Business Updates

CLP to invest Rs120 billion in India power sector

2009-09-22T17:09:00.000-07:00

Beside coal-fired power project and coal-fired project, CLP India will set up a wind power project. In the coal-fired project in Jhajjar, Haryana, CLP will invest Rs 3,900 and from here it will produced 1,320 Mw energy and the gas-based power project will set up in Gujarat where its first plant located, by investing Rs 4,000 crore. From the wind power project of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka will produce 450 Mw.

Ibef reported:

“We are in discussions with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) for gas supplies from the KG-D6 basin and also talking to other gas suppliers to ensure fuel linkage for the second phase of Paguthan. We hope to start construction during this year,” he said.

For the gas project and coal-fire project they have to fine the suppliers. I thin this will emission more carbon dioxide. But the CLP’s previous plant that set up in 2002, a modern combined cycle plant in Village Paguthan, Gujarat. But I am very hopeful for the wind power project for environment.

Expectation to new government for IT sector

2009-05-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

Indian may be the big IT outsourcing market of the world. They are working in different areas, from Date Entry to Software. A large number of foreign exchange comes in call center section. Recently, Indian general election has been over. The outsource companies are planning to ask opportunities for them to get supports.

Indiatimes

The software services and outsourcing industry expects the UPA government to increase spending on IT initiatives, education and infrastructure, fuelling growth, which lost steam because of the global financial crisis.

No doubt, the revenues come from outsourcing sectors plays an important role in Indian economy. Some days ago, I read a new about, the IT companies told to the workers to travel by pubic bus instead of AC Car.

Indian export fall 33.3% in April 2009

2009-05-15T10:52:00.000-07:00

For economic recession, it has affected both rich and the developing countries. The country like India, that has brought a good amount foreign exchange every fiscal year. Reposts of the first quarter could now fulfill the target, even in April it was 33% less.

Southasiablog

Exports dropped by 33.3% in March the highest in the decade. In the last fiscal year, Indian exports aggregated $168.70 billion. India’s export registered a poor growth of 3.4% in the last fiscal year. Poor demand forced Indian government to reset its export target from $200 billion to between $170 billion and $175 billion in February 2009.

The condition would be improved more in last half of the years. It is very important for the countries like India.

Interview of Philip Gain, Executive Director of Society for Environment and Human Development

2008-05-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

Philip Gain is a highly skilled dynamic professional in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has been involved with many activities throughout his career. He is Executive Director of Society for Environment and Human Development. Mr. Gain occasionally teaches in a university. He is also very active in making documentary and writing reports on various environmental and human rights issues. His works have earned a lot of fame and respect at home and abroad. He leads a busy life and he is always engaged in research based activities.

Recently, Philip Gain gave an exclusive interview to Business Bangladesh Updates. Here is the interview for the readers:

BBU: You are involved with reporting about environmental and human rights issues. What kind of challenges do you face?

Philip Gain: My main focus is to ensure objective and impartial reporting. Sometimes, it is challenging and we have to face some obstacles. My organization and I are actively involved with reporting about different issues for over one decade. We have noticed that if you focus on the quality of the report then it is possible to publish reports about even very sensitive issues. However, the main thing I want to see is that the owners of newspapers, magazines and TV channels invest more on quality and in depth reporting. This can really make a lot of difference. Yes, sometimes we face problems but this is a natural part of life. For example, sometimes, we face problems about obtaining information from rural areas.

BBU: The Sundarbans is the largest forest in Bangladesh. In the recent years, we have seen a lot of interest among local and foreign tourists. This may hurt the forest. How we can make sure that the tourists would come but at the same time, the forest will be kept intact?

Philip Gain: I have been to the Sundarbans and it is a very beautiful place. It is a very attractive place for the tourists. Tourists can visit the place. However, they must have to be some careful to take care of the environment. Many people also go inside the forest for their livelihood. If the tourists are some careful about not to drop garbage then it can do a lot in keeping the environment of the forest clean. They don’t need to do a lot but they need to be conscious about saving the forest. On the other hand, the government has to come forward to do everything for protecting the Sundarbans. The government has to formulate a detailed policy about the Sunderbans. Poaching is a big problem for this forest.

BBU: We have seen your documentary on Chokoria Sundarban. How this lost forest can be restored again?

Philip Gain: Chokoria Sundarban is sad tale for us. The forest has been destroyed but it is still possible do something to bring back the forest. It was a mangrove forest and again, the government needs to focus on planting trees in this area. You know that the forest was destroyed to carry out shrimp cultivation. I think that there a comparative analysis should be done on shrimp cultivation and mangrove forest.

BBU: Sometimes we hear this kind of logic that Bangladesh is a poor country and we should give more priority to fight against the poverty rather than saving environment. Shrimp cultivation surely brings a lot of foreign exchange for Bangladesh. How would do evaluate this problem?

Philip Gain: We have to have clear understanding of the two things. We have to do some serious intensive research about this matter. First, we have to calculate that for how long we can carry out shrimp cultivation and how much money (foreign currency) we can earn from it. We also have to take into account about the possible damage that may occur to the environment and the local community as a result of cutting down all the trees. As a result of cutting down all the trees of Chokoria Sundarban, the natural shield in this area has been destroyed and as a result, in the cyclone of 1991, few thousand people died in Badarkhali area. So, we need to have a clear understanding of the contribution of a tree first. Who are getting the benefit from shrimp cultivation? Who are eating the shrimps? Who are getting the money from it? Shrimp cultivation also harms rice production. So, we need to keep these things in mind. You have to keep another thing in your mind. You cannot cultivate shrimp forever. After a few years, you have to stop it. Then, it will take many years to restore natural condition in the area. So, you have to take all these factors into account.

Seminar & Workshop on "Open Source & Redhat Linux OS

2008-04-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

A day-long Seminar & Workshop on "Open Source & Redhat Linux OS" was held at Northern University Bangladesh on 17th April 2008.

The seminar and workshop was organized jointly by BASE Ltd. and the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Northern University Bangladesh. Prof. Dr.Nurul Islam, Dean, Faculty of Science, Professor Mir Md. Akramuzzaman, and Mr. Lutfar Rahman, Director HRD delivered their speeches in the seminar. The program was conducted by Dr. Md. Al-Amin Bhuiyan, Associate Professor, Jahangirnagar University.

Mr. Senhangsu Karmker, Technical Consultant, Redhat India & Md. Russell Jahan Mehedi, Manager Education, BASE Ltd. delivered their speeches as the special guests on the Seminar topic “Future & benifit of Opensource”.
After Seminar, The workshop on “Redhat Linux Installation & Configuration” was conducted by Mr. Ruhul Majid Chowdhury, MIS Manager & Mr. Bibak, Network Administrator & Asst. Enterprise Engineer from BASE Ltd. approximately 100 students from Northern University participated in the workshop.

Interview of Md. Rokonuzzaman Sujon, Publicity & Public Relations Secretary, CCOAB

2008-02-17T03:29:00.000-08:00

Md. Rokonuzzaman Sujon is the Publicity & Public Relations Secretary, CCOAB. He is also the owner of Global_Soft Cyber Café. He set up his cyber café in 2001 and thus, he has become a veteran in this field. Recently, he gave an interview to Business Bangladesh Updates. Rashidul Hasan Bulbul (editor BBU) took this interview and here it is:

Q: Tell us something about Cyber Café Owners Association of Bangladesh?

Md. Rokonuzzaman Sujon: Seven or eight years ago, there was an attempt to set up a cyber café owners association in Dhaka, but it did not happen because of difference of opinions among the owners. Then, nearly three years ago, cyber café owners association was formed. Then, we applied to FBCCI and FBCCI approved us as an association one year ago. Now, we are registered with FBCCI.

I am one of the executive members of this association. There is an election in March 2008.

Q: After setting up of CCOAB (Cyber Café Owners Association of Bangladesh), is it the first election?

A: After CCOAB was set up, there was an election. Thus, it is going to be the second election.

Q: When did you arrange first fair from your association?

Md. Rokonuzzaman Sujon: We arranged the first fair at Chittagong in 2005. That time, submarine cable did not come to Bangladesh, but there was a lot of talk about this matter. So, we decided to organize the first fair in Chittagong. I’d like to mention another matter here. After Dhaka, Chittagong has the largest number of cyber cafes. So, we wanted to create awareness among people about Internet technology.

Q: When did you first set up your cyber café and why did you come into this business?

Md. Rokonuzzaman Sujon: I started this cyber café (Global_Soft Cyber Café) in 2001. So, you can see that it is now almost seven years old. At that time, I did a one year course on E-commerce. I found that there was hardly any place to use Internet in Bangladesh. In fact, there were very few places where ordinary people could browse internet in Dhaka city. Most people used dial up internet and the speed was extremely slow. It took nearly 30 minutes to open and send an email.

