Women-owned business face more challenges in cross border trades: Speakers
BI Report || BusinessInsider
Photo: Courtesy
While overall trading across borders has remained challenging in Bangladesh, women-owned businesses face even more difficulties compared to their male counterparts, said speakers at a seminar.
This is mostly due to their lack of knowledge about policies and procedures for export and import, limited ICT orientation and exposure to service providers, they said at the seminar titled “Dissemination Seminar on Policy Recommendations to Make Trading Across Border Easier for Women-Owned Businesses” on Monday in the capital, according to a statement.
The seminar was organised by the Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD), in collaboration with International Finance Corporation (IFC).
To address the issue, BUILD and IFC, under the Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund (BICF) project supported by the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), had previously organised 14 virtual orientation and awareness workshops for women-owned businesses.
Through these workshops, the project has reached approximately 27,000 women entrepreneurs, government representatives, and start-ups and other stakeholders.
Major challenges shared by women-owned businesses during the workshops included business formalisation (traditional and e-commerce), cumbersome trade licensing processes and high renewal fees, getting collateral-free loans and loans from stimulus packages from banks and financial institutions, lack of knowledge on effective marketing and branding, and inability to fully revive from the direct impacts of Covid-19 and to access government announced incentives.
During the seminar, various policy recommendations were highlighted in a short presentation that was followed by a panel discussion.
Ms Sharifa Khan, member (Secretary), Planning Commission, representatives from Bangladesh Bank, Office of the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports, National Board of Revenue and the Ministry of Commerce participated in the workshop, among others.
