KOICA unveils multi-component cooperation aimed at youth entrepreneurship

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) will support a budget of $7.5 million from 2020-2024 for infrastructure, developing entrepreneurship education module and building capacity, research and advocacy in Bangladesh.

It will help strengthen the network and relationship among stakeholders of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Bangladesh.

KOICA Bangladesh organised a meeting for the project entitled "Capacity Building of Universities in Bangladesh to Promote Youth Entrepreneurship" held virtually on Wednesday due to Covid-19 current condition.

This project is expected to improve the environment for potential youth entrepreneurs through the capacity building of Bangladeshi universities on entrepreneurship education.

Doh Young-Ah, Country Director of KOICA Bangladesh, mentioned the importance of an effective entrepreneurial ecosystem for Bangladesh's development journey.

The project will combine the best practices and experiences of South Korea and Bangladesh to address socio-economic challenges and opportunities through entrepreneurial initiatives.

Professor Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman, Vice-Chancellor, University of Dhaka, welcomed the initiative and expressed his cooperation to implement the project successfully to improve the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Bangladesh.

Derik Kim, project manager, and chief consultant, Korea Productivity Center, on behalf of the Korean Project Management Consulting (PMC) consortium comprising of Korea Productivity Center (KPC) and Korea Polytechnic University (KPU) team, made a presentation on the project scope, timeline, and deliverables, and highlighted the future implementation plans with the University of Dhaka.

Derik Kim shared some of the components of the project, including space design and construction, curriculum development and entrepreneurship education, overseas training on entrepreneurship for faculty members and relevant government officials, seminars, hackathon, thematic session, Bootcamp, entrepreneurship contest winner's capacity building, and community mapping, etc.

Faculties, students, employees, relevant officials from different government organizations, policymakers, regulators, startup community, and others will be the beneficiaries of this unique University-led project.

The meeting's objective was to share the overall project aim like improve the overall ecosystem of entrepreneurship in Bangladesh through universities' capacity building to nurture the youth's potential minds, and discuss the statement of work, project scope, timeline, deliverables in the project and future implementation plans with the University of Dhaka.