Ministry of Commerce has launched a $40 million new fund under the Export Competitiveness for Jobs (EC4J) project for infrastructure investments in order to create around 90,000 fresh jobs and to boost export of leather and leather goods, footwear, plastics and light engineering sectors.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi joined the launching ceremony as the chief guest through a virtual platform on Wednesday while Commerce Secretary Md Jafar Uddin, representative from the World Bank and business leaders from the concerned sectors, among others, joined it, said a press release.
In his speech, Tipu Munshi urged the exporters to come forward for increasing the country’s export as the government is providing all sorts of support to the exporters.
“The present government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is business-friendly. Bangladesh has the potential to move ahead in competitive export trade. Bangladesh’s export trade is moving forward,” he added.
The commerce minister said Bangladesh’s main export products are Ready-made garments, leather and leather products, footwear, light engineering and plastics products.
To diversify the products, he said, the Ministry of Commerce is supporting the Export Competitiveness for Jobs (EC4J) project.
Under this project, he said, the program titled Public Investment Facility for Infrastructure Constraints (PIFIC) has been launched.
PIFIC has approximately $40 million available in grants and technical assistance, which is expected to cover 15-20 infrastructure projects within industrial clusters around the country.
