Editorial
Next leap to women entrepreneurship
Recommendations from roundtable need to be heeded
Avery useful roundtable was held at The Daily Star premises on 'Connecting and Integrating Women Entrepreneurs' on September 12. The recommendations to issue from the interactive session of successful practitioners, organisers, researchers and bankers threw up some splendid ideas to take women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh collectively forward. Building strong networks of women entrepreneurs have been emphasised both in the formal and informal sectors.
There are three categories of women entrepreneurs: seasoned and successful ones, the new breed and the ones intending to take up business as a profession. Already, a reservoir of model entrepreneurs exists. This is capable of throwing the ropes to entrepreneurship to the newly initiated lot who can benefit from the experiences including pitfalls of the mentoring seniors. Knowing the rules of business, having seed money, setting up production lines and ensuring quality of products and access to market are matters for guidance and counseling. All these can be facilitated by grassroots-upwards and spatial networking along the length and breath of the country.
The social barriers have largely been overcome; now the impediments at the institutional levels are awaiting removal although these have eased up a bit. The SME Foundation, among other institutions, has work to do in this area.
We think it is a very good suggestion for the entrepreneurs to avert replication of ventures within a particular locality or zone. For, it will eat into each other's market share. Basically, their efforts should be directed towards product diversification and value additions.
The true redemption for the struggling women entrepreneurs would only come when they are regarded as a building block of our national future. Unless they enjoy equality of opportunities with their male counterparts they cannot make it big. Indeed, if the policy planners want Bangladesh economy to achieve 8 percent growth rate to become middle income country, women ought be given the tools to carve the niche that should be rightfully theirs in the professional world.
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