Youth and Sports Adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan has singled out unemployment as the government’s biggest challenge, pointing to it as one of the primary causes behind last year's July Uprising.
“Eliminating unemployment is our biggest challenge. The Ministry of Youth and Sports is actively working towards this goal,” said Asif, while speaking as the chief guest at a workshop titled 'Youth Entrepreneurship: Investment and Policy', held on Thursday at the conference room of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) in the capital's Agargaon.
Highlighting initiatives taken for young entrepreneurs through the Department of Youth Development, the adviser said, “We are providing entrepreneurial loans to young people. We’re working to refine the selection criteria for these loans to ensure that as many individuals as possible can benefit when launching their startups."
The maximum loan amount under the scheme has already been increased from Tk 2 lakh to Tk 5 lakh, with plans to raise it further, he added.
He further said that the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Policy-2025, spearheaded by the Department of Youth Development, has been approved by the Advisory Council and will soon be implemented.
Referring to the challenges Bangladesh faces ahead of its graduation from the Least Developed Country (LDC) status, Adviser Asid stressed, “If we fail to properly engage the 63 percent of our population who are youth, our future prospects will be seriously hindered. We must support entrepreneurs within the context of our current realities.”
Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser on Posts, Telecommunications and ICT, said that Bangladesh’s startup ecosystem has not developed organically.
“We are now working to build it from the ground up,” he explained. “That process must begin at the school level.”
He emphasised the need to create a structured pipeline. “This pipeline must include youth from rural areas as well,” he said.
“This work must be done strategically,” he added. “We need to segment our efforts and act accordingly.”