FutureNation, a coalition to create economic opportunity for a million youth

A national consultation workshop was organised jointly by Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at the former's conference room on March 10, 2021 to introduce the FutureNation programme to different stakeholders.

FutureNation has emerged in the post- Covid world as a collective effort to create decent work and entrepreneurship opportunities for the nation. The program envisions enabling economic opportunities for all in Bangladesh by 2041. 

According to a press release, the government, private and development sector come together for the first time under the "FutureNation" coalition to accelerate the economic growth of Bangladesh after the Covid pandemic by enabling youth for a demographic dividend.

The programme will build the capacity of the youth workforce to contribute to the national economy and develop entrepreneurs.

Salman F Rahman, Private Sector Industry and Investment Adviser to the PM, highlighted the importance of the partnership between private and public sectors while inaugurating the workshop as the chief guest. 

He said, "It has been one of the most important agendas of our Prime Minister to have more and more public and private partnership for the country's graduation from LDC. Congregation like FutureNation, will not only help us to recover from the Covid but also make the future generation ready to withstand the 4th Industrial Revolution and even the 5th Industrial Revolution."

Dr Ahmad Kaikaus, Principal Secretary to the PM, attended the closing ceremony as the chief guest. 

While addressing the workshop, he said, "Youth constitutes 67% of the labour force. If we want to benefit from it, we must have a skilled youth demographic. FutureNation can play a significant role in building the next generation of our country, especially after Covid".

Sudipto Mukerjee, UNDP Resident Representative emphasised achieving economic independence beyond borders. 

"Half of our young population will enter the labour market over the next two decades, and with their contribution, Bangladesh will sustainably undertake and complete its journey toward being a fully developed nation. Even ahead of that, we have our eyes set on 2030, and we are already in the decade of action," he added in his welcome remarks.

Md Sirazul Islam, Executive Chairman, BIDA said that there is no alternative to improving the investment services for the development of our youth.

"FutureNation is such a program that can serve as the centrepiece of all these modules, and we must work together to make sure that we can thread the pieces together and give rise to the new Bangladesh, a Bangladesh where skill will be our commodity on the global market," he added.

Earlier, Jens Becker, Acting CEO of Grameenphone presented the keynote paper on FutureNation as a private sector lead as a post Covid-19 recovery workstream formed in 2020.

He emphasised on taking up a holistic approach involving, government, private and development Sector and solve it by working together.

Among others, representatives from the government, private sector, development partners were present.