Another year is gone and it’s a matter of enthusiasm that the New Year, 2015, has arrived, offering a lot of expectation of positive changes to our life and business. Of course a new year will do nothing unless we try to change our fate and that is where the importance of entrepreneurship, or taking initiative lies.
As done earlier, ICE Business Times, in the outgoing year, tied to cover consistently diverse issues of investment, industries, trade, development, technology and many more to meet interests and some helpful information for the stakeholders. In the current issue, we have come up with the lead story on ‘Infusing Corporate Culture’ to take a stock of the state of corporatisation, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, and relevant regulatory affairs.
In an exclusive interview with ICE Business Times, reputed economist and head of Dhaka University’s Department of Economics, Prof. MA Taslim pressed hard on taking necessary steps to upgrade skills and productivity of the workforce. As a former CEO of Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute, he is anxious about the persistent downturn in economic activity. But he is hopeful that as our labour-intensive products such as apparel and footwear is less expensive, Bangladesh should be able to gradually move out of the bracket of Least-Developed Country (LDC) and march forward.
According to the University Grants Commission (UGC), around 400,000 graduates are coming to the job market every year, but another London-based report, The Economist Intelligence Unit, said 47% of the graduate workforce remained unemployed in Bangladesh. Lack of skills or whichever, should be addressed and rectified, for the betterment of our succeeding generations.
As shown by British American Tobacco Bangladesh’s annual Battle of Minds competition, rigorous tertiary education remains the cornerstone to a bright professional career.
In our sector focus, we looked into how Bangladeshi agricultural goods are making their way into the superstores of major cities. Local producers have observed that there is a market for higher-end imported processed food in Bangladesh. From there, they have realised that there is a market that can be served with locally produced items. But in terms of quality, have our products reached a status in world stage? Packaging machineries are also increasingly being produced locally, which do not offer the longevity of international machinery, but produce packaging of similar quality. Quality of raw materials both for products and for packaging is dictating the quality of ultimate output in this industry. Simply put, higher quality raw materials would produce better quality product.
Finally, we would like to wish all our readers, patrons and well-wishers happy holidays and a very happy New Year. We hope that the New Year would be a new beginning in the quest of solidifying Bangladesh’s growing economy and bring long-awaited confidence back into businesses.
