A weekly round up of articles about employment, the labor market, skills training and workforce development and the wider economy. This week’s round up is drawn from The Daily Star. Here is the news for the week ending 1 March 2018.
This week in the Bangladesh English Press…
… a woman entrepreneur becomes the chairman of Janata Bank. Starting soon: A 12-month investment readiness accelerator programme to promote small and growing businesses. Bangladesh is likely to receive foreign investment. This will create employment opportunities for many. Recently, stakeholders discussed the need to address multidimensional poverty of urban children to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). And farmers suffer losses in egg farming business.
Business, Investments, Trade and Growth
To promote small and growing businesses, BetterStories Ltd will select 25 small and growing enterprises under its ScaleUp Bangladesh programme. It is a 12-month investment readiness accelerator programme. BetterStories Ltd will provide the businesses with advice and technical support to help set up environment-friendly industrial units. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will be the programme’s key partner along with Grameenphone, British Council, India-based venture capital firm Aavishkaar Venture Management Service, Netherland-based Programma Uitzending Managers (PUM) and Climate Business Network Support.
Franglobal, an Indian franchise consultancy firm, is bringing more than 50 brands to Bangladesh over the next two years. It will also bring investment of US$ 39 million and create 2,500 new jobs as the country’s solid economic growth continues to attract global attention. FranGlobal held a daylong exposition attended by more than 50 brands from 12 countries.
A three-day trade show organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham) and the US embassy in Dhaka started on 1 March at Sonargaon hotel in Dhaka. The aim is to showcase American products and services in Bangladesh and give a boost to bilateral trade. The show will exhibit more than 150 American companies.
Education and the Labour Market
At a roundtable discussion titled, “Multidimensional Poverty of Children” organized by Prothom Alo, speakers called for immediate steps to curb multidimensional child poverty to meet the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Addressing multidimensional poverty among urban children is a challenge. About 46 percent of children are poor but only 8 percent of social safety net funds are allocated for them. A separate budget allocation for children is required
Egg farmers are suffering losses for falling prices and increased production costs. Between 2013 and 2016, prices were higher than production costs. But recently, a section of farmers have started backing out from this business. The prices of eggs had been low during the whole of 2017 because of oversupply.
The National Skills Development Council (NSDC) in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO’s) Canada-funded Bangladesh Skills for Employment and Productivity (B-SEP) project and the European Union-funded Skills 21 project jointly organized a workshop on “strengthening skills system for achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on decent work”. The main discussion was the unemployment of more than 34,000 technical institute graduates. Employment opportunities do not match their educational qualifications said a specialist of the Bangladesh Technical Education Board (BTEB).
Luna Shamsuddoha, a prominent Information and Communication technology (ICT) entrepreneur, became the chairman of Janata Bank on 28 February. She is the first woman chair of any state-owned bank. She had won the “Outstanding Woman in Business award at the 2017 Bangladesh Business Awards.
And that’s the news for the week ending 1 March 2018.