In 2001, broadband internet facility came to Bangladesh and within four months, I opened Global_Soft Cyber Café. At first, my intention was to do some kind of business through internet, but since Bangladesh did not have the necessary law and other infrastructure related to e-commerce, I had to focus on cyber café business. From this background I became involved with cyber café business.

Q: What kind of training did you have before entering into cyber café business?

Md. Rokonuzzaman Sujon: I tried to take a lot of education about computer field before I started cyber café. I just told you that I did a course on e-commerce. Before that, I did a course on basic matters of computer. You know that in a cyber café, 10 to 15 computers are connected and that is why I learnt about computer networking. I also got some training on hardware and trouble shooting. This education has helped me a lot. Now, I can solve most of the problems myself and I do not have to wait for any technician to come and fix my problems. I think that every cyber café owner should at least have some basic idea about networking and basic hardware trouble shooting.

Q: How can internet bring more benefit for ordinary people in Bangladesh?

Md. Rokonuzzaman Sujon: I often think about this matter and I think that ordinary people have wrong image about internet in Bangladesh. Many of them think that internet is a technical thing and it is for highly educated and rich people. However, internet can bring direct benefit for ordinary people. For example, most of our court cases are related to land property. If government takes an initiative and make every land document computerized and put them in internet, then many of our problems will remove. Then, before buying any land, the customer can get all the information about that land from internet. It will not cost any money, but will bring a lot of benefit for ordinary people.

Q: What do you seek from Bangladesh government?

Md. Rokonuzzaman Sujon: I think that they should be a national policy on internet. If there is a national policy then government officials will have to become more active about IT sector. For example, the price of bandwidth should be reduced significantly. I am happy that the government has already decreased bandwidth price, but this is not enough. There must be more reduction. There is also another problem- 15% VAT on cyber café. We have to remember that rich people do not come to cyber café. They have their own internet and computer connection in their home. Those people who do not have internet at home come to cyber café and they have to bear the burden of VAT. So, you see that the ordinary people are paying the price of this burden. If the government reduces the price of bandwidth 90% then we can give 10 times faster internet speed to our users.

Q: What is your idea about VOIP?

Md. Rokonuzzaman Sujon: VOIP is something that is too much needed for a country like Bangladesh. Many Bangladeshi people are working in other countries and VOIP can allow their relatives to talk to them at a very cheap price. Unfortunately, for many years the government has kept VOIP as illegal. This only helped corrupted people. I believe that VOIP should be opened without any delay. Good thing is that government has taken the decision to open VOIP. As a result, very soon we will be able to talk very cheaply with many countries of the world. We will also be able to send and receive large files within Bangladesh and with foreign countries. The government will get a lot of benefit too. VOIP will increase tax revenue of the government. So, I feel that VOIP will help everyone equally.

The Participants of Math Olympiad visited SoftExpo 2008

2008-02-16T12:21:00.000-08:00

About 500 participants of Math Olympiad visited the SoftExpo 2008, organized by BASIS, at the Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre yesterday (16 February 2008). Being invited by BASIS, about 500 participants of math Olympiad, from across the country, along with their parents acknowledged the latest update of the software industry of Bangladesh, visiting the exhibition. At that time, T I M Nurul Kabir, convener of BASIS SoftExpo 2008, and all the members of the executive council of BASIS along with the General Secretary of Math Olympiad were also present.

The participants of math Olympiad made queries about different software products, visiting the stalls of the exhibition.

Get, Gain and Grow- on the basis of this theme, more than 150 local software companies and a few companies from Denmark, Grate Britain, Japan, Germany and France are taking part in the exposition. These softwares and IT enabled service organizations are showcasing the products related to business software, outsourcing, multimedia/animation and games, mobile and wireless application, e-commerce, e-governance, hardware technology solution, telecommunication and networking, IT education, financial institution and ICT development. It is worth to mention that ICT outsourcing has become the center of attention to all in Bangladesh recently. Besides showing the software products and services, seminars and workshops on different issues, and business match making is being held at the exhibition.

The sponsors of BASIS SoftExpo 2008 are Microsoft Bangladesh Ltd. and the Business Promotion Council of the ministry of commerce. Denmark is the Theme Country. The international partners are Danish Federation of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, UK Trade and Investment and Jettro. Daily Star and Radio Today are the media partners.

(Information: Courtesy of BASIS SoftExpo 2008 Media Center)

Interview of Nobuhiro Hotta Chief executive officer, Dream Cluster Inc.

2008-02-16T12:01:00.000-08:00

Nobuhiro Hotta is an IT entrepreneur. A residence of Japan, Nobuhiro Hotta is the founder and owner of Dream Cluster Inc, a group of companies consisting of nine companies. Recently, Nobuhiro Hotta came to Bangladesh to participate in BASIS SOFT EXPO 2008. Japan is a developed country with a thriving IT sector. Many Japanese IT companies are now looking forward to outsource their operations in other countries. As a representative of Japanese IT companies, he came to collect detail information about Bangladeshi IT sector. In an interview with Business Bangladesh Updates, Nobutada shared his thoughts and ideas.

Here is the interview:

Tell us about your company.

I am the founder of Dream Cluster Inc. It is a group of companies consisting of nine companies. Out of these nine companies four have come to Bangladesh to participate in BASIS SOFT EXPO 2008. The main target of this mission is e JOBGO, a portal site. Currently, there are 20,000 software industries in Japan. Out of these companies five and half thousand companies are members of this website. This website is dedicated to bring together companies that are involved in the same business operations and increase their network. As a representative of these companies, I have come to Bangladesh to gain insight about the IT companies of Bangladesh.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

After finishing my study, I started my career in a software company named System Integration. I used to work as an engineer in the salary department. After the company was converted into a public limited company, I supervised the planning of the IT section of the company. While working there I used to deal with other IT companies. I learned about human networking. A major problem with Japanese IT companies is that they do not have a very good communication system. Big companies only go to other big companies. They do not look for small companies. With a view to break this communication barrier and increase the networking between the IT companies, I established e JOBGO four years ago. Within this short time, the website observed a huge influx of IT companies. Similar problem is arising in China. In China, there are many IT companies of various sizes and to build up a network among these countries they require this type of web portal.

Earlier, you said that four of your companies have come to Bangladesh. Would you tell us about these companies?

Yes. The four companies are: e JOBGO, Sonic Blaster Inc, Zealous Adjuster, and Space Minister Inc. I have already told you about e JOBGO. Sonic Blaster Inc. works on developing network infrastructure. It develops softwares that monitor computer networks. Zealous Adjuster Inc. is a website developing company. They have developed a software named Web Smarty. Using this software, people can easily build and design website homepages. To develop this software, we use Movable Type, an American software. Space Minister Inc. is a real-estate search portal containing information about house renting, apartment renting/buying, lands etc. People in Japan search website to look for apartments. Our goal is to develop a real-estate search portal for Bangladesh. After developing it, the portal will be maintained by Bangladeshi IT workers.

What do you think about BASIS SOFT EXPO 2008?

I am very much surprised to see so many Bangladeshi IT companies participating in this event. Today, I met with officials of almost forty Bangladeshi IT organizations and all of them showed great interest to work with us. Currently, the lion’s share of the Japanese off-shore outsourcing goes to China. There are large number of Chinese software engineers knows Japanese language. Because of this rise in the demand, service charge of the Chinese Software Companies is going upwards. To fight with this problem, we are looking into developing countries with sufficient IT infrastructure such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, countries that would provide us quality service at a lower price. We are currently researching the market of these countries.

At present, Bangladeshi IT engineers are now working for many reputed American and European Software companies. There are many talented software engineers and developers. So, we think there is a very good possibility that we could do business in this country. The main problem is communication. So far, language seems to be the biggest obstacle for us. Almost all the Japanese people do not speak English and none of the Bangladeshis know Japanese. Japanese officials submit their documents in Japanese. They expect the service providers to know Japanese language. Since, Bangladeshi people are skilled in English, they can work and communicate very well with American and European companies.

In this regard, Vietnam has a big advantage over Bangladesh. Vietnamese people are very much interested to learn Japanese language. Vietnamese government made it compulsory that university students study Japanese language along with their studies. As a result, there are large number of IT engineers who understand Japanese language very well. Thus, many Japanese companies are expanding their businesses in Vietnam.

You are interested in IT outsourcing. What type of works you are interested to outsource to Bangladesh?

Based on, whatever we have found out within this limited time, we want to outsource open source software related works to Bangladesh. We believe that Bangladeshi engineers are very skilled in open source software. Many Bangladeshi IT companies are working with American and European organizations and proved that they are very good in open source software. We are planning to outsource these types of works. The main problem is language.

What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of our IT sector?

