“We are working to develop a pool of skilled youth and create self-employment opportunities by utilising their immense energy and potential,” he said while presenting the proposed national budget for the fiscal year 2025-26.

He said the ‘Tarunyer Utshob (Youth Festival) 2025’ has been celebrated with huge enthusiasm around the theme 'Let's change the country, change the world'. “To create self-employment, the ceiling of youth loans given to trained youths across the country has been increased to a maximum of Tk 2,00,000.”

The adviser said the loan ceiling for successful young entrepreneurs has been increased to Tk 5,00,000. “Besides, I propose to create a new fund of Tk 100 crore for the young entrepreneurs. This is the first time such a fund is going to be created.”

Besides, Salehuddin said a project has been undertaken to create employment opportunities by providing training and credit facilities to 9 lakh youths by December 2028. “Self-employment generating projects have also been undertaken for the family members of the injured and martyrs of the July Mass Uprising.”

From January 2025, he said freelancing training activities have been started for 28,800 educated and job-seeking youths in 48 districts of the country. “To involve the youth more deeply in the process of development of the country, I propose to allocate Tk 100 crore for the celebration of ‘Tarunyer Utshob (Youth Festival)' in the next fiscal year.”

To make the young people of the country ready to meet the demand of the domestic and global market, the adviser said steps have been taken to provide world-class technical training certificates by developing a technical training curriculum.

“Besides, activities are underway to establish linkages between industries, training institutes and academia to ensure job placement through demand assessment, curriculum development based on that demand and providing education/training according to the curriculum,” he said.

To continue the growing trend of developing skilled human resources, Salehuddin said a special program is being implemented to connect export-oriented and small and medium industries with global high value chains and increase their competitiveness. “Through this program about 2,20,000 people will be trained in different professions.”