BSCIC to provide business incubation facilities for 1 lakh young, women entrepreneurs

The Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) will provide one lakh young and women entrepreneurs with business incubation facilities and business development services.

To this end, the BSCIC has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID).

BSCIC Secretary Mofidul Islam and BIID Chief Executive Officer Shahid Uddin Akbar inked the deal on behalf of their respective organisations at the BSCIC office on 13 December.

BSCIC Chairman Md Mushtaq Hasan, Director (Industrial Development and Extension) Md Khalilur Rahman, Director (Engineering and Project Implementation) Muhammad Ataur Rahman Siddiqui, Deputy General Manager (Development) Ratan Kumar Aich Sarkar, and Deputy General Manager (Technology) Md. Mohi Uddin were present at the event.

Under the agreement, BIID will provide the new entrepreneurs with modern services.

The institution said BIID will provide all technical support for the operation and management of the incubator and the BSCIC will provide access to all logistical and local setups.

On a pilot basis, this service will be provided to cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises – especially of women entrepreneurs – under the Gopalganj and Narsingdi districts, but online-based business development assistance will be available at all BSCIC offices.

This is the first time in Bangladesh that BIID's B-Lab has taken the initiative to provide incubation facilities to small entrepreneurs at the local level and incubation facilities will be provided to all local BSCIC offices in phases.

Local entrepreneurs will be able to avail online virtual incubation facilities from anywhere, said BSCIC.

BSIC is conducting various activities to protect cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises through: 64 industry support centres, 76 industrial cities, 15 skill development centres, a design centre, and a training institute in 64 districts across the country.