This is my first time in Bangladesh. So far, I have not worked with any Bangladeshi companies and there are not too many Japanese companies that worked with Bangladesh. At this stage, it is a bit difficult for me to comment on this subject but whatever I have seen I am very hopeful about Bangladeshi IT sector. Bangladeshi IT workers are skilled, highly motivated and quick learners. If the language barrier could be overcome then it will ease up the tension. Whenever, I told the officials from Bangladeshi IT companies that their employees have to learn Japanese language they became worried a little bit. If Bangladeshi IT workers are serious and dedicated then they could overcome this barrier.

e-Tutor: Some Information

2008-02-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

e-Tutor was present in Basis SoftExpo 2008 and today, we talked with them from Bangladesh Business Updates. They have a website: http://www.etutor24.com . You should visit their website and check different services offered by e-Tutor. They have provided some information about education and they are providing a number of facilities for the students. The good part is that e-Tutor is a free website. There is a forum too where people can exchange their views.

We got a press release from e-Tutor and we are giving it here:

“In the examination hall only thyself is the helper- none else” – this reality motivated the design of e-Tutor (www.etutor24.com). Every student must prepare himself as per his own study plan through lots of reference books, suggestions, notes as well as more and more self assessment tests before sitting for the exam. e-Tutor will help the students prepare theirselves in these ways – in the form of Quality Distance Learning. All students deserve the same high quality learning experience to the online world, combining superior tutors, engaging content, a fully customized online learning environment and a high level of service to support student success.

Top features of e-Tutor

House Tutors House tutors are greatly encouraged to register in our House Tutor section online completely free of cost for their own publicity. We have currently more than 300 House Tutors contact address as per their experience and area of working in our database. Any interested guardian or student himself can be easily reachable to them through our database collection at completely free of cost.
Coaching Centre Various offers from reputed coaching centres as well as their timing, class routine and notice can be obtainable from home – online at totally free of cost.
Books All book lists from education to literature and where obtainable can be easily found in our database online. In the honor of this month – “The International Mother Language Day” we published the books list which are released in the Book Fair along with where obtainable. We also updated our database with the book list which are published by the NRB.
Admission Universitiy/School-College as well as Kinder Gardens’ Admission related notices can be easily obtainable online totally free of cost.
Study Abroad Our database contains more than thousand institutions’ study curricullum with their tution all over the world. And all these are obtainable totally free of cost online as well as through e-mail request.
Scholarship We try to cover all scholarships offered in our country both domestic and international. Any one can get these info totally free from our site.
Online Model Test, Virtual Class Room and Forum We are very happy to announce that we are going to provide Online Model / Self Assessment Tests totally free which will cover – BBA, MBA, MBM, Dhaka University, Medical, Private University, TOEFL and IELTS. And freely registered students can attend our virtual class room session and they can express their problems and ideas in the forum conducted by www.etutor24.com
Suggestions Suggestions published by different publications as well as Made-easy and Test Papers are digitally available in our site at totally free of cost.
Syllabus All Educational Boards’ Seconadary syllabus are obtainable online from this site
Career All Education sector related as well as Non Educational jobs announced at different media are regulalrly published in our site. And we do also maintain a CV database.

SoftExpo 2008: Seminars of the Third Day

2008-02-16T10:28:00.000-08:00

Today, we visited SoftExpo 2008 and spent a number of hours there. There was a very important seminar in SoftExpo and some important persons came and talked there about software and ITES. Thanks to the media center of BASIS, we got a detailed press release.

Here is the press release from BASIS

Bangladesh Association of Software and Information services (BASIS) holds a seminar on “Infrastructure requirement to accelerate the growth of software and ITES Industry” on the occasion of BASIS SOFTEXPO 2008 today (16-02-08).

Brigadier General M A Malek (Retd.), Special Assistant to Honorable Chief Advisor, Ministry of Post and Telecommunication, was present at the seminar as the Chief Guest while Hua Du, country director Bangladesh residence mission, Asian Development Bank, Major General Manzurul Alam (retired), BTRC Chairman, S. M. Wahid-uz-Zaman, secretary, Ministry of science and information technology, Margub Morshed, former BTRC Chairman were present as special guests.

BASIS president Rafiqul Islam Rowly presented the key note at the seminar.

Speech by Message of Brigadier General M A Malek (Retd.), Special Assistant to Honorable Chief Advisor, Ministry of Post and Telecommunication

Distinguished Special Guests, Discussants, Key note presenter, discussants and participants -

I am very happy to be present here at today’s seminar which is discussing a very important issue for the development of the software and IT enabled service industry of the country. All of us know how important Information and Communication Technology has become for the development of the country. On the one hand, if the power of ICT can be harnessed rightly, it can significantly improve the productivity and performance of all the activities we do in every spheres of society. On the other hand we can directly use ICT for employment creation of a huge number of educated youth in the country who are currently unemployed. This we can do though involving thousands of our talented youth in different ITES jobs like Call centre, BPO, graphic designing, digitization etc. Our neighboring countries have successfully demonstrated that in recent times.

Dear Guests,

In the speech on the occasion of BASIS SoftExpo2008, the Honorable Chef Advisor Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed has specifically mentioned the bottlenecks of the development of ICT sector in the country. Among other things, he has mentioned about the importance of Infrastructure issue for the development of the sector. The current Government is fully aware of the problem in respect of infrastructure issue. And this Government is fully committed to work on this. You all know that, very recently, responding to the demand of Software industry, particularly by BASIS, government has recently reduced Internet Tariff by a maximum of 40%. And you know that the Chief Advisor has specifically mentioned in his speech that it can be reduced further if needed. This is a very specific step from the current government.

The importance of such line is felt heavily by all of us given the last two weeks of experience of sudden cut of the SEA ME WEA 4 line at Egypt.

We know that redundancy of SUBMARINE cable is very important. You also know that recently BTTB has signed contract for establishing alternative fiber optic line from Cox’s Bazar to Chittagong to minimize risk of disruption of Internet connectivity. BTTB has currently very good back-up VSAT capability and it can give certain level of backup for the submarine cable connectivity. For for complete redundancy we need to have the second submarine cable connectivity through different routes. We are also in the process of establishing second Submarine Cable and we hope to establish that very soon. We will also explore possibility of private sector investment in this area.

Ladies and Gentleman,

You know that this government is very open to listen to suggestion of private sector. There is a public private initiative of “Better Business Forum” which has specific working group of “Infrastructure Development”. From our Ministry, we also welcome you to come up with specific suggestion that can help your industry.

Thank you.

Part of the Speech by Hua Du,

ADB has been promoting ICT development as a priority sector for regional cooperation under the Sub regional economic cooperation (SASEC) program involving Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal. In December 2007, ADB approved a $21.2 million project for developing ICT in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal through enhancing the availability of affordable broadband Internet connections, skilled manpower and local content and Internet applications.

ICT provides powerful tools to fight against world poverty. We need to apply state-of-the-art modern ICT for quickening poverty reduction and improving the lives of poor and disadvantaged, particularly in the rural areas.

Access to digital technologies remains highly unequal globally, and even among the developing countries themselves. The three area identified by ADB for such strategic intervention include i) creating an enabling environment for ICT development, ii) building human resources iii) developing ICT applications and information content in ADB assisted projects.

Chairman of BTRC Major General Manzurul Alam (retired) said: mentioning the different measures taken by the government he said we want support you with regularatory facilitator.

The government is cordial to spread the ICT infrastructure facilities to the rural areas and the government would provide subsidy for the users at rural areas. The government is also thinking of issuing license for Call Centre at a nominal price to encourage the youth to come to this business.

He also invites foreign investors who want to work to spread the ICT facilities to rural areas.

The chairman of BTRC also said “if any private entrepreneur want to take connection of submarine cable the government will welcome the initiative.

Margub Morshed, former BTRC Chairman said, the private sector has all the potential to make ICT to have huge contribution for the economic growth of the country. The government should be more supporting to the private sector.

Some software of STM Software Ltd

2008-02-15T12:24:00.000-08:00

STM Software Ltd., the sister concern of STM Vision InfoTech Ltd., the only distributor of Tally India Private Ltd. in Bangladesh, has come up with a few software in the BASIS Softexpo 2008. The softwares are as follows:

The final software for Human Resource Information Management, ‘STM Pro- HR’
Micro Credit Management Software for NGO- STM Pro- LC
Multipurpose Credit Co-operative Management System- STM Pro- Credit
Fixed Asset Management System- ACTM Pro- Asset
LC Management Software- ACTM Pro- LC
Complete Retail Shop Management System- ACTM Pro- Pos

Different organizations can customize the softwares depending on their need. Some of the renowned organizations of the country are already using the softwares. The same support and service, that Tali provide, are being provided. The offer will remain active until SoftExpo 2008 continues till the 18^th.

(Information: Courtesy of STM Software Ltd)

SM Kausarul Islam in BASIS SoftExpo 2008

2008-02-15T12:03:00.000-08:00

Covering a fair or expo is a difficult work for journalists. There are so many people in the fair that it is easy to lose track and also it is difficult to collect information at a large crowd. So, media support has become an integral part of any large fair in Bangladesh. BASIS has arranged a media support center in SoftExpo 2008 and today, we from Business Bangladesh Updates (BBU) had a fast hand experience of media facility at SoftExpo 2008. We also had a friendly chat with SM Kausarul Islam who is Program Associate and media coordinator of BASIS SoftExpo-2008.

