Event: National Consultation on Youth Employment, Dhaka

The inaugural ceremony of the National Consultation youth employment with a focus on youth enterprise and entrepreneurship was graced by Honourable Minister, Ministry of Industries, Mr. Dilip Barua as the Chief Guest (shown in photo below). The consultation was aimed at improving employment generation in Bangladesh through promoting entrepreneurial skill development, culture and accelerating self employment among young people.



Mr. Md. Ahad Ali Sarkar, MP, State Minister, Ministry of Youth & Sports, Mr. Aftab ul Islam, FCA, Chairperson, SME Foundation, and Mr. Mahbub Ahmed, Secretary, Ministry of Youth & Sports attended as special guests of the programme among others.

In addition to the Government ministries and departments including Ministry of Youth & Sports, Education, Labour & Employment, the micro credit regulatory authority ( under the Ministry of Finance), and the SME Foundation,  the ceremony of the consultation was well attended by all national level stakeholders, bringing together international organizations including the ILO, the UNIDO and the Commonwealth Youth Programme, the two leading NGOs in Bangladesh PKSF and BRAC, as well as, representatives and practitioners from private sector banks, national level youth orgs , corporate sector, industry chambers, education and training sector, and youth networks. Successful young women entrepreneurs including three women entrepreneurs who received the national SME women entrepreneurship award for 2010 were also present at the inaugural ceremony..

In highlighting the need to attract young people towards entrepreneurship, Mr. Aftab ul Islam, FCA, Chairperson, SME Foundation agreed upon setting up a dedicated national help line desk for young entrepreneurs and also directed the SME foundation to include an enterprise programme for young entrepreneurs in the next year’s work plan.

He also recommended a common network bringing all stakeholders together under one umbrella and arranging collateral free loans for young men; not only for women, and articulated the role of financial institutions and banks to look into this

The State Minister of Youth and Sports assured that he will look into the suggestions and outcomes of this programme. Industry Minister agreed that he would provide all kinds of support for promoting youth enterprise in an integrated way and through a coordinated approach.

A total of 45 participants including government officials, public and private sector banks, NGOS, Education and Training institutions, youth organizations, chambers, media will be participating in the three day consultation from June 7 to June 9 with the aim to bring out actionable recommendations to formulate strategies to accelerate youth enterprise and entrepreneurship in Bangladesh.