Terming problems of food safety and malnutrition as endemic, speakers at a function here on Monday urged the private sector entrepreneurs to come up with commercially viable and innovative solutions in the markets. There are a plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs to make significant gains in the market through innovative solutions, the speakers noted.
The investors will also be sensitized through this pitch competition to ensure large scale investment for nutritious and safe food, they added. The speakers said about 31 percent children (aged under five) are stunted, 26 percent deaths are caused by poor diets and 77 percent garment workers are suffering from anemia. Investment in the sector may solve malnutrition problem and also bring Bangladesh to the super highway of development, they added.
They called on the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) for bringing innovative solutions for improved nutrition. They stressed on innovative SMEs that can provide big and inspiring investment solutions for improving nutritional status. They made the remarks while addressing the Dhaka Road Show titled ‘Bangladesh NutriStar: Nutrition Innovation Challenge’ at Daffodil International University (DIU) in the capital on Monday.
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and World Food Programme (WFP) organized the event in association with DIU and LightCastle Partners.
Moderated by Bijon Islam, CEO of LightCastle Partners, Collen O’Connor, nutrition officer of WFP, Asif Iqbal, lecturer of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Daffodil International University, Syed Muntasir Ridwan, national coordinator of Sun Business Network (SBN), Bangladesh, Zia Ashraf, co-founder and COO of Chaldal.com and Subrata Kumar Kundu, co-founder and CEO of Bhalo Social Enterprise, among others, spoke at the event.