SM Kausarul Islam was quick to give us the necessary information related to the Expo. We also give him our email and he promised to send regular press releases. We wanted to take his interview and talked some more. He talked to us about the responsibilities he had related to BASIS SoftExpo. He was a journalist in the past but now, he is working for BASIS. Mr. Islam viewed that we have a large pool of educated people and we need to give them proper training so that they become skilled workforce. We need to motivate them for hard work and toward Information Technology. He felt that Bangladesh has a great opportunity to become successful in outsourcing. He said that Denmark was the theme country of SoftExpo 2008 and some Danish companies were eager to give outsourcing works to Bangladeshi companies.

He thanked the journalists of Bangladesh for their support towards the ICT sector. Mr. Islam praised the role of media in the development of ICT sector of Bangladesh. He said that it was very nice that Bangladeshi media understand the importance of ICT and that is why they give adequate coverage towards any ICT event.

At the end, we wanted to know about the facilities being given to the media at SoftExpo. He showed us a number of laptops and we sat in one of them. We were very happy with Internet speed of the laptop and we could do our work quite smoothly. We saw some other journalists doing the same thing at the media center. Some other journalists came and we had to finish our friendly chat with SM Kausarul Islam. Mr. Islam again became busy in serving other journalists. Mr. Islam is skilled in his work- no doubt about that but the thing that attracted us most was his modesty.

Second Day of BASIS SoftExpo 2008

2008-02-15T10:07:00.000-08:00

Today was the second day of BASIS Softexpo 2008. I went to visit the exhibition and was delighted to see a fair number of enthusiastic visitors at the exposition. Softexpo is the largest exhibition of software in Bangladesh. BASIS has been organizing softexpo ever since the exposition was launched.

Today was Friday, the government holiday of Bangladesh. So, a large crowd came to visit the fair. There are 150 stalls in the five-day long exhibition. All the companies have come up with some attractive offers for their customers. Telecom companies, universities, banks, different software companies etc. are participating in the exposition. Aside from the local companies, there are few foreign companies too. Companies from Denmark, Japan, UK are taking part in BASIS Softexpo 2008.

This year, Denmark is the theme country of the exposition. A number of delegates from Denmark have come to attend the softexpo with a view to increasing the mutual relationship between the two countries. Reports have it that the delegates will go though match making program with 50 local companies, looking for the companies they are interested to give outsourcing activities.

Besides the stalls and all of the various offers from different companies, there are some seminars as well. There were three seminars held today. The stalls are located on the ground and first floor of Bangladesh-China friendship conference center. The media center of the exhibition is located at the Harmony hall. The visitors can get a map showing the locations of the stalls in the media center. Media center was providing help to the journalists and helping out the general visitors if they face any problems. People in the media center were working hard to give the best service to the journalists. Journalists were asking for press releases, seminar schedule and other information, and the media people were helping them.

There is high speed internet connection in the media center for the journalists. I think, it would have been better if BASIS could make a list of new software offered by different companies. Thus, the visitors would be able to know about the new softwares and could visit the company’s stall that offers his/her preferred software.

BASIS Softexpo 2008 will conclude on 18 February. So, three more days are left in the softexpo 2008 exhibition. Many more fans are yet to visit the exhibition. As of now, I have to say that BASIS Softexpo 2008 has got off to a good start and steadily going towards a successful ending.

There were several seminars in the second day.

About second day of SoftExpo, you can read this report:

Danish ICT market offers opportunities for Bangladesh

Citycell in SoftExpo 2008

2008-02-15T08:15:00.000-08:00

Citycell is the only CDMA operator in Bangladesh. At SoftExpo 2008, Citycell is offering its Internet service. When we visited their stall we found that many people were interested about their Internet service which is called Zoom.

We fond Fazlay Rabbi (Rajib) and Md. Razibul Islam at the pavilion of Citycell. They surely were having a busy time. We had to wait few minutes as they were explaining about their Inter service to a number of visitors. One question that was raised by a number of persons was that whether Citycell Zoom contained any unlimited browsing offer. Sadly, they don’t have any unlimited offer but the good thing is that Citycell is providing fast Internet access.

North South University in BASIS SoftExpo 2008

2008-02-15T07:56:00.000-08:00

North South is considered to be the top private university in Bangladesh by many people. There is a serious competition in the admission test in this university. North South University has a computer science department. You can find North South University’s stall in BASIS SoftExpo 2008.
Today, while we visited the expo, we talked with the Vice President of North South University Computer Club, M. Abdun Nafee. He told us that the expo has occurred at a time when most students are very busy with midterm exams and that is why, they could not display the activities of their club so well. He said that in the Expo, North South University was informing the visitors about the Computer Science Department and Computer Club. M. Abdun Nafee informed Business Bangladesh that next month, the Computer Club was going to organize its ICT fair.

Masharul Tasbeeh Pamir, General secretary of North South Computer Club was also present.

About the computer club, I am giving an extract from their website:

North South University Computer Club (NSUCC), is one of the biggest and most successful clubs in North South University by every means starting from human resources to its different activities over the years ever since the club was started, which is way back in 1994.

One of the very unique and important qualities about this club is that this is the only club in North South University that provides a vital platform for all those students who are interested in Information Technology. The club offers a grand chance of exchanging and learning detailed information about IT for students who are interested in building up their career in the particular field. Students here can interact with all the other students who are enthusiastic about the same profession. Club activities among students help them make friends with a huge number of people of the university from different batches through this club.

So, you can see that NSU computer club is a vibrant organization and it organizes regular programs.

Bangladeshi Food : Some Information

2008-02-15T06:50:00.000-08:00

Listing:

Food taking time: Thrice a day (Morning, Afternoon and Evening).
Breakfast: Potato, Roti, Egg
Modern breakfast: Bread, Butter, Jam, Jally.
Lunch: Rice, Vegetable, Curries, Pulse.
Evening Tea: Tea, Coffee, Somocha, Roll etc.
Dinner: Rice, Roti, Curry etc.
Fast Food: Chicken Broast, Burger, French Fries.
Seasonal Food:
Summer: Mango, Jackfruit, Lichi, Jam, Grapes, Bell.
Winter: Date Juice, Cakes, Bhapa Pitha, winter vegetable, tomato, Shim, Coliflower, Carrot.
Rainy: Khichuri, pickle, Hilsha fish.

Sweets: Chamcham, Roshogolla, Roshomalai, Shandesh, Kalojam, Shamai etc.
Occational Food: Biriani, Chicken Roast, Rezala, Sweet Rice, Borhani, Fenni.
Traditional Food: Panta Bhat, Hilsha fish, Shatkora, khichuri, pickle.
Regional Food: Moghlai Poratha, Bakorkhani, Tihari, Meghban, Dawat.
Production of food and availability- food habit also depends on production of food.
Cultural food- Shatkora, coconut, dry fish.
Variation of foods- food varies from place to place because of it’s geographical structure and productivity.

Free Writing:
Food is the toughest and acceptable art to all kinds and ages people. In South Asia, most probably Bangladesh and India are very well known to other countries for their delicious and varieties of food items, but Bangladeshi is well known for religious cuisine too. However, we are concerned about the taste of food rather than its value. When food is tasted then value does not matter. However, I am describing about Bangladeshi food with description. Bangladeshi people are well known as a voracious nation. We take meal thrice a day. For breakfast, we take handmade bread of flour (Rooti) with lots of vegetables and meat. In the rural areas people eat rice soaked in water as their breakfast. They like to have it with green and red chili, onion and salt. Some rich families take western breakfast like toast, Jam, butter. Other two main meals are lunch and dinner. All of us like to have our staple food rice for lunch. As a river country Bangladesh produces lots of fishes.

But Hilsha is our national food. We also take smashes (bhorta) of different seasonal vegetables, cooked vegetable pulses with rice. The curries differ according to the financial status of the families. We usually take the same kind of food for lunch and dinner. On special occasions we eat some especial kinds of food. They are Polao, Biriyani, Chicken or lamb roast, rezala and as drink we have borhani. We also have some special food for each season such as we eat khichuri on a rainy day; rice, cakes and pithas on winter morning and juice fruits on summer.

Bangladeshi people are fond of sweets. We Bangladeshi people love to have sweets as deserts-Chamcham, Roshogolla, Roshmalai, curd (Dahi)shandesh, kalajam are only few of them. We also like home made sweets like payesh, Halua, Jarda etc. Though it is not a part of our culture but our young generation is greatly attracted to fast food now-a-days. There are many fast food shops in BD which sell burgur, pizza, samusa, sandwitch, chicken fry, cold drinks etc.

