The country's apex trade body has sought Canada's cooperation in technical education to fulfil job skills requirements for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR).
Leaders of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) also said the changes in the labour market brought by the Covid-19 pandemic and the 4IR will require new skills in the world job market.
Bangladesh needs Canada's assistance in improving the quality of technical education to meet new requirements of skills, they added.
The businessmen made the call at a virtual meeting of Canada-Bangladesh Joint Working Group on Strengthening Commercial Relations held on Tuesday night.
Syed Almas Kabir, a member of the working group and director of the FBCCI, presented a report on information technology and education at the meeting.
According to access to information (a2i), the report said the 4IR will make 50 per cent of the job vulnerable in Bangladesh by 2030.
"If Canadian technical education institutes set up campuses in Bangladesh or invest in joint ventures with local institutes in these sectors, it will become mutually beneficial for both the countries," said Mr Kabir.
As per the data presented in the meeting, 91.40 per cent of the labour force working in various sectors of Bangladesh has received no training.
By 2025, 7.2 million people will need sector-based training which will reach 9.75 million by 2030 and more than 29 million by 2050, it added.
The skills especially in cyber security, sensors and machine intelligence algorithm, big data and analytics, block chain-distributed ledger technology, simulation, visualization and digital twin, industrial internet of things, autonomous robots, neural networking and machine learning, 3D printing, cloud edge computing, human-machine cooperation, virtual augmented reality will appear to be necessary, the report mentioned.
FBCCI director Md. Saiful Islam, also president of MCCI, Dhaka, recommended undertaking exchange activities between Bangladesh and Canadian training institutes.
Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BPGMEA) president Shamim Ahmed urged the Canadian counterpart to establish linkages between training institutes of BPGMEA and Canada.
