Our Correspondent :
The Ashshash project – a project funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented by Winrock International, successfully organized two meetings titled “Stakeholders Engagement for Economic Empowerment” in Khulna and Satkhira respectively in collaboration with National Association of Small Cottage Industries of Bangladesh (NASCIB), UCEP Bangladesh and MAWTS on 15-16 March 2021.
Mirza Nurul Ghani Shovon, President, NASCIB Central Board of Directors, attended as Chief Guest while Mr. Mohammad Arfin, Vice President, NASCIB was present as Special Guest in both the occasions. Ms. Dipta Rakshit, Team Leader, Ashshash, Winrock International inaugurated the meetings through her welcome speech. The main objective of those meetings was to evaluate the demanding needs of the private sector as well as to explore the support area from the public and private sector as well as financial institutions to create opportunities of sustainable livelihood for the survivors of human trafficking and identify the procedural challenges of collaboration and way forward for enterprise development, skilled wage employment, and shared value partnership.
“Bangladesh Bank currently has 3 different refinancing scheme under which the beneficiaries can avail loans for their business”, said Mr. Mirza Nurul Ghani Shovon, President, NASCIB Central Board of Directors. “BDT 20,000 crore stimulus package as declared by the government for the CMSMEs is for the affected businesses only but not for the new entrepreneurs”, he clarified.
“Ashshash beneficiaries will have free access to training in multiple Jute factories in Khulna. NASCIB will help the beneficiaries to market the jute products produced by the beneficiaries,” said Md. Iftekhar Ali (Babu), President, NASCIB Khulna Metropolitan Branch.
“The skilled workforce resulted from this project will be able to address the need for private sectors seeking trained workers to minimize training costs. Since 70 percent of Ashshash’s targeted beneficiaries are women, this project aims at creating women entrepreneurs and is also working to drive women workforce to market driven trade with the help of all concerned from public and private sectors,” said Dipta Rakshit, Team Leader, Ashshash project.
Md. Iftekhar Ali (Babu), President, NASCIB Khulna Metropolitan Branch chaired the meeting in Khulna while Mr. G. M. Nurul Islam Rony, President, NASCIB Satkhira District chaired the meeting in Satkhira.
