Entrepreneurship and Skill Development are fundamental building blocks of investment ecosystem that crucially determines decisions of the investors, foreign or local. Now that our difficulties in power has eased up substantially and our energy situation will improve significantly as LNG terminal comes to operation, our major constraint in development will be shortage of skill. This is already reflected in the fact that we spend billions of dollars on expatriate workers with high value skill which is a major factor for any investor.
Entrepreneurship is another important element in FDI. To run a business, investor needs linkage activities and entrepreneurs who, in various capacities, feed the foreign affiliates in a host country. We are extremely deficient in this regard. We need a new generation of entrepreneurs who can tie up with the foreign investors and contribute to growth. Besides, millions are joining Bangladesh work force every year. Even though our overall unemployment rate is low, youth unemployment is high and graduate unemployment rate of 47% as estimated in a British Council sponsored report prepared by the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU). While the trend is same everywhere, magnitude is much higher in Bangladesh. We need to connect these young people to the current pool of entrepreneurs.
Our vision in the medium term, is to achieve higher middle-income status by 2021 and in the long run, to become a high-income country by 2041 and also achieve the SDGs, preferably ahead of other nations as we did in case of MDGs. So, we like to relate investment to not only to inclusion but also ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ – (SDGs) focusing on green investment for energy saving, renewable, waste disposal, effluent treatment etc. and promote investment guided by an economic projection and as dictated by our vision 2021 and 2041
This high graduate and, youth unemployment in fact offers a window of opportunity for us to develop a new generation of entrepreneurs, who will invest locally, develop linkages, tie up with the foreign in investors and take our investment outcome to a new height. So, as part of its strategy for improving ecosystem, Entrepreneurship Bangladesh Ltd. is to engage in skill development initiatives and actively promote a well-designed and effectively delivered entrepreneurship development program.
Target Group:
- Young and educated unemployed youth
- Be in the age group of 18 to 45 years
- Shall have inclination to start self-employment those who wants to take risk
