Stakeholder consultation on ‘Capacity Building of Universities in Bangladesh to PYE’ project held

The Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship (ICE) Centre of the University of Dhaka (DU) organised a stakeholder consultation on the upcoming project tiled “Capacity Building of Universities in Bangladesh to Promote Youth Entrepreneurship (PYE)” on Tuesday.

The event was held at the Senate Hall of the DU.

project under the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of Bangladesh (GoB) will be implemented by the University Grant Commission (UGC) and University of Dhaka (DU) in partnership with the Korea Cooperation International Agency (KOICA), other leading public universities, and relevant stakeholders, according to a press release.

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

Some of the activities under the project include: curriculum development on entrepreneurship education; capacity development of faculties, professionals, and students; advocacy and awareness initiatives; entrepreneurial roadmap through research, and infrastructural development.

Record of Discussion (RoD) for the project titled "Capacity Building of Universities in Bangladesh to Promote Youth Entrepreneurship" under the Government-to-Government (G2G) modality has been already signed between the Government of Bangladesh and South Korean Government on January 31, this year.

An 11-member team of experts of the project management consortium (PMC) comprising Korea Polytechnic University (KPU) and Korea Productivity Center (KPC) is visiting Dhaka to conduct “Front-end Survey” and develop “Action Plan” with insights, experience and opinions of relevant stakeholders as part of the project from November 05 to 18 this year.

Professor Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman, vice-chancellor and chairman, ICE Centre, DU, delivered welcome speech.

In his speech, he specifically mentioned the 17th goal of the SDGs and said that collaboration between Korea and Bangladesh will strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

He hoped that this is just the beginning which will be continuing to make it more viable.

Ms Young-Ah Doh, country director, Korea Cooperation International Agency KOICA) in her welcome remarks said that this is the first consultation aimed to create an environment to promote youth entrepreneurship in Bangladesh.

She said universities can play a great role in entrepreneurship by sharing opinions, exchanging ideas and creating action plans.

She expressed her gratitude to have the Ministry of Education (MoE); University Grant Commission (UGC), University of Dhaka (DU) and other universities as implementation partners of this initiative.

Md Rashedur Rahman, associate professor and executive director, ICE Centre, DU and also the moderator of the event, mentioned that effective collaboration among the key stakeholders is critical for an innovation driven entrepreneurial Bangladesh and universities, being the hub of new knowledge and ideas should play the leadership role.

“This project, to be implemented by the University of Dhaka will work together other leading universities in Bangladesh. Then he presented the project details, scope, journey of the initiative, and the partners who will play an important role for the success of the project,” he said.

While talking about the vision of the ICE Center, he highlighted the philosophical framework ‘Government-Universities-Industries-Development Organizations and Others (GUIDE)’ collaboration model towards our shared vision for an innovation driven entrepreneurial Bangladesh.

Also, he requested the stakeholders to share their voice, insights and ideas with everyone which is crucial for the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Bangladesh.

He described ICE as a facility which connects students, alumni, faculty members and employees from the different disciplines. He said that ICE Center keeps on working to raise awareness on the role of innovation in Bangladesh’s socio-economic development.

Derik Kim, project manager, Project Management Consortium (PMC) started his speech by congratulating the DU for celebrating its 100th year anniversary.

While introducing the experts group from South Korea and his personal experience as entrepreneur and advocate for sustainable entrepreneurship, he expressed his hope that this project will be able to bring all the stakeholder groups from govt., industry, academia and others in one platform to develop an effective entrepreneurship ecosystem in Bangladesh.

Heakyung Bae, consultant of Project Management Consortium (PMC), Entrepreneurship Curriculum Development in her special remarks said that the startup culture in Bangladesh is growing day by day.

She expressed her belief that as Bangladesh has a high growth rate of GDP as well as a huge market potential, it will help this country to enter into the global market while connecting the South Asian continent.

Professor Dr Muhammad Anisuzzaman Talukder, director, RISE-BUET in his special remarks said that it’s time for us to connect with our stakeholder groups and in this regard Korea can help Bangladesh as they have a strong innovative and startup culture.

The consultation presided by Professor Dr Khondoker Bazlul Hoque, vice-chairman, ICE Center was attended by important stakeholders from government, universities, banks, financial institutions, industries, development organizations, entrepreneurs and promising youth and entrepreneurs from different academic disciplines.