Outlining:
We have got many things when we made listing. However, all are not important or necessary for writing section. So, we include some important things that are important and informative. Now, I am giving below the outlining of this article:-
Variation of foods (food varies from place to place).
Production of foods and availability-
Food taking time- Thrice a day.
Cultural food- shatkora, coconut and dry fish.
Seasonal food-
Summer: Mango, Jack fruit, Lichi.
Winter: Cake, Vegetable, carrot, tomato.
Rainy: Khichuri, pickle, Hilsha fish.
Sweets: Chamcham, roshogolla, roshomalai, curd (Dahi), Kalojam, Shamai etc.
Traditional food: Panta Bhat, Hilsha fish, Shatkora, khichuri, pickle.
Modern breakfast: Bread, Butter, Jam Jelly.
Occasional food- Birani, Chicken, Roast, Razala, Borhani, Fenni.

Press Conference of BASIS SoftExpo 2008

2008-02-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, a press conference regarding BASIS SOFTEXPO 2008 was held at the BSRS Bhaban, Kawran Bazar, Dhaka. At the press conference organized by BASIS (Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services), the high officials of BASIS provided various information regarding BASIS SOFTEXPO 2008 to the journalists.

BASIS SOFTEXPO is the largest software exhibition of Bangladesh. This year, the five-day exhibition will take place at the Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Center. The software exhibition will kick off from 14 February.

At the press conference, T I M Nurul Kabir, Convener of SOFTEXPO 2008, shared various information regarding the fair with the reporters. Nurul Kabir said that there were some milestones in each of the previous fairs. This year BASIS got Denmark as their theme country, which he termed as the milestone of the exhibition of this year. Indicating the increasing number of outsourcing works between Denmark and Bangladesh, he said that the flow would continue this year as well. Mr. Kabir informed the journalists that 14-16 delegates were coming from Denmark who would be match making with 50 local companies looking for outsourcing works. Eight Danish companies are also taking part in the exhibition. Convener hoped that this match makings will be able resulted in joint venture outsourcing alike the past.

IT Industry Association of Denmark is the associated partner of ASIS Softexpo 2008. Nurul Kabir also indicated that BASIS had convinced UK Trade and Investment office of Bangladesh to include IT in their priority sector. UK Trade and Investment is one of the strategic partners of the exhibition. The other strategic partners are Danish Federation of Small and Medium Industries, Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). Companies from different countries are taking part in the exhibition. Stressing on IT education, Mr. Kabir said that students from some universities were offered to present with their projects in the exhibition. Being asked if there would be any special arrangement for the student or for the small entrepreneurs, he said that a special zone would be there at the fair only for the students and small entrepreneurs. The entry fee for the fair is 20 Tk., while school children will not require any entry fee in order to attract the young generation to IT.

President of BASIS, Mr. Rafiqul Islam Rowly said that the IT projects would be showcased in the exhibition of this year. He also added that the exhibition is getting wider after ever year. In response to a question of Business Bangladesh correspondent, Mr. Rafiqul Islam said BASIS always tried to inspire individual enthusiasm, but as it was not an organization, it was not always possible to help in individual sector from the fair. Mr. Islam stressed ever increasing market of software export. Indicating a chronological order of software export, he hoped that BASIS was expecting US $30 million exporting software this year, while the amount had been US $26.8 million previous year.

Mr. M. Shoeb Chowdhury, Senior Vice President of BASIS, said that for the first time the chief of the government would be at the opening ceremony of the fair. He also revealed that there would be a media center in the exhibition from where the journalists would be able to use internet and can get help about anything. Mr. A K M Fahim Mashroor, chairman of seminar of Softexpo 2008, introduced the seminar set to be held during the five day long exhibition.

Ahmed Hasan, Vice President of BASIS, Shameem Ahsan, Joint Secretary General of BASIS, Co-convener of the exhibition, Mr. Shafquat Haider were also present in the press conference.

BASIS SoftExpo 2008: Beginning from 14 February

2008-02-13T06:25:00.000-08:00

Bangladesh Association of Software and information services (BASIS) is the organizer of SoftExpo. SoftExpo 2008 is going to start from tomorrow and today, BASIS organized a press conference in this regard. A good number of reporters attended the press conference held at BASIS office. BASIS leaders discussed about different sides of SoftExpo 2008. They also answered to the different questions raised by journalists about the expo. They also talked about the condition of ICT sector of Bangladesh. They invited everyone to attend SoftExpo and hoped that a huge crowd will enjoy the expo.

BASIS provided a press release and we have put the press release here at the end of this entry. Business Bangladesh editor Rashidul Hasan Bulbul was present at the press conference.

Here is the official press release:

Bangladesh Association of Software and information services (BASIS), the national association representing software and information technology enabled services (ITES) sector of country, is going to organize BASIS SoftExpo 2008 form February 14-18, 2008 at Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Center, Dhaka, BASIS SoftExpo, the yearly mega event of Basis has, by now, earned the reputation of the largest ICT event of the country.

Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed. Honorable Chief Adviser, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh will inaugurated the five-day long expo on February 14 at at Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Center, Dhaka. Mr. Manik Lal Somaddar, Special Assistant to the Honorable Chief Adviser, Ministry of Science and information & Communication Technology and His Excellency Mr. Einar Hevogard Jensen, Ambassador, Royal Danish Embassy will be present as the special guests.

This year’s Expositon is expected to have a lot of focus on some recent technology trends and issues in the industry like e-Governance, telecom Software, Banking software, ERp/Crm/SCM software, web applications.BPO, E-commerce, E-learning etc. Apart from showcasing of prodects and services by the exhibitors, a series of workshops and seminars will be organized on the occasion.

More than 150 local and foreign exhibitors and internatnional delegates from and participatnt form Denmark, France, UK, German, Japan are taking a part in Basis SoftExpo 2008. The Exhibitor companies will expose Business Software, outsourcing. Multimedia & animation, Games, Mobile & Wireless Applications, e-commerce, e-governance, Hardware Technology Solution, Telecommunications & Networking , ITES and BPO, IT Education, Financial Institution, ICT for Development etc. Apart from showcasing of software products and services by the exhibitors, a series of workshop and seminars, business matchmaking etc. will be held during the exposition.

ICT Outsourcing in Bangladesh in generating lot of interest a recent time and the forthcoming exposition will host a seminar on outsourcing where those involved in outsourcing both form home and abroad will attend.

Delegates form Danish companies will visit this year’s SoftEspo and take part in matchmaking meeting in addition to participating in various seminars, workshops and roundtables. Besides nembers of Japanese companies will be visiting the BASIS SoftExpo 2008 to attend matchmaking and other events and to explore the possibilities of engaging in business ventures with Bangladeshi TCT companies

The visitors expected to visit the expo includes CEO/MDs from the corporate word Government decision and policy makers, academia, business leaders, media, ICT professionals, students, and ICT users form all over the country.

BAISS SoftEspo-2008 at a glance:

Number of total Exhibitors: 150

Business Software Exhibitors: 87

Outsourcing Companies: 16

High-End Hardware & IT solution exhibitors: 5

IT Education and Traning exhibitors: 8

Multimedia and Animation: 6

Pavilion Exhibitors: 10

Special Zone Exhibitors: 18

Theme Country: Denmark

Partner Association: IT Association of Denmark (ITB)

Strategic Partners: Danish Federation of small and Medium Sized Enterprises (DFSME)

Paris Chamber of commerce & Induatry, UK Trade Investment and JETRO

Theme of BASIS SoftEspo-2008: ‘Get. Gain. Grow.’ (This emphasizes on transforming Bangladesh into an e-nation by utllizing the immense potentials of ICT in every phase of tour economy as well as society).

Number of Seminars and business sessions: 12+ by BASIS (To be participated by key decision makers of the country and renowned experts & stakeholders from aboard).

Date: 14 to 18 February.

Venue: Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Center, Dhaka

Entry Fee: Tk. 20 (entry fee is free for students).

Exhibitors include:

BASIS Members

Local and multinational ICT companies

Mobile application development companies

Successful ICT projects in Multinational and local companies

IT training institutes & Universities

ICT consulting houses

Financial institution

International ICT Associations

The best place to find information about SoftExpo is its official website: http://www.softexpo.com.bd/

So, take a look and find out more information there and if possible visit SoftExpo 2008.

BASIS SoftExpo 2008

2008-02-12T13:13:00.000-08:00

Bangladesh is often portrayed as a poor country in the media but if you go to SoftExpo 2008 organized by BASIS then you will surely find that Bangladesh has something more than poverty. Nearly 200 local and foreign companies are going to participate in SoftExpo 2008. The event will start from 14 February and will continue until 18 February. The companies will display their products and services. A large turn out is expected and the organizers are hoping that nearly 100,000 visitors would visit the Expo.

