INTRODUCTION

Selima Ahmed, a successful business women having long business experience had been
involved in several trade organization, founded BWCCI acutely feeling the need for a
nationwide Chamber of Commerce for women by persuading and mobilizing women
entrepreneurs, government and development partners in Bangladesh. The BWCCI,
established on June 20, 2001, is registered with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and
Firms (RJSCF) of Bangladesh Government. It is also affiliated with the Federation of
Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) as an A class chamber, since
which envisions womens economic empowerment and development for business women and
industrialists in Bangladesh. It is a non-profit, non-political organization, a strong community
voice, has been lobbying for women entrepreneurs working in both micro, and macro levels
to assist not only their growth but also improving their social and economic prospects. The
members of BWCCI are from the entire range of socio-economic continuum. It has already
emerged as an advocacy organization with increased acceptance among cross section of
people at the national and international level. I recognition of its contribution; the BWCCI
has achieved UN consultative status with its Economic and Social Council.
1.1 ORIGIN OF THE REPORT
The term report is itself an attempt to provide undergraduate students an orientation to a real
life situation, which helps to observe and evaluate the use and applicability of theoretical
concepts, which are taught in the classroom. The BBA program requires that the students
complete some practical work in the form of reports. This helps to introduce the students with
real life situations. As per the norms, this report is the requirement of the BBA program.

1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE REPORT

BWCCI is the only chamber in Bangladesh working tremendously for women
entrepreneurship and empowerment. This report will help the reader to:

Know what the chamber works mainly for.

BWCCIs objective to improve the stand of women.
Functions of BWCCI in the empowerment of women.
Importance of BWCCI in developing the women of the country
Role of BWCCI in the economy of Bangladesh.

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1.3 METHODOLOGY OF THE REPORT

In this report, we used both primary and secondary data. The sources of data are:
Primary Data Sources: Firstly, most of our group members being business background
students we had just a mild idea about BWCCI. Secondly, our group member Protick
Bhowmick personally had an appointment with Mr. Sayed Sultan Chand, Secretary, BWCCI
to gather more information on the topics like objectives and its role in the countrys economy.
Secondary Data Sources: Since the only source of gathering information about BWCCI was
the internet as the chamber is scarcely seen and heard of in social media. However, we were
successful in collecting journals and some of the chambers publications.
1.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE REPORT
Research work is very much comprehensive. It is an accumulation of both information and
creative thinking. It required great effort and sound planning to make this report. It is true that
we got help from many responsible people. Still we faced some problems. As we are new in
this field and it is one of our first report; we felt the lack of experience in every stage of our
work. However, we tried our level best to overcome this. On top of that, our topic was
BWCCI; which was not known by some. Even though one of our group members personally
visited the chamber himself for information, but the secretary was not so much cooperative as
expected. Nevertheless, in this sector we found some new concept as well. In this respect,
there may be some lacking in the report because of our knowledge limitation. We tried to
write the report in a sequential way. All errors are very unintentional. At the end, we are very
happy to present this report to the readers and its success will depend on the positive response
of the readers.

