The time for Bangladesh is now. There is a growing appetite to exponentially scale economic success, backed by resilient GDP growth and coupled with a rise in the youth population.
It is against this background of prosperity that Sankalp Forum, one of the world's largest convening on impact entrepreneurship and sustainable development goals, has come to Dhaka to ‘Catalyze Bangladesh's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem' and accelerate development toward Vision 2041, reads a press release.
Backed by the pioneering Aavishkaar Group's vision to build businesses for the next 3 billion, global impact advisory, Intellecap's mission is to enable ecosystems by channelling capital to create and nurture a sustainable and equitable society.
Sankalp, an Intellicap initiative, brings its proven success across the Global South to facilitate the creation of an environment of knowledge, capital and networks for entrepreneurial minds.
In the press meeting at the 1st Edition of the Sankalp Dhaka Summit 2023, Vineet Rai, founder and chairman of Assets Under Management, Aavishkaar Group spoke about how the group has delivered and facilitated impact unicorns in India and across the Global South.
Vineet Rai is also a member of the G20 task force on start-ups and spoke about the limitless opportunity that startups and enterprises in the region can uncover.
Jayesh Bhatia, managing director, introduced Intellecap's Bangladesh Green Enterprises Ecosystem Initiative.
The Initiative will raise $250 million dollars for 1000 Impact Enterprises by 2030 and will help create 10000 jobs in the country. He emphasized partnerships with philanthropic institutions, development finance institutions, private sector institutions to channel financial capital to small, medium and large enterprises to be people and planet positive.
He also emphasized Intellicap's engagement with the Government initiatives, and offered to bring in experiences from India to bear on the Bangladesh well-articulated Smart Vision 2041 championed by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Jayesh Bhatia also referred to the work being done by Intellecap on renewable energy (RE). solar energy presents a huge impact and investment potential with solar power potential making up 50% of the RE target for 2041.
The RMG and textile sector holds the most potential for producing and using solar energy, with 42 million square feet of rooftop space.
However, key financing barriers remain towards renewable energy development, including lack of long term financing to RE projects, limited due diligence capacity, lack of a functioning syndication market and limited foreign currency financing capacity. These are key areas of focus on RE under Intellecaps's Bangladesh Green Enterprises Ecosystem Initiative.
Venkat Kotamaraju, director, Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) spoke about the significant work CAIF is doing in the RMG space. At the Summit, CAIF through its session, which featured some of the top names in the sector, highlighted ideas that can help accelerate the green transition of MSMEs in the RMG Sector, the imperative need for skilling for a green and circular transition and how to mobilize and build this ecosystem, all with a view to elevate Bangladesh's position in the global value chain.
ATM Tahmiduzzaman, FCS, DMD & CS, UCB PLC and Tanzim Alamgir, MD & CEO, UCBIL, strategic partners to the summit, spoke about how United Commercial Bank and its entities are shaping the future and building the economy, by creating and enabling an inclusive environment for startups as well as bolstering the RMG sector by backing ecosystem players.
The summit also witnessed compelling sessions on topics such as promoting climate-smart and sustainable agriculture in Bangladesh, led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), promoting responsible business approaches for achieving health outcomes by Unicef, the role of SMEs in sustainable WASH outcomes by Water.org, future of health care models by better stories and business innovations to transform food systems in Bangladesh by Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN).
In addition, there were learning sessions by way of Masterclasses and a LIVE deal room where regional and global investors connected with private sector enterprises to facilitate growth capital.
In the message at the opening plenary, ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak welcomed Aavishkaar Group and Sankalp Initiative of Intellicap.
He extended his support and engagement with Intellicap's Bangladesh Green Enterprise Ecosystem Initiative. Sami Ahmed, managing director of StartUp Bangladesh, spoke about his vision and the importance of StartUps in Bangladesh's economic development.
Sowmya Surayanarayanan, director - Impact and ESG, Aavishkar Capital was also present during the conference.
