Entrepreneurship that brings structural transformation in the economy is essential for least developed countries, according to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Report 2018. Transformational entrepreneurship bringing innovation and growth and increasing the productive capacity is necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Government development policies and agendas must be coherent to achieve these goals.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organised a press briefing in Dhaka on 22 November 2018 to launch the report subtitled, “Entrepreneurship for structural transformation: Beyond business as usual”, prepared by the UNCTAD, coinciding with the report’s global launch on the same day. UNTAD’s LDC Report is an annual publication which highlights the state of economic development in the LDCs with opportunities and challenges of these countries.
Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Research Director, CPD, unveiled the salient features of the report and laid out a comparative analysis of Bangladesh’s performance and recent entrepreneurship trends in the LDCs to relate to the relevant policy interventions stated in it.
The balance of firms in LDCs is heavily skewed towards smaller establishments. Most enterprises are small which only account for an employment share of 20% in all LDCs. Women are underrepresented in top management, as only 15% of firms have a woman as top management. The major constraints in establishing entrepreneurship are namely – entry barriers, lack of access to energy, digital connectivity, gender discrimination and many others. To tackle these challenges, policies should be focused on both sector specific and across sectors. These policies should be consistent with other government policies and harnessing opportunities in the ICT sector, development of entrepreneurial skill and linkage between firms of different size.
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow, CPD, spoke about the need of a competitive environment required amongst entrepreneurs. Because of political linkages, businessmen fail to advocate for the common community interest.
Dr Fahmida Khatun, Executive Director, CPD, said that the innovation and productive capacity has to be built through high value products. She also stated that the inclusive use of technology needs to be ensured.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, CPD, said that economy has to be transformative to embrace the forth industrial revolution. Entrepreneurship is very important to tackle the challenges of jobless growth.
The briefing was followed by a question and answer session with journalists from the print and electronic media.