The Bangladesh government will formulate a policy guideline for informal sector to help ensure its sustainable growth and increase contribution to the national economy.

To this effect, the Informal Sector Industry Skills Council (ISISC) is outlining a draft policy to submit it to the Ministry of Industries (MoI) by next month (June). Based on the draft, the ministry will form a policy for the sector.

This development was disclosed at a workshop on 'Drafting Policy Guideline for the Informal Sector Industries' at a city hotel on Monday.

Abdul Halim, secretary of the MoI, was the chief guest of the programme, while Begum Parag, additional secretary of the ministry, chaired it.

Sushen Chandra Das, consultant of the ISISC, presented the keynote paper.

Toumo Poutiainen, Bangladesh representative of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Md Faruk Hossain, executive chairman of the National Skills Development Authority (NSDA), and Mirza Nurul Ghani Shovon, chairman of the ISISC, among others, spoke on the occasion.

About 2.0 million youths enter into the job market in Bangladesh each year. Of the total, about 87 per cent is engaged in informal sector, the workshop was told.

Entrepreneurs and workers of the sector face different types of problems, which are not properly addressed in the National Industrial Policy. For this reason, sustainable growth of the sector is hampered.

In this situation, the speakers suggested forming a policy for informal sector as early as possible to help achieve the country's economic goals.

The ISISC is implementing a project on 'Strengthening the Capacity of ISISC' with the cooperation of the ILO to formulate the policy.

As a part of the initiative, a number of workshops have been held in different districts with the participation of stakeholders to incorporate their opinions in the policy.