Monowara Tells of Better Days for Women Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh
New Age Business October 20, 2018
Congratulations to IWEC Past Awardee and Chittagong’s Women’s Chamber of Commerce president, Monowara Hakim Ali, on this interview! And on her initiatives! We are very honored to have Monowara in our IWEC network!
—
Women entrepreneurs should avail incentives, trainings and loans provided by the government, which is planning to take more initiatives aimed at women empowerment, says Monowara Hakim Ali, president of Chittagong Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Monowara, who was the first woman to be elected vice-president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry and served as vice-president of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is a successful leader in different areas of trade and commerce.
She was the founder of Genetica (BD), the country’s lone butterfly park and vice-chairperson of Intraco Group.
Born in 1958 in Chattogram in a family of businessmen, Monowara has proved that if will power and chances mingle, women can rule the world.
Starting with hotel business, she successfully diversified her activities into various fields like renewable energy, real estate, tourism, medicine, food and beverage and agriculture.
‘I consider myself blessed to be born in Chattogram, which is the business hub. The people of this region possess entrepreneurial spirit and my family was not an exception,’ she tells New Age in an interview.
She was the first woman to be involved in the hospitality and tourism industry in Bangladesh when she took charge of Hotel Hawai. For inspiring her to set foot into the area which was completely a world for male, not for female, Monowara is grateful to her father. To maintain his legacy, Monowara ran Hotel Hawai for ten years. She received her degree in the hospitality industry from London.
She then got involved with Intraco Travels and Tours which was the first inbound tourism company.
She was the founder of Genetica (BD) which produces organic fertilisers.
Once in an international flight, she encountered a foreign consultant who revealed and shared with Monowara how the chemical fertilisers would be a serious threat to public health.
It changed her mind and she set up a small factory in the warehouse of Hotel Agrabad Chattogram. But businessmen who had been producing chemical fertilisers tried to resist the move but Monowara, with strong zeal and passion, overcame the hurdle.
‘I also faced resistance when I set up Intraco. It became one of the fastest growing companies in Bangladesh since its inception in 2005. Intraco Group has 18 companies under its umbrella covering industries like oil and gas, telecommunications, renewable energy, real estate, tourism, amusement and hospitality,’ she says.
