Call for corporate tax exemption for women entrepreneurs for the next 10 years
Although the number of women entrepreneurs has increased a lot in the world, but the number is not increasing much in Bangladesh. Women entrepreneurs are not coming up due to various obstacles. Only 2-3 percent of women entrepreneurs are active in the ICT sector. In order to create women entrepreneurs in the country, the concerned dignitaries in the ICT sector have called for waiving corporate tax on women entrepreneurs for the next 10 years.
They opined so at the 'International Girls in ICT Day' virtual meeting organized by the ICT department on Thursday (April 22).
Speaking as the chief guest, State Minister for Information and Technology Junaid Ahmed Palak said thousands of modern Sheikh Russell digital computer labs would be set up across the country in the coming years. To encourage women in the ICT sector, a central dashboard will be created to increase girls' access to these labs.
He said, 'We are setting up Sheikh Russell Digital Computer Lab in primary schools in the country. Our target is to set up 35,000 modern Sheikh Russell Digital Computer Labs by 2025. This will give more impetus to girls' ICT and we are creating a central dashboard for girls to have access to it.
The state minister for ICT said that besides imparting education in technology-based education from the primary level, importance was given to four issues in the development of women in the ICT sector.
He said, “In order to add ICT to girls, the first thing they need to do is to educate them from primary to technology-based education, introduce them to modern technology, provide training as well as mentoring and monitoring and provide financial support to women entrepreneurs. We are doing all that. '
Syed Almas Kabir, President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), called for corporate tax exemption for women entrepreneurs for the next 10 years.
"In the budget, we have submitted to the NBR, we have said that in order to create a fund of 300 crore taka, only soft loans to women entrepreneurs at 2 percent interest will be given from that fund," she said. This will increase the number of women entrepreneurs in the country.
In the BPO sector, women are doing better than men. 35-40 percent of women are working in this sector. However, if some obstacles are overcome, women will go further in this sector, said Wahid Sharif, President, BACCO.
Tina F. Jabin, Managing Director, Startup Bangladesh Limited, KAM Morshed, Senior Director, BRAC, Syed Tanvir Hossain, Chief Human Resource Officer, Grameenphone and Orla Murphy, Country Director, Plan International were present in the program while Prof. Dr. Lafifa Jamal, Dhaka University Professor of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering hosted the program.
