While looking at the start-up and incubator culture of various countries around the world, the country which will give readers solace in a crucial time for Bangladeshi start-up culture is Germany.
A good infrastructure and lots of funding opportunities are the backbone of the start-up skeleton of the country. Berlin is widely cherished as Europe’s start-up capital, and also attracts lots of international young entrepreneurs. It is where cultural, educational, and tech know-how ideas come together in an environment filled with harmony of nature, less pollution, and more happiness.
Compared Germany to Bangladesh, or US to Bangladesh, in terms of the start-up journey, most of the Bangladeshi youth -- who have the mindset of flying against the wind, thinking outside the box, and exhibiting creativity -- suffer from the lack of a well-organized, spontaneously driven, and strategically executed start-up infrastructure.
The ideas of co-working spaces and venture capitalist funding are yet at its infancy in Bangladesh. While taking a survey of the whole country, there happen to be only a few of those so-called improperly planned co-working spaces in Dhaka, where young people with creative minds can come together, brainstorm, and innovate.
For innovating, one needs an environment which shines light and helps keep one’s mind refreshed. Even though there have been plenty of economic zones planned across the country, there lacks a sound “start-up city” which is vibrant, colourful, and alive. The rising population of Dhaka is an open threat to even think of making the capital such a start-up city.
While almost everyone in the country is aware of the existence of Pathao, there is reasonable suspicion that perhaps a quarter of the population isn’t aware of a polytechnic engineer who built a drone for agricultural purposes two or three years back in a city which was not Dhaka.
Now, think if that very engineer was mentored, nurtured, and equipped with more than what he found at his disposal from information learned on the internet, what could have his dream become? Drones for agricultural purposes will undoubtedly be a major factor in Bangladesh within the next few years -- evident from commercially available insights.
Coming back to the challenges of not having proper co-working spaces, mentors, vibrant environment, and most importantly, untraditional sources of funding, it will remain challenging for both the public and private sectors to grow human capacity with the same frequency of the entire world.
In Bangladesh, financing is available through loans, government grants etc, and other traditional means which can easily be pointed as challenge number one for any innovative mind coming up with a new solution in a rural area with no access to alternative sources of financing. In Bangladesh, entrepreneurs are often funded through large businesses that enjoy a mammoth scale of benefits from banking sectors, both public and private.
On the other spectrum, trademarks and copyrights -- the ownership of one’s invention -- isn’t protected in Bangladesh the same way as say Japan, one of Bangladesh’s major allies. With a co-working/incubator culture filled with alternative sources of funding, and the guarantee to pursue one’s dream without being impeded by copyright infringement of any, Bangladesh can find within its population a circle of innovators.
Automation will cut the job of humans by 60% within the next 10 years. And this population will need to be rapidly trained, mentored, and vetted so that no massive economical woes happen. To ameliorate not only the “soft skills” but also “technical skills,” which are both equally important to the newer generation, and to address the so-called fourth industrial revolution’s start-up culture, it is high time for Bangladesh’s decision makers to think about the path the youth will take.
Bangladeshis have spirited, joyful, and creative minds. It is time to start providing ways to develop skills sustainably through cross-cultural and multi-generational training, from which a more prosperous Bangladesh can emerge in the next 10 years.
Anwar Shadat Jihan is an Aerospace Engineering Consultant based in Wichita, KS, USA. He is the Founder and Owner of Midwest Engineering Solutions.