There is just 1 day before the start of SoftExpo 2008. organizers are busy with last minute preparations. The companies are also busy with last minute preparations. February is the month of language and culture in Bangladesh. Ekushey book fair is going on at Bangla Academy. So, SoftExpo 2008 will be like a bonus for the city dwellers of Dhaka.

SoftExpo started in 2004 and in the first Expo, it created a lot of interest among all the people who have any kind of interest in Bangladesh. This is going to be the fourth SoftExpo. The main goal is to showcase software products and services of Bangladesh.

To know about SoftExpo, you can visit this link:

http://www.softexpo.com.bd

CityCell in Corporate Bazaar 2008

2008-02-10T13:12:00.001-08:00

CityCell, the pioneer in the mobile phone industry in Bangladesh has participated in Corporate Bazaar 2008, the only corporate fair of the country. For the fair, the company has brought special offer for the corporate customers under which it is selling Samsung S109 cell-phone in 1399 taka. The present market price of this phone is 3799 taka. In addition, it is offering five other cell-phones from five different brands. Two of the models have high speed internet facility. In this corporate fair, City Cell is actually highlighting their latest technology. According to Mohammad Sharif-ul-Hassan, compared to other cell-phone technologies, CDMA is better. He added that all the customers of City Cell will have better service from now on.

Trust Bank in Corporate Bazaar 2008

2008-02-10T12:33:00.000-08:00

Trust Bank has a lively presence in Corporate Bazaar 2008. It has a large pavilion and the good decoration attracted a lot of visitors. In the fair, Trust Bank has promoted several offers but two of them are interesting. Women entrepreneur loan will be given to those women who are in business for two years. This is a nice initiative and it will surely help many women in Bangladesh.

Trust Bank is also promoting Visa Classic International Card in this fair. It will help the consumers when they go abroad.

To get more information, you should visit any branch of Trust Bank or visit the website:

http://www.trustbank.com.bd

AB Bank in the Corporate Bazaar 2008

2008-02-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

AB Bank is the first private bank in Bangladesh. AB Bank has offers not only for their customers but also for the general people in Corporate Bazaar 2008. G.K. Salauddin, principal officer of customer finance care of AB Bank, has presented their offers to the people in an acceptable manner in their pavilion. With his easy presentation, visitors understand that AB Bank is offering auto loan, gold loan, personal loan, education loan etc. against easy terms. However, the more important is merchant banking. The special offer of AB Bank is credit card with a low interest rate.

AB Bank Limited is one of the leading first generation private sector commercial banks with Branch Network all over the country. The Bank started issuing VISA Credit Cards from the end of year 2004 as a principal member of VISA International.

GrameenPhone in Corporate Bazaar 2008

2008-02-10T11:55:00.000-08:00

GrameenPhone, the leading mobile phone operator of the country, is highlighting their recently marketed Black Berry phone and business solution package in Corporate Bazaar 2008. The most attracting features of Business solution package are international roaming, special tariff and internet service in a reasonable price. However, only the businessmen are allowed to buy business solution package.

Some other features of business solutions are internet browsing, e-mail service, SMS, MMS etc. Besides, the users will be able to use grameen phone internet service in more than 50 countries throughout the world. If someone calls while in roaming, the caller will be charged the same of local call charge. Users also receive special opportunity in customer care.

Ranks Tel in Corporate Bazaar 2008

2008-02-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

As Bangladesh government ensured a number of mobile phone operators having easy access to Dhaka City, Ranks Tel got the permission on 9 September and started their activities in Dhaka city from 18 December. On the occasion of Corporate Bazaar 2008, they present their corporate packages to the visitors. There are special opportunities including PABX connectivity though those corporate packages. That is why, an user can be charged on the basis of his usage and if he does not use the line, no line rent would be charged to the user.

Besides, the users will be able to use two kinds of internet with this connectivity. While talking to Business Bangladesh, MD Jamil Anowari, key-accounts officer of Ranks Tel, further added that Ranks Tel is providing special offers for the corporate customers in Corporate Bazaar 2008. Details about the offers are given in the official website of Ranks Tel.

Computer Bichitra in Corporate Bazaar 2008

2008-02-10T10:36:00.001-08:00

Computer Bichitra is one of the leading magazines of

Bangladesh

. It is an ICT magazine. It has a sizable reader base too. Computer Bichitra has been serving the ICT community in the country for 12 years. It has received numerous awards. The magazine has also become media partners of a number of IT fairs. Computer Bichitra is also the media partner of Infocom, the largest IT fair in

India

In Corporate Bazaar 2008- there is a stall of computer Bichitra and Computer Bichitra also published a special supplement on Corporate Bazaar 2008. The supplement has provided all the necessary information about the fair. It has been distributed to everyone who came in the fair at free of cost. This is a very good initiative from Computer Bichitra.

In the stall of Computer Bichitra, there were new and old issues of the magazine in display. Many visitors came to see them and some of them became interested would perhaps become regular reader of the magazine from now.

Seminar on “Common Attributes Employers Look in Fresh Graduates”

2008-02-10T06:53:00.000-08:00

Today, on the second day of Corporate Bazaar 2008, a seminar on “Common Attributes Employers Look in Fresh Graduates” was held at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Center, Dhaka. Students and graduates of BBA, MBA and Computer Engineering discipline from different universities also attended the seminar. The objective of the seminar was to let the students know which qualities employers are looking for and what are the common requirements needed to sell themselves in the corporate world.

There were five panel speakers who shared the ways they follow while recruiting employees in their respective companies. Prof. Dr. M Z Mamun, Director, Institute of Business Administration of Dhaka University, was the only panel speaker outside the corporate world. The other panel members were Sandeep Mookharjea, Head of HR, Standard Chartered Bank, Asif Zaman, Head of HR Division, Huawei Technologies Bangladesh, Suman Bhattacharjee, General Manager, HR Division, Cairn Energy, Emad-Ul-Amin, Director, HR, Grameenphone, Arif Shahriar, Head of Group HR, RahimAfrooz. Ms. Naila Chowdhury, Group Director of aamra group of companies was the moderator of the seminar. At the beginning of the seminar, Russell T Ahmed, Convener of Corporate Bazaar 2008, introduced the panel speakers with the audiences. The seminar was hosted by Standard Chattered Bank.

In his speech, Prof. Dr. M Z Mamun said that students must be disciplined from the very beginning. He also said that from the very first day they need to believe that they are manager. He indicated the importance of the overall get up of the graduates. Besides discipline, he also stressed on the communication skill of the graduates. Dr. Mamun focused on honesty and co-curriculum activities of the students and while talking about resume, he called on the graduates to be honest while making their resumes and include only those areas which the company is looking for in order to make the resumes precise.

Stating the fact that his company recruited 400 odd employees and received CVs from different sources almost everyday, Sandeep Mookharjea said that it was impossible to go though the CVs thoroughly and they needed to filter the CVs. In the first level of filter, his company looks at the academic credentials of the graduates and then which institutions the graduates came from.

While answering a question of a student Mr. Sandeep said that the companies want the best person for a post in this competitive world as like a student wants to join a good company. He said that Standard Chartered Bank had two offers for the fresh graduates in which they even do not need to have any experience. At the end, he called on the graduates to be prepared for a number of things like working in a team, working extra hours whenever challenges come, developing personality and communication skill, learning from the mistakes, becoming visible in terms of works and impress the people in higher hierarchy, knowing the company well etc.

Emad-Ul-Amin echoed Mr. Sandeep while talking about the filtering process of the companies. He added that making mistakes in the CV made a negative impression regarding the candidate. He also said that the graduates must ensure that their skill is enough to be recruited in the companies. While giving the answer of a student on giving reference in the CV, he said that the reference should be validated and the students needed to give reference someone who knew the students.

Arif Shahriar said on the seminar that students must have a dream what he or she is going to be. He stressed on changing the management though leadership. He said that it was important for the graduates to know how to market themselves. Mr. Arif focused on extra curricular activities besides CGPA and other academic records. To him, the capability of adding values is an advantage of a prospective graduate.

He asked the graduates to know about the companies and the post they applied for. Attitudes, knowledge and skill are some of the areas he thinks, graduates should also focus on. Regarding English language skill, he said that having competency in English was not everything to achieve a job. About the questions a candidate might face in the interview, he said that it was not like that the questions would always be made from your discipline. Even family related question might come in the interview board.

Asif Zaman brought his personal experience while talking about the common attributes the companies look for in fresh graduates. He said that the graduates have to make themselves visible. He focused on skill, knowledge and ability of the graduates. He asked the graduates to self themselves to the recruiters and develop communication skills. Mr. Asif also said that his company wanted people who can challenge and are determined.

Moderator Ms. Naila Chowdhury was conducting the seminar besides sharing her thoughts sometimes. She said that it was important to make an impression with the CVs in the first appearance. Russell T Ahmed called on the graduates to do home work on the companies before going to attend the interview board. Mr. Russell Ahmed thanked the panel members, moderator and Standard Chartered Bank for a successful seminar.

