Light Engineering Trade Fair showcases 58 businesses from 41 districts

Diversification of the light engineering sector depends on effective policy support, public-private partnerships, technical and business information, innovation and sustainable development of technology and related products. Capacity development of industries, research and development facilities and removal of other barriers are also needed to boost the sector.

Experts made these observations while speaking on Monday at the inaugural ceremony of the two-day ‘Light Engineering Trade Fair’ organised by BRAC at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital. The fair is being held under BRAC’s ‘PRO-poor Growth of Rural Enterprises through Sustainable Skills-development’ (PROGRESS) project funded by European Union.

The three-year PROGRESS project began in February 2017, to support the growth of the country’s light engineering sector by developing dynamic and competitive micro and cottage enterprises.

Addressing the event as the chief guest, Salman F Rahman, Private Industry and Investment Adviser to the Prime Minister, lauded BRAC’s gender-inclusive strategy and said public-private partnership is one of the reasons light engineering sector is flourishing.

“The basic weakness of our economy is our excessive dependence on the readymade garments industry. We have to diversify our export capacity and products in which the light engineering sector will play a crucial role,” he said.

Manfred Fernholz, First Secretary of The Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Development Section of the European Union Delegation in Bangladesh, urged the government and the financial institutions to extend their support to the small engineering sector.

“The contribution of the light engineering sector measures up to 2.2 percent to Bangladesh’s GDP. Yet the sector has been suffering from lack of tech and financial support, skills development and infrastructure, which in turn makes the sector less competitive.”

Abdur Razzak, President of Bangladesh Engineering Industry Owners Association, observed that import of capital machinery requires only one percent import duty and no vat. “But 15 percent VAT on local production of the same capital machinery has been imposed to be effective from 1 July 2020. We want the VAT to be entirely lifted,” he said.

Chair of the event, Asif Saleh, Executive Director of BRAC, said, “We as an organisation continue to focus skills development in our 2020-2025 strategy as a committed development partner of the Bangladesh government. To effectively grow the skills development sector, Bangladesh must turn around its conventional perception about degree-based education and remove the stigma attached to vocational education,” he added.

Currently, 47 percent of our university graduates are unemployed and the solution lies in skills-based education focusing on the contemporary and future market needs, he said, adding, “Bangladesh government is doing the right thing by prioritising the light engineering sector in Mujib Barsha of 2020.”

A study by the project shows that the business productivity of light engineering workshop owners increased by 29 percent after the project intervention. A total of 500 people received training and support facilities to start their own businesses and among them 223 were female.

Approximately 9,865 youth received apprenticeship-based training, 98.65 percent of them were placed in jobs. Owners of 5,182 light engineering workshops received technical upgrade training. Additionally, 5,289 workshop owners received training on fair work conditions and health and safety at work. Seven hundred market committees received gender awareness and access to finance training.

Mr Obaidul Quader, Minister of Road Transport and Bridges, said, “Women drive vehicles abiding by the rules and in a calm manner. They are usually not substance abusers. They do not talk on mobile phones while driving. So the more women will be appointed as professional drivers, the lesser will be the risks of road accidents.”

The minister’s comment came today on Saturday (25 January) as he was addressing an audience as the chief guest of a ceremony to hand out certificates to women who successfully completed a course at BRAC Driving School in Dhaka city. Ms Kazi Rowshan Akhter, Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, attended the event titled ‘Women behind the wheel for road safety’ as special guest. Mr Asif Saleh, executive director of BRAC, chaired the ceremony.

BRAC’s initiative to train women as professional drivers to promote both road safety and women-friendly commuting system has drawn praise at home and abroad. This ceremony was organised for the 8th batch of learners in which 11 women enrolled and all of them passed and received driving licences. The 3-month training was conducted at BRAC Learning Centre at Uttara in the capital.

The ceremony began with one-minute silence paying tribute to the memory of BRAC’s founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. The main event started with a presentation titled ‘Women behind the wheel for road safety’ by Mr Ahmed Najmul Hussain, director of BRAC Administration and Road Safety Programme. According to the presentation, BRAC started its driving school in 2011, mainly to train people from disadvantaged families to produce skilled and quality professional vehicle drivers. Its 3-month residential course curriculum includes basic driving skills, safe driving techniques, basic repairs skills and professional conduct.

Mr Obaidul Quader further said in his speech, “We want other institutions to come forward to help women gain self-dependence. The aim of these initiatives will simply go in vain if women fail to get jobs even after successfully completing such several-month long courses. So both the government and private sectors have to clear their way to recruit women drivers. The government will consider this issue with more importance from now on.”

