A joint initiative of The Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) titled 'Dialogue' on finding ways to develop private sector business and create skilled employment in Chittagong was held at a hotel in the city on Tuesday.
At that time, Chamber President Omar Hazzaz, Cox's Bazar Chamber President Abu Morshed Chowdhury, ILO Country Director Tuomo Poutiainen, Chamber Directors Anjan Shekhar Das and Omar Muktadir, prominent businessman Salahuddin Kasem Khan, former Chamber Director Mohammad Nasirul Alam (Fahim), Chamber Secretary Engr. Mohammad Faruq, BEPZA and BEZA officials, footwear, shipping, IT, e-commerce, tourism, electronics, logistics, textile and RMG sectors were present.
Chittagong Chamber President Omar Hazzaz said, Chittagong is one of the business hubs of the country. Here is the country's largest Bangabandhu Industrial City. Where employment will be created for about 15 lakh people. In addition, Chittagong has 3 public-private export processing zones, special economic zones and industrial cities of BSIC to create employment opportunities for millions of people. Also Chittagong and Cox's Bazar and Chittagong Hill Tracts have immense potential for tourism. There is also great employment potential here. To exploit this potential, he laid emphasis on finding ways of business development and employment creation and quality training to develop skilled workers.
President of Cox's Bazar Chamber, Abu Morshed Chowdhury, said that skilled manpower is required for the development of tourism, eco-tourism and marine tourism, blue economy and salt industry in Cox's Bazar. But there is no statistics on how much manpower is required in these sectors. So the ILO and trade organizations can play a role in building skilled manpower by identifying employment numbers.
ILO representatives conducted a survey for a total of 5 sectors in Chittagong and Cox's Bazar regions and identified 49 skill categories. ILO expressed interest in working jointly with the Chittagong Chamber for skill development in these 49 categories.