TV24 DESK: Aiming to increase the knowledge and skills of startups in Bangladesh, Bangladesh and South Korea jointly organized the “ideaTHON” contest to develop the country’s startup ecosystem. This contest has been initiated by the iDEA project of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) under the ICT Division a few months back. Now, it is a matter of great pleasure that the 10 young innovators from the top 5 winning startups of ideaTHON already reached successfully to take the 6 months of training in South Korea on 8th March 2021.
The winners of the ideaTHON Contest met the Hon’ble State Minister of ICT Division of Bangladesh Mr. Zunaid Ahmed Palak MP on March 4, 2021, at the ICT Tower in Agargaon, Dhaka. The State Minister congratulated the winners on their journey to Korea and wished them well in their safe tour. Earlier, on Wednesday, 3 March 2021, the winning teams had a face-to-face meeting with the Hon’ble Ambassador of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Bangladesh H.E. Lee Jang-keun, and were also greeted by the Korean Ambassador. He thanked on behalf of the team of South Korea all the talented winners who took part in such an event, even in the Corona situation.
Later, on 8 March 2021, the 5 winning teams started for South Korea. In the next 6 months, these young innovators from Bangladesh will work with Korean experts, inventors, and administrators to develop their business and commercialization opportunities. The Korea Productivity Center (KPC) and the Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA) will assist to provide training and improve the startups. It will also support communicating with international entrepreneurs and private investors as well as obtain international patents, designs, copyrights, and trademark rights. The project director (Additional Secretary) of the iDEA Project Syed Mojibul Huq stated that through this training, these emerging startups of the country will be able to brighten the name of the country by establishing their businesses in the future as well as bring a lot of foreign investment in Bangladesh.
The five winning teams of the “ideaTHON” contest which is organized on the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, were finally selected through a tough competition among 3147 applicants last December 2020. Finally, awards were handed over to the winners at the closing ceremony of the event held on December 24, 2020. The top 5 teams were are Krishian, Char Chokka Limited, ANTT Robotics Limited, Rokkhi Limited and Chobir Baksho.
An MOU was signed among the Ministry of Justice of South Korea, ICT Division (Bangladesh), the Korea Productivity Center (KPC) and the Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA) at Seoul International Innovation Fair 2019. In this light, KPC and KIPA are the co-organizers of the “ideaTHON” contest held for the benefit of startups. In addition, the ICT Division, Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Computer Council, the Ministry of Justice of South Korea and the Global Start-up Immigration Center of South Korea are playing important roles as partners in this event.