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Dr. Gowher Rizvi, Advisor to the Hon’ble Prime Minister on International Relation Affairs was the chief guest of the session while AKM Sajedur Rahman, Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank and Barrister Nihad Kabir, President of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) were the distinguished guests. The session was also attended by Dr. Momtaz Uddin Ahmed, Honorary Professor, University of Dhaka and Mr. Khurshid Alam, Assistant Resident Representative, UNDP Bangladesh.
Dr. Rizvi began his speech by congratulating ICE Center for its project REVIVE initiative that targets the CMSMEs of our nation. He said that linkage of our entrepreneurs with an international supply chain has now come to be a pressing demand of the time to maintain the rally of growth. From his experience of working with the indigenous community, Mr. Rizvi said that although training and skills development activities that are being undertaken for indigenous and marginal people are appropriate but the main problem lies in creating linkage for them with the market. Historically, entrepreneurs are inclined towards sole proprietorship of their business but in case of the indigenous tribes they think and function like a community and that is how businesses are developed amongst them. To attain the vision of 2030, it is important to bring forward the underprivileged class of citizens in the community and he hopes ICE Center would play a pivotal role. He further advised the youth to be on their toes to tackle another global pandemic if it ever does come again.
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Nihad Kabir stated that it is important to address cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises individually while developing policies on different issues such as dealing with the issue like internationalization of CMSMEs sectors or bank policies in providing financial support. By applauding Project REVIVE for its district mapping initiative of the 64 districts, she emphasized on its outcome to be useful for the development and industrialization of the districts.
AKM Sajedur Rahman, the Deputy Governor of Bangladesh bank, in his speech emphasized that for the continued economic growth of Bangladesh, CMSMEs sector needs to be developed giving priority.
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Executive Director of ICE Center Rashedur Rahman in his speech shared the journey of Project REVIVE and its activities so far. He also notified the present audience of a research paper in the works that targets the topic of why CMSMES from Bangladesh are not internationalized in a larger scale and how to facilitate their internationalization.
Professor Muhammad Shariat Ullah pointed out that this project had made it possible to run a nationwide survey addressing the struggles of CMSMEs regarding different important issues. He presented some findings from the working paper focusing on the internationalization of CMSMEs sector and the extent to which their mindset is affected by various factors. He has high hopes from the resulting working papers that will help shape the future policies of the nation regarding key policy matters.
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Dr. Momtaz Uddin Ahmed discussed about the necessity of cluster-based development regarding widening the window of opportunity for the CMSMEs to enter the global market. He agreed with Barrister Nihad Kabir on the topic of treating C-M-S-M as separate entities. Mr. Khurshid Alam said that for the development journey of Bangladesh, the growth and expansion of the CMSME sector is absolutely vital. Besides, he emphasized on the inclusion of youth in this project to learn the nature of the economy of Bangladesh and to fight future disasters.
The session was Presided by Dr. Khondoker Bazlul Haque, Vice-Chairman of ICE Center and moderated by Rashedur Rahman.