Media Support Center in Corporate Bazaar 2008

2008-02-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

Corporate Bazaar 2008, the three day long fair, was started at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre yesterday. It is the third fair of Corporate Bazaar. The fair was officially inaugurated by Mr. Syed Faruque Ahmed, Chairman of aamra group of companies, in the morning yesterday. Organized by aamra networks, Corporate Bazaar 2008 attracted many visitors on the first day. There are different stalls and pavilions are available for the visitors. The representatives of the companies were answering the question of the visitors. A seminal was held on how to increase the revenue of RMG export.

The media center of Corporate Bazaar 2008 was helping out the visitors with providing directions regarding the show. The center was crowded with people all the day. Journalists were asking for program schedule and many other important tings. Few people were busy with preparing the press release for media, while others were busy with giving the answers of their inquiries.

The media center people were dealing with the visitors in a friendly manner. The location of the media center is also very good and it is easily visible. So, the visitors can take help of the media center if they need to know any information regarding Corporate Bazaar 2008. The fair will be concluded on Monday.

Corporate Bazaar 2008: Seminar on Ready Made Garments

2008-02-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

Corporate Bazaar 2008 was inaugurated at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka earlier today. This is third year in a row the fair, concerning the corporate culture of the country, is now underway. Corporate Bazaar 2008 is organized by Aamra networks. A seminar on how to increase revenue from Ready Made Garments export was held on the first day of the fair.

At the seminar, there were three panel members including Prodeep J. Sugathadasa, Director & General Manager, Paxar Bangladesh Limited, Fazlul Haque, President, BKMEA and Lurens. F. Muller, Country Manager, The Cotton Group B&C. The seminar was hosted by Aamra resources limited. The seminar was conducted by Syed Farhad Ahmed, Managing Director of aamra group of companies. All the speakers were very much optimistic regarding the future of RGM sector of Bangladesh and pointed out some important initiatives to be taken in order to increase the revenue from RMG sector in Bangladesh.

Lurens. F. Muller addressed the development of infrastructure in the sector as one of the ways to increase the revenue from RMG export. Besides, Mr. Lurens Muller also stressed on the technological development of the sector, indicating the ever-increasing competition with other markets like China. He said technological development would help the manufacturers provide better customer satisfaction like delivering the products in time. However, he also said that government has some responsibilities on the matter. He called on manufacturers to offer value added items and more fashionable items what, to him, would increase the revenue from RMG sector. Being asked if price is the only factor to take into account, Lurens said that price is one of the factors, while giving some focus on the reliability between manufacturers and buyers and the cooperation with each other.

Prodeep J. Sugathadasa did also point out some key issues to generate more revenue from RMG export. He said Bangladesh garments industry was growing rapidly indicating its being doubled in the last two and half years. He viewed product diversification as one of the ways to increase the revenue of RMG sector. He stressed on launching different product lines in order to create new sources to increase the revenue. He believes that product diversification would help RMG sector to meet its goal.

Aside from price being a factor in generating more revenues, Prodeep J. Sugathadasa also indicated world class facilities and strong middle management with high priority. To him, management of the factories has a lot to do with giving better customer satisfaction which will help the factories to have more revenues from RMG sector. Saying that Bangladesh has the advantage of lower labor cost, he urged to improve equipment.

Fazlul Haque, president of BKMEA, also talked about some important issues needed to in order to increase the revenue from this sector. He said that 40% increase in the productivity was readily possible in the factories even without spending a dollar more on equipments. He said that even the best factory in the country was producing half of its maximum capabilities. So, BKMEA organized a three-month long program in which the policy makers of the factories would be able to learn how to increase the productivity within the same set of facilities. He also focused on product diversification as one of the ways of increasing revenues from EMG export sector. Mr. Haque said with sheer confidence that BangladeshCambodia, China in terms of social compliance. However, he admitted that Sri Lanka has an edge over BangladeshBangladesh was getting RMG market on the interpersonal relationships with the buyers. Rather, he said that it had been the credibility of Bangladesh that they were providing better quality and service and getting the similar response from the buyers in RMG export. He called on people of the manufacturing companies to negotiate with the representatives of foreign companies with confidence. was not far behind the countries like when it comes to social compliance. He also focused on negotiation with the buyers as one of the key issues to attract the buyers. However, he strongly opposed the concern that

Mr. Farhad Ahmed was expressing his thoughts and ideas over the issue while changing the turn of the panel members. He talked about the state of the run products. He focused on better management within the factories.

Following the session of the panel members, there was open discussion accepting suggestions and questions from the audience. A few foreigners from different garments related institution were joined in the discussion. They have pointed out that Bangladesh needs to increase its image in the outer world as there remain some wrong ideas about Bangladesh in abroad. They all said that Bangladesh has huge some competitive advantages in RMG sector, while they need to develop its infrastructure and technology in order to get the best out of it. It was also found out that government has some responsibilities here. Bangladesh embassies in different countries can play a vital role to increase country branding in abroad. So, the seminar ended with some points which are needed to take in to account to increase the revenue from RMG export.

Opening Ceremony of Corporate Bazaar 2008

2008-02-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

Corporate Bazaar 2008 started today and we from Business Bangladesh were there to cover the inaugural ceremony. It is organized by aamra networks limited and the inaugural ceremony took place at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre. Syed Faruque Ahmed, Chairman of aamra group of companies, inaugurated the three day long Corporate Bazaar 2008.

Syed Faruque Ahmed in his speech welcomed everyone to the inaugural ceremony of Corporate Bazaar 2008. He said that B2B (Business to Business) market is very important for our economy. He hoped that Corporate Bazaar could add some flavor to the existing corporate culture in Bangladesh. He said that Corporate Bazaar was not concerned with attracting a huge crowd but its main goal was to increase interaction among the stake holders of the business sector in Bangladesh.

Syed Farhad Ahmed, Managing Director of aamra group of companies also spoke on the occasion. He expressed his satisfaction to note that Corporate Bazaar had continued to flourish and promote corporate culture in Bangladesh. According to him, corporate culture is something new among Bangladeshi companies. He hoped that Corporate Bazaar would continue to increase corporate culture and professionalism in the country. He said that 150 million people of the country can be converted into a pool of skilled workforce if the right kind of training could be provided. He cited the examples of Malaysia and Singapore are now seeking skilled people from other countries. Syed Farhad Ahmed sought the support of everyone to make Corporate Bazaar a success. He said that a few of our neighbors have seen success in outsourcing and Bangladesh can do the same. That is why they have selected BPO as the topic of Corporate Leaders’ Meet in Corporate Bazaar 2008.

Russell T Ahmed, convener of CorporateBazaar and chief operating officer of aamra networks limited in his welcome speech said that aamra networks limited was organizing Corporate Bazaar out of social corporate responsibility. He also said that networking within the business sector is also an outcome of Corporate Bazaar. A number of seminars had been organized addressing the business sector’s interest. He informed the audience about the seminars. He thanked the sponsors for their generous support. He viewed that the success of Corporate Bazaar will be the success of corporate community in Bangladesh.

I am putting here the press release from the organizers:

Country’s premier corporate show, Corporate Bazaar, kicked off Saturday at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the capital city.

Syed Faruque Ahmed, chairman of Aamra Group formally inaugurated the exclusive fair. Syed Farhad Ahmed, Managing Director of Aamra Group and Russell T Ahmed, convener of Corporate Bazaar also addressed the inauguration ceremony.

AAMRA NETWORKS LTD, country’s leading corporate internet service provider, is staging the fair for the third time this year. It is an exhibition of exclusively corporate solutions arranged for the corporate visitors. The concept of the Corporate Bazaar emerged from the need for a truly corporate market place in Bangladesh. It is a market place for products and services designed and offered exclusively to the business world: business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, executives and those who belong to the business community and influence decision making. As fairs and exhibitions held in Bangladesh usually fail to offer an ambience for business decision makers to visit, the organizers aim to make sure that this is one showcase where business leaders can actually get an overview of what is on offer to them and make informed decisions.

The first two editions of Corporate Bazaar, held in 2006 and 2007 met with great success in bringing together the top leaders of the business community under one roof. Some of the leading companies of the country covering over twenty industries exhibited their corporate solutions.

This year the exhibition will be a three day affair starting on the 9^th of February 2008. On show will be all types of products and services necessary for running a business. Over forty leading organizations from different sectors are showcasing their corporate packages covering a wide range of industries like Telecommunication, IT, Banks, Airlines, Office Equipment Manufacturers & Distributors, Advertising Companies, Electronics, Power Supply. The list of exhibitors covers both local big shots as well as multinational companies.

The corporate world of Bangladesh has a free pass to enter the exhibition. Any individual with his/her own business card will be given a free entry pass upon presenting it at the entrance.

The organizers are also arranging several special exclusive events for selected professionals to mark the occasion. These events include five seminars, a gala fashion show and an exclusive Corporate Leaders' Meet.

