Special ADB fund for women entrepreneurs
Monday, 24 December 2007
CHITTAGONG, Dec 23 (BSS): At least 10 per cent of the 300 million US dollars given by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as special funds for promotion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has been kept reserved for women SME entrepreneurs to ensure their easy access to industrial loans.
Food and Disaster Management Secretary Mohammad Ayub Meah, who is also the Managing Director (MD) of the SME Foundation, disclosed it while speaking as the chief guest at the concluding function of the month-long Women SME Fair-2007 here recently.
The first Women SME Fair in the country was held under the auspices of Chittagong Women's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CWCCI) at the Railway ground in the port city.
A total of 450 female entrepreneurs and about 500 thousand (five lakh) visitors of the event transacted about Tk 50 million (5.0 crore).
With CWCCI President Monwara Hakim Ali in the chair, Indonesian Ambassador in Bangladesh Warmas Hasan Saputra, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Industries and Project Director of the SME-SDP Yameni Akbar, President of the Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and Industry Junan Mahmud Kahn, former director of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry Moinul Islam Mahmud and Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Industries Mahbuba Panna, among others, addressed the function.
Ayub Meah also said the government has taken various types of time-befitting and goal-oriented programmes for women entrepreneurs as well as expansion of the SMEs considering the contributions of the sector to the country's economy.
Apart from the SME-SDP scheme, the government has floated a gender action plan for overall empowerment of women and a gender action plan working group has been functioning to pinpoint the areas and fixing modus operandi to this effect, he added.
The SME Foundation running with public-private partnership has been working in multiple ways for capacity building of SME entrepreneurs.
He said around 3,000 entrepreneurs, of them 1,000 are women, were provided with training in last four months and a target was fixed for imparting training to at least 20,000 entrepreneurs in 2008.
The secretary said though the womenfolk of the country is coming forward rapidly, still the share of women entrepreneurs in the country is 2.8 per cent compared to 30 per cent in India and 35-40 per cent in Thailand.
The Indonesian ambassador said he believed that women entrepreneurs of Bangladesh have the efficiency and could contribute much to the economy as well as their empowerment.
The CWCCI president said they have a target to create 50 per cent women entrepreneurs by 2020 with the active support of the government and their male counterparts.
She said the CWCCI has placed a proposal for a project by the BSCIC for the women entrepreneurs by allocating Tk 3.0 billion (300 crore), through which at least 10,000 fresh women entrepreneurs could be created.
Food and Disaster Management Secretary Mohammad Ayub Meah, who is also the Managing Director (MD) of the SME Foundation, disclosed it while speaking as the chief guest at the concluding function of the month-long Women SME Fair-2007 here recently.
The first Women SME Fair in the country was held under the auspices of Chittagong Women's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CWCCI) at the Railway ground in the port city.
A total of 450 female entrepreneurs and about 500 thousand (five lakh) visitors of the event transacted about Tk 50 million (5.0 crore).
With CWCCI President Monwara Hakim Ali in the chair, Indonesian Ambassador in Bangladesh Warmas Hasan Saputra, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Industries and Project Director of the SME-SDP Yameni Akbar, President of the Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and Industry Junan Mahmud Kahn, former director of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry Moinul Islam Mahmud and Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Industries Mahbuba Panna, among others, addressed the function.
Ayub Meah also said the government has taken various types of time-befitting and goal-oriented programmes for women entrepreneurs as well as expansion of the SMEs considering the contributions of the sector to the country's economy.
Apart from the SME-SDP scheme, the government has floated a gender action plan for overall empowerment of women and a gender action plan working group has been functioning to pinpoint the areas and fixing modus operandi to this effect, he added.
The SME Foundation running with public-private partnership has been working in multiple ways for capacity building of SME entrepreneurs.
He said around 3,000 entrepreneurs, of them 1,000 are women, were provided with training in last four months and a target was fixed for imparting training to at least 20,000 entrepreneurs in 2008.
The secretary said though the womenfolk of the country is coming forward rapidly, still the share of women entrepreneurs in the country is 2.8 per cent compared to 30 per cent in India and 35-40 per cent in Thailand.
The Indonesian ambassador said he believed that women entrepreneurs of Bangladesh have the efficiency and could contribute much to the economy as well as their empowerment.
The CWCCI president said they have a target to create 50 per cent women entrepreneurs by 2020 with the active support of the government and their male counterparts.
She said the CWCCI has placed a proposal for a project by the BSCIC for the women entrepreneurs by allocating Tk 3.0 billion (300 crore), through which at least 10,000 fresh women entrepreneurs could be created.