A week to promote e-commerce

Organisers and partners at the press conference.IT & Telecom Report

For the first time in the country, e-commerce week will be held from tomorrow in the capital.

The programme with the theme 'Shop online: Anytime. Anything' has been organised by the Bangladesh Bank along with Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS).

Dr. Atiur Rahman, governor of Bangladesh Bank will inaugurate the week at the Westin Hotel in the capital in the morning.

Several roundtable discussions, technical seminar and special awareness program will be held throughout the week.

At a press conference, Shameem Ahsan, senior vice president, BASIS and convener of the e-commerce week said the main objective of e-commerce week is to encourage mass people to shop online, to include businesses in e-commerce activities and to address the existing challenges in implementation of e-commerce through discussion and roundtable in policy level.

He also said “e-commerce is not just about shopping online, it can play a key role in the development of our socio-economic situation, it can create employment, and we can also promote our services and products to foreign countries through e-commerce.”

There will be also 'Startup Weekend Dhaka', part of an international event where young entrepreneurs get directions and training and get introduced to actual investors so that they can start their business with investment.

The Startup Weekend Dhaka will be held on IUB campus from 10-12 January.

On January 11 and 12, there will be exhibitions on e-commerce at Bashundhara City Mall in the capital as a part of special awareness program.

The week-long porgramme will end with a concert at Rabindra Sarobar on January 12.

Dasgupta Ashim Kumar, general manager, Bangladesh Bank said, “We are not being able to implement clean money policy due to some limitations. Perhaps there is no other country where trades are done through such old notes. We can replace it if we adopt card, internet payment or mobile banking �” e-commerce.”

Nazneen Sultana, deputy governor, Bangladesh Bank said, “I think if we can fully uitilise e-commerce, there will be no use of cheques let alone cash.”

Taufiq Hassan, head of cards, BRAC Bank at the event said e-commerce is a sector which will work to expand business.”There is no alternative to e-commerce considering the ever increasing workload and the problem we are facing in communicating or commuting,” he said.

bKash, Payza, Oscom, Shurjomukhi, Akhoni.com, Rokomari.com, Ajkerdeal.com are the associate partners of the week in support of ICT Business Council. Fifteen e-commerce related tech companies are participating in this week.

In the conference AKM Fahim Mashroor, president, BASIS, Kamruzzaman, divisional head, DBBL and Saiful Islam, CEO, SSL Commerz were also present.

Source: The Daily Star