Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman emphasised on the need for establishing special economic zones for women entrepreneurs so that they can come forward and participate at the country’s development process.

He also called upon everybody to change their mindsets towards women and said wrong mindset about women is one of the major challenges that hampers their success both in social and business lives.

Atiur came up with the call while addressing as chief guest the inauguration of a day-long ‘Women Entrepreneurs Conference and Products Display” held at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital on Thursday.

The SME and Special Programme Department of Bangladesh Bank in cooperation with all banks, non-banking financial institutions, JICA, CARE Bangladesh and Standard Chartered Bank arranged the programme in order to encourage women entrepreneurship by speeding up financing to the projects undertaken by women entrepreneurs.

Abul Kashem, Deputy Governor, Professor Hannana Begum, Director of Bangladesh Bank, Mikio Hataeda, Chief Representative of JICA Bangladesh, Jamie Terzi, Country Director of CARE Bangladesh, Kazi Akram Uddin, President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Ali Reza Iftekhar, President of the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh, Rokia Afzal,

 President of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mohammad Shahjahan Khan, President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry addressed the programme as special guest.

Nirmal Chandra Bhakta, Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank chaired.

The participation of women in managerial posts of different organisations has been increased remarkably, Dr. Atiur said mentioning that women participation which was 19 percent in the managerial posts 10 years earlier has now jumped to 24 percent.

“Financing the projects of women entrepreneurs would be profitable investment for the banks, now-a-days,” Atiur said.

“The women entrepreneurs are never get defaulters. After taking loans from the banks they repay it in time which is a great opportunity for the banks to invest,” he added.

Addressing the programme, Kazi Akram Uddin informed that there are seven women chambers in the country now. 10 other applications to establish women chambers has also been submitted. He hoped that women chamber will established at every districts of the country.

Calling upon the women to come forward to invest in productive sectors, Akram also emphasized on the necessity of changing everybody’s mindset in this connection. Women are investing in many sectors which are generating huge employment also also contributing lot to the country’s economy, said Abul Kashem.

Calling upon the government to institutionalise women entrepreneurship, Rokia Afzal said that women are facing various obstacles in doing business.

Jamie Terzi said that the uplift of female community is the major provision of entire development of a nation while it is necessary to involve the women in economic activities to enjoy such development.

Mentionable, around 500 women entrepreneurs participated in the conference to display their products and services. A total of 78 stalls were set up at the venue where the entrepreneurs displayed their products.