The government has decided in principle to convert Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) into Bangladesh Tourism Development Authority to make it more powerful and avoid conflicts with other ministries and departments.
The decision was taken at the 408th meeting of the BPC last month.
BPC set up a nine-member committee to formulate rules for the proposed tourism development authority on August 06.
The committee will submit a specific proposal regarding the rules for the authority to the chairman of BPC within next one month.
Talking to the FE, BPC manager (sales development and public relations) and a committee member Ziaul Haque Howlader said the tourism secretary in June this year instructed them to send a proposal to the ministry regarding the conversion of BPC into an authority.
Bangladesh Tourism Development Authority will be more powerful in regulating and executing any tourism related development work, he added.
Citing examples, Mr Zia said BPC still could not enforce 'Exclusive Tourist Zone and Tourism Protected Area 2010' due to lack of power, resulting in chaos and poor development of exclusive tourist zone.
Also there is no tangible progress in making the exclusive tourist zone functional as investors are not attracted, he added.
Mr Zia said forest department and the land ministry have been working on their own will disregarding tourism guideline in the country.
Any private investor now has to take no objection certificate (NOC) from about 16 departments if he intends to make any investment, he said, adding that if the authority becomes functional, the investors will be able to get services under one roof.
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