Kazi Rowshan Akhter in her secretary’s speech said, “It is also from a BRAC’s research we have learned that 94 percent women public transport users face one or other kind of sexual harassment. Women drivers in our country also deal with many kinds of challenges. We have to join hands in finding the roots of those challenges as well as the solutions.”

Ms Mercy Miyang Tembon, country representative of World Bank for Bangladesh and Bhutan, noted writer and researcher Mr Syed Abul Maksud, BRAC’s director Ms Anna Minj and representatives from Gono Shasthya Kendra, Nirapad Sarak Chai movement and road transport owners association were also present at the event.

Organisers further said BRAC Driving School so far trained 7,388 individuals in basic driving among which 1,973 are women. It trained 10,373 in professional driving of which 214 are women. A total of 599 women received training in motorbike driving. A large number of graduates from the BRAC Driving School are successfully working for different local, international and corporate organisations.

Since 2011, under BRAC’s community road safety awareness programme, over 1.2 million people have received training on safe use of roads. Also 5,451 schoolteachers and 498,000 schoolchildren received special awareness training on safe road use.

BRAC’s executive director Mr Asif Saleh in his chair’s speech said, “BRAC is considering taking its driving training school to every division and district of the country. BRAC also wants to establish a road safety institute. BRAC will continue its collaborative work with the government in future to ensure road safety, particularly to create a women-friendly road and transport system.”

(23 January 2020, Dhaka) Dr Charles Chen Yidan, founder of the Yidan Prize, visited Dhaka, Bangladesh, this week to present the prestigious award. Ms Tamara Abed and Mr Shameran Abed, children of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, accepted the award on his behalf at BRAC head office in Dhaka.

Dr Yidan presented the gold medal of the award to Ms Tamara Abed, his daughter and also the managing director of BRAC Enterprises and chairperson of the board of trustees of BRAC University. The certificate of the award was presented to Mr Shameran Abed, his son and also the senior director of BRAC Microfinance and Ultra-Poor Graduation Programme, at a ceremony organised on this occasion.

Sir Fazle was awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Development for his groundbreaking work on education in September 2019. During a visit to Sir Fazle in October 2019, the Yidan Prize Foundation learned directly from this iconic figure in international development about his visionary approach and pivotal role in changing the course of education in Bangladesh.

After Sir Fazle’s passing on 20 December 2019, Dr Charles Chen Yidan decided to visit Dhaka to pay his respect and present the award in person to his family. He also visited a BRAC school in the Korail slum in Banani and an early childhood development (ECD) centre - Play Lab in Banasree during his two-day visit to the city.

“Sir Fazle lived a life of service with true compassion, courage and conviction. He inspired everyone around him to choose optimism over despair and to believe in the potential of the human spirit. I believe that Sir Fazle will continue to be a source of inspiration for the world. The hundreds of millions of lives he transformed, especially those from the most vulnerable and poorest communities, will remember him as the spark of hope. The Yidan Prize Foundation will continue to work closely with BRAC to further scale up impactful educational programmes in Asia, Africa and beyond. Together, we can continue to help young, marginalised children find joy in their learning, and that those deprived of resources live happy and productive lives,” Dr Charles Chen Yidan said at the award ceremony.

Mr Shameran Abed read out the acceptance speech Sir Fazle drafted last year after the announcement of the prize.

“I would like to express my gratitude for the recognition bestowed upon both BRAC and me. The very generous Yidan Prize funding will allow us to expand our education activities further. I believe that education is the greatest equaliser. I envision a world where even the poorest among us have the opportunity to lead lives of purpose and dignity. I humbly request everyone to play their part in making this vision a reality,” Sir Fazle drafted in the speech.

“We are most honoured to receive the Yidan Prize on behalf of our father,” said Ms Tamara Abed. “We are committed to carry his legacy forward,” she added.

Sir Fazle always viewed education as a crucial catalyst for change. He firmly believed that it is about more than just schools and books. Play-based joyful learning is a cornerstone of BRAC's approach. BRAC has set up more than 1,400 play-based early childhood development centres across Bangladesh, Tanzania and Uganda, where close to 40,000 children aged 1 to 5 years are presently enrolled. In these centres pre-school children have access to age-appropriate play materials, a play-based curriculum and play spaces that ensure their holistic development.

As a Yidan Prize Laureate, Sir Fazle received a gold medal, a certificate and HK$30 million (around US$3.9 million), half of which is a cash prize and the other half a project fund.

