fully online through the same platform.
Executive Chairman of BIDA Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun said the digitisation initiative has addressed a critical gap in investor services.
“We have closed another important gap. For an investment-friendly environment, investor services must be delivered on time, through clear and orderly documentation processes,” he said.
“By fully digitising the royalty service, BIDA has not only increased speed, but also made the verification process more structured and more robust. Investors will now receive a more reliable, transparent and effective service,” he added.
Technical assistance for the royalty payment simplification initiative was provided under the Transformative Economic Policy Programme (TEPP) of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bangladesh, while implementation support was delivered by Business Automation Ltd...
Officials said work is continuing to further improve user experience and service accessibility on the OSS platform.
The BIDA OSS portal currently integrates more than 140 investment-related services from 47 government agencies, including 40 services provided directly by BIDA.
