Facebook to provide training to 10,000 youths

Facebook will provide training on digital marketing under its '#BoostYourBusiness' programme to 10,000 IT-trained youths of Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment and Governance (LICT) Project of ICT division within the next six months.

State minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak inaugurated the training workshop at the auditorium of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) today.

"The social media has created a new dimension in mutual communication as well as marketing of products," Palak said adding the leading brand and commercial companies, small and medium entrepreneurs and individuals are using the popular social media Facebook to grow their business and as a result employment opportunities are being created.

The ICT minister said in this age of technology digital marketing skill is imperative for the entrepreneurs to reach out to the customers and ensure access to the global markets, adding, this training would help contribute to Bangladesh's journey towards digital economy and building Digital Bangladesh.

"We are implementing digital Bangladesh under the dynamic leadership of prime minister Sheikh Hasina and at the instruction of prime minister's ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy," Palak said, adding the government put its best endeavour to develop all regions and mainstreaming everyone with a view to improving the fate of people.

The state minister said the programmes like Facebook's `#BoostYourBusiness' would contribute to encourage entrepreneurship and provide global visibility which would help the growth of business and boost economy.

Executive director of BCC Swapan Kumar Sarker, LICT project director Md Rezaul Karim, LICT Component Team Leader Sami Ahmed, Head of Programmes - South Asia at Facebook, Ritesh Mehta and Chief Executive Officer of Multimedia Content and Communications (MCC) Ashraf Abir were present.

Over 300 small and medium entrepreneurs participated in the workshop.

Facebook's head of programmes forSouth Asia region Ritesh Mehta said through the launch of our #BoostYourBusiness programme, the Facebook aims to equip SMEs of Bangladesh with the right skills needed to effectively reach out to new customers and expand their businesses.