Terming unemployment a social problem, experts at a discussion urged the government Saturday to take special programmes for creating more job opportunities for boosting business and economic growth.
They said three in every four youths go without a job every year in Bangladesh, and businesses can solve the problem by advancing economic development.
"About 2.7 million youths enter the job market every year where university graduates are 2.0 million. But only around 0.55 million jobs in Bangladesh and 0.15 million outside are available for the large capable manpower," said a speaker.
The discussion titled 'Bangladesh StartUp Cup Social' was jointly organised by Water Sanitation Programme (WSP) of World Bank (WB), and British Council at the WB head office in the city.
The programme was arranged as part of the warm-up events of 'Bangladesh StartUp Cup', the first ever business model competition of the country, which is scheduled to be held next month (April).
Speaking on the occasion Bangladesh Bank Chief Economist Dr Hassan Zaman emphasised fixing the real definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) considering the socio-economic conditions of the country.
"The CSR activities by different companies are not done in a proper way. Donating money to a club or any such organisation is not CSR activity, rather the money should go to actual social and human development of the country," he said.
Mr Zaman said the central bank has tightened up the CSR regulations over the last few years.
Participating at the discussion, Director of Partnership and Programmes of British Council Robin Davis said they have been taking various programmes for the development of skills of the teachers and youths of the country.
"We will take more programmes to train up the young people," he said.
Communications specialist of WSP of the WB Mirva Tuulia Moilanen, official of A2I programme of the Prime Minister's Office Sami Ahmed, Director of Administration of Daffodil International University Imran Hossain, CSR activist Samanta Morshed, Bijon Islam from Light Castle, Muntasir Tahmeed from Team Alternatives and Minhaz Anwar from Better Stories Limited took part at the discussion.
The organisers said the StartUp Cup is a global business model competition which selects its winners on the basis of 7-month-long entrepreneurial activities of the participants. Since 2011 more than 1,100 StartUps have competed in the StartUp Cup across 36 countries.
The Bangladesh chapter of this competition will kick-start on April 14, 2014 whereas the preceding months will be abuzz with workshops and events to be arranged in partnership with prominent local organisations working as part of the growing entrepreneurship eco-system.