“Addressing the needs of children in the most disadvantaged communities has always been a core priority for BRAC. The Yidan prize will support us in scaling up our play-based early childhood development solutions in Uganda and Tanzania and develop a new model of play-based childcare in Bangladesh”, Mr Asif Saleh, executive director of BRAC, commented.

The Yidan Prize project funding (approximately US$2 million) will be invested by BRAC in research, innovation and scaling up high-impact solutions related to early childhood development in the next three years. BRAC will also use part of the project fund to pilot a social enterprise of play-based childcare model in Bangladesh.

About the Yidan Prize

Founded in 2016, by Dr Charles Chen Yidan, a core founder of Tencent, the Yidan Prize has a mission of creating a better world through education. It consists of two awards, the Yidan Prize for Education Research and the Yidan Prize for Education Development. Yidan Prize Laureates each receives a gold medal and certificate, and a total sum of HK$30 million (around US$3.9 million), half of which is a cash prize while the other half is a project fund. To ensure transparency and sustainability, the prize is managed by the Yidan Prize Foundation and governed by an independent trust with an endowment of HK$2.5 billion (around US$323 million). Through a series of initiatives, the prize aims to establish a platform for the global community to engage in conversations around education and to play a role in education philanthropy.

About BRAC

BRAC is a global leader in developing cost-effective, evidence-based programmes, and has been ranked the #1 NGO in the world for the last four years consecutively by NGO Advisor. BRAC’s vision is a world free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination where everyone has the opportunity to realise their potential. Founded in Bangladesh in 1972, BRAC acts as a catalyst, creating opportunities for people to transform their lives. BRAC uses an integrated model to change systems of inequity, through social development programmes, humanitarian response, social enterprises, socially responsible investments and a university. BRAC operates in 11 countries across Asia and Africa.

BRAC and the German Development Bank (KfW), on behalf of the German Government have jointly launched a trust fund titled 'Climate Bridge Fund' on 15 January 2020, with an initial amount of 11.735 million Euro.

The 'Climate Bridge Fund' has been developed through a collaboration between the two organisations with the objective of strengthening the resilience of climate vulnerable communities in Bangladesh. The Fund was initiated in November 2019, and is now ready to start its activities.

At the core of the 'Climate Bridge Fund' activities will be vulnerable people in urban areas who are either displaced or at risk of being displaced due to the impacts of climate change. In the beginning, the Climate Bridge Fund will concentrate its support to vulnerable communities in Khulna, Barishal, Rajshahi, Satkhira and Sirajganj.

The individual projects will be undertaken by NGOs with expertise in urban slum areas which can apply for funding at the Climate Bridge Fund. Within a defined budget limit, BRAC will also implement projects with the funding of the Fund.

As the chair of the launching event; Asif Saleh, Executive Director, BRAC, said “Climate change is a critical challenge globally, and this will be the key focus of BRAC for the next five years. This fund is a unique initiative for Bangladesh which will encourage and enable sustainable operations as well as scaling up of traditional development projects into climate change projects”.

The launching event was held at the city's BRAC Centre Inn, where several high government officials, as well as members from different national and International NGOs and donor communities were present.

While addressing the event, Anirban Kundu, Country Director, KfW Development Bank said, 'KfW is proud to establish the Climate Bridge Fund together with BRAC. It is going to provide long term financing gaps in local level adaptations in urban areas'.

According to Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP II) 2014, one in every seven people in Bangladesh will be displaced due to climate change by 2050.

Many urban centres across the country will experience the challenges of a growing population due to climate-induced migration. People in rural areas, especially those living in poverty, will experience livelihood crises due to the adverse effects of climate change on natural resources and ecosystems. There is a significant statistical relationship between outmigration of farmers and global temperature, it reads.

The 7th Five Year Plan (7FYP) of the Government of Bangladesh states that the number of urban slums and people living in them will increase due to internal migration. This rapid inflow of migrants into slums will create a pressure of additional demands on basic services - employment opportunities, housing, water supply and sanitation, health, education, drainage and other infrastructure and facilities in all urban centres. These centres include Khulna, Barishal, Rajshahi, Satkhira and Sirajganj.

Regarding reducing the vulnerability of climate-induced displaced communities, H.E. Peter Fahrenholtz, Ambassador, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany said, 'Germany is committed to continue financing adaptation in LDCs and Emerging Countries.'

The life and livelihoods of people living in urban slums are becoming even more vulnerable without access to these basic services and exposure to various hazards - floods, waterlogging, heat waves, cold waves, droughts, cyclones and storm surges, salinity intrusion in ground/surface water, drainage congestion, and outbreaks of climate sensitive diseases.