Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) President Md Jashim Uddin on Sunday said the lack of skilled manpower was a major hinderence to achieving development goals.
The apex trade body chief urged the National Skills Development Authority to be more dynamic and also called for recruiting skilled workforce in government offices to meet the challenges in the post-LDC period.
“Although there are many highly educated youth in Bangladesh, there is a lack of necessary skills required in industries,” he said at the first meeting of the FBCCI Standing Committee titled “National Economic Policy and Planning, 8th Five Year Plan, SDG and Vision 2041” at FBCCI Icon in the capital.
“Private sector entrepreneurs are undertaking various ventures to create employment to achieve various economic targets announced by the government. But the lack of skilled manpower has become a major obstacle,” he added.
He said the garment factories are running with a 15 to 20 per cent skill manpower shortage. Therefore, entrepreneurs have to depend on foreigners for various positions of management.
“The government runs many technical education institutes [but] they fail to provide the desired quality students. The government must focus on creating skilled workforce to achieve various economic and development goals. Therefore, it has become imperative to harmonise the formal education curriculum with industry,” Jashim pointed out.
He said that in the future, free trade agreements should be signed, new strategies should be adopted to protect local industries after becoming a developing country. Therefore, the government agencies will need more dynamic and skilled manpower to deal with the more complex global trade issues.
The FBCCI chief also called upon the government agencies to consult with the private sector before formulating policies. Formulating policies without consulting with private stakeholders often makes them difficult to implement as they do not reflect the field level realities.
The standing committee members spoke on economic development as well as reduction of inequality, improvement of education, industry-academia linkage, formulation of a national strategy on the 4IR, women empowerment, and increase in the use of renewable energy, among others.
Director in Charge of the committee Dr Nadia Binte Amin said the SME sector contributes up to 80 per cent to the economies of developed countries. In Bangladesh, this is only 60 per cent. The government’s policy cooperation needs to be further enhanced to harness the potential of the SME sector.
Standing committee Chairman AKM Shamsuddoha presided over the function while FBCCI Senior Vice President Mostafa Azad Chowdhury Babu, directors Bijoy Kumar Kejriwal, Md Naser, Syed Almas Kabir, Secretary-General Mohammad Mahfuzul Hoque, Advisor Manzur Ahmed, Standing Committee Member Shamim Ahmed, Tasfia Jasim, ASM Mainuddin, Syed Habib Ali, Munir Ahmed, Ayesha Siddique, Shamima Shirin and Dr Md. Nazmul Islam were also present there.
