The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is set to continue their support to local small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) through their “Innovation in SME Export Readiness and LDC Graduation Program.”
Nazneen Ahmed, country economist and head of policy and strategic advisory unit at the UNDP revealed it while speaking at the concluding ceremony of the 14-day program on Tuesday in the capital.
She also said that they were happy to take the first step of including the SME entrepreneurs in the export scenario.
“Bangladesh has a lot of potential for producing import substitute products and we want to see the products tagged ‘Made in Bangladesh' in the global marketplace,” she further mentioned, adding that through this program, they were promising to continue this program in near future.
Md Masudur Rahman, chairperson of the SME Foundation, said that as Bangladesh was set to graduate from the least developed country category in 2026, they were really concerned on how SMEs would function in the global economy.
He thanked UNDP Bangladesh for offering the support to the entrepreneurs in the context of an export-dominated economy.
“Special thanks to the women who are relentlessly supporting their families as well as actively contributing to the economy of our country”, he added.
Parveen S Huda, national gender specialist, ADB GFA Seba Technical Assistance Project, said that they always looked for best practices and examples from others; whereas they should focus more on being creative and innovative to make their own sustainable products for the global marketplace.
“We seek UNDP Bangladesh's support here to learn more on being creative and innovative in terms of producing Export quality products,” she added.
The two-week-long program focused on addressing the challenges of the SME sector.
It was conducted in three phases - sense-making workshop, export readiness training, and final ceremony including matchmaking session and panel discussion.
In the first phase, UNDP Bangladesh identified current gaps, needs, and challenges of SMEs in the jute, leather, toys, clothing, RMG, and other sectors.
The second phase focused on the understanding of the export journey, export readiness, and exporting services and their implications, training and learning.
The concluding phase was on the sharing of the experiences and learning and facilitated a matchmaking session between the experts and the SMEs.
In the program, about 40 SME entrepreneurs from key sectors such as leather, jute, special clothing, toys, and packaged food received the training on export readiness and learned about the overall principles of exporting and the processes.
They also learned the skills that businesses commonly used to develop export strategies tailored to their needs.