Desk Report:
Industries, Commerce and Textiles and Jute Minister Khandaker Abdul Muktadir has said that income inequality has increased due to the alarming decline in the rate of new entrepreneurs in the country in the last 12-15 years. He said that very few new entrepreneurs have been created in the past years. Those who already owned industries and factories have basically become bigger. And the main reason behind this was the shortage of gas.
The minister said these things while speaking as the chief guest at a program organized on the occasion of International MSME Day 2026 at the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) auditorium in Agargaon in the capital on Sunday (June 28, 2026).
The Industries Minister said, ‘The rate at which new entrepreneurs were created in the country from 1991 to 2006 has drastically decreased in the next 10-15 years. As a result, the economic flow has remained confined to certain hands. This is a major recipe for increasing income inequality and we have followed that. As a result, income inequality has increased a lot compared to 15-20 years ago.’
Referring to the global index of income inequality, the minister said, ‘The scale of income disparity is from zero to one. The higher the index goes, the greater the inequality. This inequality here is much higher than before.’
Comparing it with neighboring countries, Abdul Muktadir said, ‘The contribution of the MSME sector to the GDP of Vietnam, Cambodia and even India-Pakistan is much higher than ours. The contribution of this sector to our GDP is only 25 percent. We want to increase it further. Because there is no alternative to strengthening the MSME sector to keep the lifeblood of the economy dynamic.’
Expressing the government’s plan to create new entrepreneurs, the minister said, ‘We are moving forward with a broad-based plan. A mentorship program is being launched to create new entrepreneurs. A project to set up new industrial parks in Pabna, Sylhet and Nilphamari’s Saidpur has been taken up through BSCIC. In addition, new feasibility studies will be conducted in industrial parks where plots have been completed and more parks will be built.’
Regarding the gas crisis and industrialization, he said, ‘In the future, we will pay more attention to industries that consume less energy. And we are working sincerely to solve the crisis by fully utilizing the production capacity of the factories that are currently suffering from gas crisis.’
Regarding the theme of this year’s International MSME Day – ‘People-oriented inclusion in an AI-based future: Economic empowerment of the next generation of MSME sector’, the minister commented that inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurship development using the benefits of technology is very timely in the era of artificial intelligence.
The event, chaired by Industries Secretary Abdun Naser Khan, was also addressed by Women Entrepreneurs Association of Bangladesh President Nasreen Fatema Awal, International Labour Organization (ILO) Bangladesh Chief Max Tunon, and SME Foundation Managing Director Anwar Hossain Chowdhury.
Nazim Ahmed Sattar of SME Foundation and Ferdous Ara Begum, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Business Initiative Leading Development (BILD) presented two papers at the event. Earlier, a colorful rally was held to mark the day.
