Dhaka: Speakers at a policy dialogue have underscored the need for highlighting the success stories of local social enterprises in academic curricula and training courses to create entrepreneurs in the country.

Knowledge and training about social entrepreneurship need to be provided to university students across the disciples with a view to creating young social entrepreneurs, they said at the  dialogue titled 'Social Enterprise: Policy and Practice' at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city on Wednesday.

‘Students should be given knowledge and training about social entrepreneurship in the first and second years of the university across the disciples to create young social entrepreneurs,’ said University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman AK Azad Chowdhury.

The British Council Bangladesh in partnership with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) organised the two-day dialogue that began on Wednesday.

Some 100 policy experts, social enterprises, social investment intermediaries and practitioners from Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, Myanmar, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Singapore, the UK and Bangladesh are attending the dialogue.

Besides, representatives from Brac, Shujog as well as Social Enterprise UK are taking part in the programme.

Presiding over a session on 'Social Enterprise in Higher Education', the UGC Chairman said traditional concept of the social entrepreneurship cannot resolve the present-day crises of the world as it breeds inequality, distortion and vices of the system. ‘People have now realised to make a sustainable equitable socially just development.’

But in this context, Bangladesh is a leader of social entrepreneurship and this is very popular system, developed for a quite long, he added.

‘We've large social enterprises like Brac, Grameen Bank as well as Square Group to some extent. So, our local enterprises should be highlighted in the higher academic curricula and professional training courses,’ Azad said.

Professor of the Institute of Business Administration at Dhaka University Syed Ferhat Anwar said the examples of the country's local success stories need to be included in higher education curricula and professional training for creating young entrepreneurs.

‘One thing is missing here. Local success stories need to be focused – like Grameen Bank, Brac and Square -- in our curriculum. There’re examples of western entrepreneurs in our books,’ he said.

He said people working in every sector need to have an understanding of social entrepreneurship.

President of Bangladesh Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Rokia Afzal Rahman, Independent University Vice Chancellor Dr Omar Rahman, Bangladesh Bank Chief Economist Birupakhsa Paul, Policy Adviser at the Prime Minister's Office Anir Chowdhury, Deputy British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Mark Clayton, Policy Director of Social Enterprise UK Daniel Hugh Gregory and Shujog Founder Durren Shahnaz, among others, spoke at the dialogue.