The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency recently organised '#DhakaTalksInnovation', a hybrid event to discuss urbanisation challenges and how entrepreneurs might be able to provide solutions.
The Netherlands Enterprise Agency’s Orange Corners team is currently in Bangladesh to understand the business environment for startups and young entrepreneurs in Dhaka and Chittagong.
The team has done similar mappings in several countries in Africa and the Middle East, according to a media release received today (Thursday).
“I hope that our future generation comprises entrepreneurs who will foster a culture of sustainable and inclusive knowledge in Bangladesh. As our honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, one country cannot go it alone. This is a global village. Let us work together to make the world a better place,” said Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Bangladesh’s Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology, via a video message to the panelists and the audience on Wednesday.
The discussion was moderated by Theodore Klouvas, who invited the audience to bring their questions to the panel, which consisted of Anita Ghazi Rahman, Abdul Bari, Sonia Bashir Kabir, Siffat Sarwar and Shazeeb Khairul Islam.
Speaking during the discussion, Theodore A Klouvas, Policy Ofï¬cer, Youth, Education, and Work, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands said, “By understanding the ecosystem, we hope to be able to propose to the Embassy in Dhaka how we can empower the future generations of this country. We want to understand how the generation is affected or supported by the education system, from a governance perspective, and from the perspective of local service providers. We want to know that there are individuals who are nurturing these bright ideas.”
They also discussed the following bold statements, designed to make panelists and audience members think critically about their roles in bettering Dhaka’s future: Entrepreneurs can make Dhaka disaster-proof, investing in green climate-related innovations is the only way forwards for Dhaka and the high-density and human capital will make Dhaka the smartest square km in the region.
As the Netherlands and Bangladesh near their 50-year anniversary of bilateral relations, this event underlined the boost in the economic relationship between the two countries, the release added.
“I like to observe what people are doing, and where there are problems to be resolved. I want us to promote a culture of experimentation. By that, I mean that people should be more accepting of failure. I think, as a culture, we are always promoting success stories and applauding success stories. But the real success comes after hundreds of failures. We need to encourage a more experimenting mindset across the country,” said Siffat Sarwar, Co-Founder, ShopUp, while taking part in the discussion.