B-SkillFUL organized an event titled “Corporate Connect Event for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)” at a hotel in Gulshan on Wednesday.
Twenty-five MSMEs from Dhaka, Kishoreganj, Rangpur and Bogra, and more than 100 representatives from private corporations across Dhaka and Chittagong attended the event.
During the event, representatives from financial institutions, private firms, and MSMEs took part in a multi-stakeholder panel discussion to collectively discuss and debate the issues.
Head of SME, Bank Asia; CEO, Savior Bangladesh Ltd; and vice president, Concord Ventures Limited spoke in the panel alongside two MSME owners.
Team Leader of B-SkillFUL Dajna Sorensen said in the opening ceremony: “Today’s event is a testimony of those businesses that have made progress because of the support of the Swiss government.”
The vice president of Concord Ventures Ltd, MG Shah Newaz, said: “The biggest challenge that MSMEs face in the case of exporting is ensuring quality and innovation.”
The AVP of Bank Asia, Samiul Anam, said: “Access to finance can be easier for MSMEs if they are given proper knowledge about business documentation because the biggest hurdle for MSMEs in terms of gaining financial support from banks or financial institutions is the lack of proper documentation.”
B-SkillFUL is a multi-year program aimed at improving the well-being of poor and disadvantaged people by increasing their access to the labor market and their income.
The B-SkillFUL program was funded by the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh and implemented by Swisscontact and LightCastle Partners, a premier management consulting firm.
For B-SkillFUL, the event facilitated linkages for MSMEs from the furniture and leather goods sectors with potential buyers and financial institutions to address two major pain points: financial inclusion and market accessibility.
The second phase of the B-SkillFUL project started its operations in Bangladesh in September 2020.
The program operates across six regions within Bangladesh – Dhaka, Gazipur, Bogra, Nilphamari, Rangpur and Kishoreganj.
