Financing gaps, weak ecosystem stifle growth of start-ups, entrepreneurship

Systematic gap in financing and unavailability of a supportive ecosystem remain two major challenges hindering the growth of local start-ups and youth entrepreneurships.

Besides, lack of adequate skills, absence of mentorship, and poor country branding are also responsible for the situation, speakers at a workshop said on Thursday.

Keeping this in view, they underscored the need for binging about major policy reforms, facilitation of financing and disseminating entrepreneurship ideas within education system to unlock the full potentials of Bangladeshi's young entrepreneurs.

They came up with the views at a national workshop on "Youth Entrepreneurship: Investment, Policy and Ecosystem", jointly organised by the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at the BIDA Multipurpose Hall in the city's.

Local Government, Youth and Sports Adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain attended the seminar as the chief guest while Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology was the guest of honour.

The UNDP Bangladesh's Resident Representative (Acting In-charge) Sonali Dayaratne was the special guest and Executive Chairman of BIDA Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun delivered the vote of thanks.

In his speech, Asif Mahmud said youth unemployment is a major concern for the country.

"The main reason of the last year's students-people's uprising, also known as the July Revolution, was unemployment," he said.

"We (the interim government) are working on it as around 63 per cent of our population's age is less than 35 years. We have to utilise our young generation," he said.

Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb said extent of skill development still remains lower than the expected level despite having different infrastructure facilities like hitech parks.

"Such initiatives lack proper skill development programs, we are exploring the ways to incorporate skill development programs," he said.

Highlighting various funding mechanisms for the young entrepreneurs, he said Startup Bangladesh Limited (SBL) -- a venture capital firm under the ICT division -- is now looking to facilitate fund rather making direct investment.

In his speech, Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun termed young entrepreneurs 'national assets'.

"We must support them through smart policies, easy access to capital, and an enabling ecosystem," he said.

More than 100 youth entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and partners joined a working session to identify challenges and co-create solutions to promote innovation and inclusive growth.

They identified challenges and made a set of 17-point recommendations for bolstering the start-up ecosystem in the country including establishing a dedicated Startup Wing within BIDA, launching a secondary equity market for startups, promoting domestic venture capital, introducing a national pre-seed grant and mentoring program.

They also recommended for differentiating startups from SMEs, offering tax incentives for local and angel investors and making bank lending available for start-ups.

The event was organised under the UK-funded Transformative Economic Policy Programme Phase II (TEPP-II), jointly implemented by BIDA and UNDP Bangladesh.

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