Universities in Bangladesh will work to build capacities among the youth  for entrepreneurship and business innovation in partnership with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

Under the project universities will be able to set a link of a model curriculum through which students will get knowledge to be entrepreneurs and find out need-based business modules to build as their career.

The Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship (ICE) centre of Dhaka University (DU) organized a consultation conference at Nabab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban on Tuesday.

Md. Rashedur Rahman, associate professor and founding executive director of ICE, gave a presentation about the journey of the project.

Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman, Vice-Chancellor of DU and chairman of ICE, Young-Ah Doh, country director of KOICA, Derik Kim, project manager of the project management consortium, Heakyung Bae, consultant of the project, Prof Muhammad Anisuzzaman Talukder of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Prof  Khondoker Bazlul Hoque, vice chairman of ICE, among others, spoke on the occasion.

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Teachers from universities of Chittagong, Rajshahi, Shahjalal and Khulna joined the program using virtual platform while teachers and more than 700 students of DU, representatives from banks and financial institutions attended the program physically.

An 11-member team of experts of the project management consortium (PMC) comprising Korea Polytechnic University (KPU) and Korea Productivity Center (KPC) is visiting Dhaka to conduct “Front-end Survey” and develop “Action Plan” with insights, experience and opinions of relevant stakeholders as part of the project from November 5-18, 2021 are also attending the program and sharing their survey experience.

Prof Akhtaruzzaman said that the 17th goal of the SDGs in collaboration between Korea and Bangladesh will be strengthened.

He emphasized implementation and revitalized the global partnership for sustainable development and hoped that this is just the beginning which will be continuing to make it more viable.

Young -Ah Doh, Country Director, KOICA said that this is the first consultation aimed to create an environment to promote youth entrepreneurship in Bangladesh.

She said universities can play a great role in entrepreneurship by sharing opinions, exchanging ideas and creating action plans.

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Derik Kim expressed his hope that this project will be able to bring all the stakeholder groups from govt., industry, academia and others in one platform to develop an effective entrepreneurship ecosystem in Bangladesh.

The project under the Ministry of Education will be implemented by the University Grant Commission (UGC) and DU in partnership with the KOICA, other leading public universities, and relevant stakeholders. 

The overall objective of the project is to improve the environment for potential youth entrepreneurs through the capacity building of Bangladeshi universities on entrepreneurship education.

Some of the activities under the project include: curriculum development on entrepreneurship education; capacity development of faculties, professionals, and students; advocacy and awareness initiatives; entrepreneurial roadmap through research, and infrastructural development.

"Capacity Building of Universities in Bangladesh to Promote Youth Entrepreneurship" under the Government-to-Government (G2G) modality has been already signed between the Government of Bangladesh and South Korean Government on January 31, 2021.