Corporate Bazaar 2008 Bangladesh: Business Process Outsourcing - the potentials

2008-02-08T10:56:00.000-08:00

The biggest attraction of Corporate Bazaar 2008 is corporate leaders’ meet. The topic of corporate leaders’ meets is “ Business Process Outsourcing - the potentials”. It will take place on Sunday 10 February 2008 (6-8pm). It is organized by aamra networks limited and in the panel, I can find the names of a number of very respectable persons in Bangladeshi society.

Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Honorable Adviser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Expatriates Welfare & Overseas Employment is going to be present as a panel member. Mr. Mahfuz Anam, Editor, The Daily Star will be there too.

Our neighboring India has seen a lot of success in business process outsourcing and they earn huge amount of foreign exchange in this field. If India can do it, why not Bangladesh?

Seminars of Corporate Bazaar 2008

2008-02-08T10:31:00.000-08:00

It is very nice to see that there will be a number of seminars in Corporate Bazaar 2008. Corporate Bazaar deals with corporate culture in Bangladesh and that is why the organizers have arranged a lot of seminars in corporate Bazaar 2008. By visiting their official website, I found out that are four seminars in Corporate Bazaar 2008. Here I am giving the lists of seminars with details:

Seminar-1

Topic : How to Increase Revenue from RMG Export?

Target Audience : Garment Merchandisers

Time & Date : 3-5 pm, Saturday, 9th February 2008

Host : aamra resources limited

Guest Speaker :

Mr. Prodeep J. Sugathadasa, Director & General Manager, Paxar Bangladesh Limited

Mr. Fazlul Haque, President, BKMEA

Seminar-2

Topic : Common Attributes Employers Look in Fresh Graduates

Target Audience : Promising Upcoming Graduates

Time & Date : 11-1 am, Sunday, 10th February 2008

Host : Standard Chattered

Panel Member:

Mr. Sandeep Mookharjea, Head of HR, Standard Chattered

Mr. Asif Zaman, Head of HR Division, Huawei Technologies Bangladesh Limited

Prof. Dr. M. Z. Mamun, Director, IBA

Mr. Suman Bhattacharjee, General Manager, HR Division, Cairn Energy

Mr. Emdad-Ul-Amin, Director, Human Resource, Grameenphone

Mr. Arif Shahriar, Head of Group HR, Rahimafrooz

Seminar-3

Topic : How Brands can Increase Sales

Target Audience : Branding and Sales Professionals

Time & Date : 3-5 pm, Sunday, 10th February 2008

Host : aamra networks limited

Panel Member :

Ms. Rubaba Dowla, Director, Marketing, Grameenphone

Mr. Akku Chowdhury, Executive Director, Transcom Food

Mr. Muneer Ahmed Khan, Chairman & Creative Chief, Unitrend

Mr. Syed Ferhat Anwar, Professor, IBA, University of Dhaka

Seminar-4

Topic : The Future of Communications in the Business World

Target Audience : Key Contact Persons of various companies/clients

Time & Date : 3-5 pm, Monday, 11th February 2008

Host : Grameenphone Ltd.

If you look at the seminars, you can find out that the first seminar deals with the garments sectors of Bangladesh. The second seminar is aim at creating a bridge between academia and industry. The third seminar is related to branding. The fourth seminar deals with the importance of communication and technology. So, you can easily understand the seminars cover a wide a range of topics and the topics are very important for everyone involved in the business sector in Bangladesh.

Official web site of Corporate Bazaar

2008-02-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

Corporate bazaar is the only show about corporate culture in Bangladesh. It is going to start form tomorrow and in fact, there is just 12 hour left before the start of Corporate Bazaar 2008. You already know that corporate Bazaar 2008 will be held at Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Center Dhaka. So, if you are interested to know about this show you should visit the official website of Corporate Bazaar. There you can get all information about Corporate Bazaar 2008. You can also find information about corporate bazaar 2007 and corporate bazaar 2006

I want that all of you should visit the official website of Corporate Bazaar. If you do so you can find any kind of information that you want about show. You can also know about the seminars and you can get some ideas about the business sector abut Bangladesh.

The address is: http://www.corporatebazaar.com/

Corporate Bazaar 2008: Depicting Bangladeshi Corporate Scenario

2008-02-07T11:40:00.001-08:00

If you look at international media then you will find that they show Bangladesh in a negative way many times. For example, most of the time, the reports related to flood and natural digesters, political instability and violence and extreme poverty of Bangladesh get a lot of coverage in the international media. But the positive sides of Bangladesh are not shown much. That is why many people in western countries do have that much good idea about this country. However, the reality is not totally a poor country. In fact, it has same economic growths in the last few years and the main source of export in, Bangladesh is readymade garments. Many Bangladeshis live in other countries and they sent a lot of money and remittance is an important part of Bangladeshi economy too. You should also know that there are a lot of big corporate companies in Bangladesh. Actually, there is a fair related to corporate culture in Bangladesh and that is called Corporate Bazaar. Corporate Bazaar 2008 is knocking on the door and intact it will start form 9 February 2008 in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. This time 30 companies are taking place and they are going to display their products and services in corporate bazaar 2008. There will be a number of seminars too in this show and they are going to be a corporate fashion show.

Today, there was a press conference and I am putting here the press release:

A press Conference was held on Thursday, February 7,2008, at the Hotel Sarina, to announce the inauguration of the Corporate Bazaar 2008, being held at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Hall, from 9-11 February,2008. Leading the panel at the conference was Mr. Russell T. Ahmed, Convener of the organizing committee of Corporate Bazaar and COO of aamra networks limited; also present at the press conference was Mr. Syed Farhad Ahmed, managing Director of aamra Group, the parent company of aarma networks limited; Mr. Sharful Alam, Head of sales and marketing and Mr. Riaz Uddin Mosharaf, CEO, Windmill Advertising ltd.

This is the third time in three years that aamra networks limited, the country’s leading corporate internet service provider, is arranging the Corporate Bazaar. The Corporate Bazaar is an exhibition of exclusively corporate solutions arranged for corporate visitors. The concept of the Corporate Bazaar emerged from the need for a truly for the solutions, that is, products and services offered exclusively for the business world. The exhibition is arranged exclusively for the corporate and business world: business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, executives and those who belong to the business community and the influence decision making. As fairs and exhibitions held in Bangladesh usually fail to offer an ambience for business decisions makers to visit, the organizers aim to make sure that this is one showcase where business leaders can actually get an overview of what is on offer to them and make informed decisions.

The first Corporate Bazaar, held beginning of the last year met with great success in bringing together the top leaders of the business community under one roof, while some of the leading companies covering over twenty five industries exhibited their corporate solutions.

This year the exhibition will be a three day affair starting on the 9^th of February 2008, at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre (BCFCC). On show will be all types of products and services and necessary for running a business. Over forty leading organizations of different industries are showcasing their corporate packages. The exhibitors cover a wide range of industries like Telecommunication, IT, Banks, PSTN, Advertising Companies, Electronics, Power Supply, Real Estate, Fashion House, Hospital etc along with many other industries offering products and services as corporate packages. The list of exhibitions covers both local big shots as well as Multi National Companies.

The corporate world of Bangladesh has a free pass to enter the exhibition. Any individual with their own business card will be given a free entry pass upon presenting their business card at the entrance.

The organizers are also arranging several special exclusive events for selected professionals to mark the occasion.

The organizers are arranging several special exclusive seminars for selected professionals to mark the occasion. Each seminar is one of the prime events of the Exhibition and it is attended by around 120 professionals of the country; interactive discussion takes place between the panel members and the audiences. A panel of selected professionals of their industries shall run the seminars.

The most exclusive event of the Corporate Bazaar is the Corporate Leaders’ Meet arranged by aamra networks limited will bring together the top decision makers of the corporate world under one roof. The evening is going to be attended by over 250 business head of the leading business houses operating in the country, exclusively invited for the occasion (scheduled on 10^th February evening). Corporate Leaders’ Meet is the prime event of the Exhibition and this time the discussion topic is ‘Business Process Outsourcing’ – potential for Bangladesh. Interactive discussion takes place between the panel members and the audiences who are the chief executives of the corporate houses of the country.

If you are in Bangladesh you should visit Corporate Fair 2008. It will be held at Bangladesh China friendship Conference Center and it will be held for three days (9 to 11 February). In Corporate Bazaar 2008, a number of companies form the telecom, bank and others sectors are going to participate. Among the major sponsors there are GrameenPhone Limited, CityCell, AB Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, D-Link (India) Ltd. Nokia and Persona Group. Aamra Network Ltd. is going to arrange the Corporate Bazaar 2008.

There was a press conference on Corporate Bazaar today (7 February 2008). A number of journalists came and the organizers of co 2008 discussed with them different sides of Corporate Bazaar 2008.

Business Bangladesh

2007-12-02T07:07:00.000-08:00