Speakers at a webinar called for creating an enabling environment for investment in digital agriculture as well as internet-plus rural infrastructure and communication to boost knowledge intensity and efficiency in production and delivery of social, financial and technical services in rural areas, reports BSS.
The webinar on ‘Post COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities for Entrepreneurship and Employment in Agro-based Industry’ was held on Saturday evening jointly organized by Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and France Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCIFB), said a press release on Monday.
Addressing at the webinar as the chief guest, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Office Dr Ahmad Kaikaus underscored the greater role from all stakeholders for agro-based production and processing in post-COVID-19 economic recoveries and food security.
He said schemes have been taken by the government covering all agro- based production and processing, including aquaculture and livestock to support commercial and entrepreneurial agriculture, especially to meet the credit needs of SMEs.
He further said that a special program has been approved by the Prime Minister for developing the food processing sector that will increase the contribution of agriculture to economic growth, employment and export.
In response to the proposal made by Director of Business France Eric Fajole, the Principal Secretary commented that Bangladesh welcomes foreign collaboration including foreign investments in R&D and agro-based processing and also emphasized that Bangladesh believes in balanced trade cooperation between Bangladesh and France.
In his opening remarks, the President, CCIFB Syed Mahmudul Huq said that agriculture in Bangladesh played the most important role in providing food security, creating jobs, generating income and reducing poverty since independence.
Currently, the share of agriculture in GDP is around 13 percent, while its share in employment is close to 40 percent indicating a much lower agricultural productivity, he added.
He said the pandemic has further aggravated the situation with the migration of urban jobless workers and the overseas returning workers to the rural areas. In times of crisis, agriculture has always been the shock absorber-the savior.
Whenever a crisis struck, as in the ongoing pandemic, we have returned to agriculture-for food and for livelihoods, he added.
He emphasized the combined efforts of the Government, the France- Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIFB) and academia to make agriculture not only as of the guarantor of food security but also it emerges as an engine of growth for the overall economy.