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2.1 OVERVIEW OF BWCCI

Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI) is a non-profit, nonpolitical organization established in June 2001 with an enlightened aim to encourage and
strengthen womens participation in the private sector as entrepreneurs through promoting a
women friendly business environment. BWCCI is the countrys first chamber of commerce,
which is exclusively working on womens economic and social empowerment. It is registered
with the government under the Ministry of Commerce. It is also registered with Joint stock
Company of Bangladesh Government. It has also been affiliated as an A class chamber
with the Federation of the Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), the
main umbrella organization of the trade bodies in Bangladesh, since 2008. BWCCI is a strong
community voice, lobbying for micro to macro women entrepreneurs to assists their growth
and to improve their social and economic prospects. Because of its unbroken efforts towards
promotion of a gender friendly business environment, private sector development and
grassroots women participation in economic sectors, BWCCI has already emerged as
advocacy organization with increased acceptance among cross section of people at the
national and the international level. In recognition of its contribution, BWCCI has achieved
UN consultative status with its Economic and Social Council. The rapid increases in its
membership from diversified sectors every year and expansion of its working areas and
services across the country may be mentioned here as one of the indicators of its successful
and
dynamic
journey
towards
its
enlightened
vision.
The women entrepreneurs of Bangladesh are energetic, willing to learn, innovative, hard
working, and are willing to take risks. Small amount of assistance is extremely effective for
them to graduate from micro to more sustainable small and medium sized entrepreneurs.
Recognizing this potential of women entrepreneurs to play a more effective role in private
sector development in the country, BWCCI was formed to act as a nucleus to assist, activate,
inform,
organize,
and
assimilate
Bangladeshs
women
entrepreneurs.
BWCCI is committed to being a leader of broad based economic development in Bangladesh
for businesspersons & industrialists. Our will is to support the women business community
by providing training, management & financial resource, expertise & support networks that
enable small businesses to succeed & prosper. We serve all businesses with a special focus on
small, micro rural women entrepreneurs. The members of BWCCI are individual
entrepreneurs of micro, small and medium enterprises and NGOs that are engaged in
promotion of women in business and economic sectors. The members of BWCCI are from
the entire range of socio-economic spectrum. Although the members are predominantly
engaged in various traditionally women dominated sectors, such as food, beauty, fashion,
health products, handicrafts etc., its membership is also increasing among the emerging group
of women entrepreneurs in various non-traditional businesses such as IT, media, publication
and other services.

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2.2 OBJECTIVE OF BWCCI

To mobilize economic growth among the urban and rural women of Bangladesh by
2020;
To ensure womens strong voice in all spheres of economic and political activity with
an aim to build a healthy and prosperous nation;
Become the most credible and strong voice among stakeholders in bringing about
policy, legal, social and regulatory changes;
Lead the nation towards progress through economic, political and social
empowerment of women;
To promote entrepreneurship among women in rural and urban areas through
Capacity Building program by counseling, training ,product and market
development;
To advocate for a gender friendly environment and policies enabling growth of
women owned enterprises.

2.3 FUNCTIONS OF BWCCI

The functions of BWCCI are mainly women entrepreneurship and empowerment. It stands as
the only organization since 2001 in Bangladesh working for women nationally. With strength
of 3000 members, it works extensively for women like organizing training sessions for
women, participating in trade fairs and so on. It mobilizes the economy among women both
in urban and rural areas. It also works to ensure a strong voice for women in all spheres of the
economy. It helps to promote advocacy for a gender friendly environment and growth of
women owned enterprise. The only nationally recognized enterprise for women, BWCCI
facilitates women entrepreneurship to get access to finance, develop network and partnership.
The chamber now acts as a national platform for urban and rural women entrepreneurs with
an aim to enhance their contributions in all spheres of life through attaining substantial
financial strength, recognition in family, society, economic and public life. It has tie-ups with
innumerable number of national and international organizations and embassies like European
Union, HITAL, IDRF and many more to put the women of Bangladesh at a level with other
nations. It aims to build a prosperous Bangladesh through progress and economic
empowerment of women. BWCCI has been successful in providing more than 7,000 women
with a source of earning through various ways like producing handicrafts, farming, lobbing in
different job sectors. Its function of advocacy for promoting the growth of women owned
enterprise is getting recognition.

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2.4 IMPORTANCE OF BWCCI

Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI) play a very important
role in the advocacy, entrepreneurship and empowerment of women nationally as the sole
body in the country working for women. Women consist of a substantial section of the
society and crimes like assault, trafficking and deprivation of women often hit the headlines.
Therefore, the only ways to overcome these crimes are to involve them in the economy and
make them self-dependent and self-sufficient. As we are, still not in the list middle-income
country, the fame can only be achieved through involvement of women in the economy,
which will help to remove the ongoing job crisis. The government also supports the chamber
by helping them with lobbing competent women in the job sector and allocating a fund of
BDT 1 billion in the national budget. It mainly works on advocacy of women like giving loan
to women at single digit interest and preference in job sector. There are many small women
based organizations but their scale of service is not as vast as BWCCI. Most of the members
of the BWCCI are holding high post jobs in public and private sector all over the country,
which helps them in giving preference to women in jobs. The government has started
allocating fund for BWCCI in the national budget and decreased the interest rate of loan for
women. The chamber has also proposed for a quota for women in the public sector jobs to
recruit women and help them remove the social barriers that we still see and hear very often
prevailing in the society.
2.5 ROLE OF BWCCI IN THE ECONOMY OF BANGLADESH
As the sole chamber working for women nationally, BWCCI has contributed to the national
economy quite a lot. The figure of BWCCIs contribution to the national economy cannot be
estimated in percentage of GDP but looking at the achievements. The list of few
achievements which have substantial contribution are given below:

Separate fund allocation in the national budget 2012-2013.

Collateral free loan for women at 10%; the lowest in the country.
About 9029 women entrepreneurs have received SME loan amounting to BDT
708,48,40,372 crore.
BWCCI training institute is under construction and is expected to be completed
promptly.
BWCCI has been awarded the Women Entrepreneurs Annual Progressive Award.
BWCCI President Mrs. Selima Ahmed received Oslo Business for Peace Award
2014.
BWCCI President Mrs. Selima Ahmed won the Islamic Development Bank (IDB)
Prize 2012.

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It was the sole proposal of BWCCI to appoint a woman as Deputy Governor of

Bangladesh Bank. As a result, one of the present Deputy Governors of Bangladesh
Bank is woman.

BWCCI also had raised voices for inclusion of women in the board of public
institutions. To mention some BWCCI Founder has been appointed as the Director of
Sonali Bank, BWCCI President as one of the board member of Janata Bank and Vice
President as the Director of Agrani Bank.
BWCCIs Director Farzana Chowdhury, MD of Green Delta Insurance Company.
BWCCIs Ex-Director selected as Director of MIDAS.

The above-mentioned achievements are just few of the many achievements. There are
more members in the public administration in different levels and corners. As it works for
women entrepreneurship throughout the country, thus making scope for employment in
the nation which is one of the root prevailing problems. There should be more fund
allocation for BWCCI in the upcoming and future budget so that BWCCI can carry no its
work more extensively.

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ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

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RECOMMENDATIONS

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CONCLUSION
In the report, we wanted to find out the role of BWCCI in the economy of Bangladesh. We
found out that the chamber works tremendously for women. The report we prepared was
harder than what we thought before. We had a real life experience about the chamber, which
was a great and hard experience for us. However, due to tremendous efforts of the team
members and the team spirit made it a boneless fish for us.
We had quite a lot of idea about other chambers but BWCCI was something new to know
about and explore. The experience of the interview with the secretary was something new and
innovative.
We had the best of our experience preparing the report. Our sincere thanks to our course
teacher Ms.Tahmina Rita Anika, Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies,
Jagannath University, for such a wonderful thought. We had a chance to prove and judge
ourselves where we stand.
Our sincere thanks to Mr.Sayed Sultan Chand, Secretary, BWCCI for giving us his precious
time from his busy schedule. Without having, an appointment with him this report would not
have taken its present form.
As Business Faculty students, we will have more such reports in future. We hope that our
further reports will also be as interesting as this.
All the information provided in this report is to the best of our knowledge. However, we
prepared this report with full attention and accuracy, any mistakes in this report is apologized.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFRENCE

All the information given in this report has been collected from relevant and dependable
sources. The information given in this report is to the best of our knowledge. We collected the
information from the BWCCI website. The description of our information sources are as
under:
Sl
No

LINKS
www.bwcci-bd.org/objectives

1.
2.

www.bwcci-bd.org

3.

www.bwcci-bd.org/achievements

www.facebook.com/bwcci-bd
NAME OF THE DESIGNATED PERSON

APPOINTME-NT ON

Mr.Sayed Sultan Chand

Secretary,
Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry

09:15 AM
May 10, 2015

Gulshan Grace, Apt: 2C(1st Floor)

House:8, Block: CWS(C)
South Avenue, Gulshan-1
Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh.
Mobile: +88 01971 522 858
E-mail: ssultan@bwcci-bd.org

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