The three-day UK-Bangladesh e-Commerce Fair 2013 will begin in London on September 7 aimed at promoting Bangladeshi business with electronic payment system facility.
The fair is jointly organised by information and communication technology ministry, Bangladesh high commission in London and ICT magazine Computer Jagat.The fair will accommodate 50 stalls where local e-commerce companies will feature their products and service to overseas customers.
‘This fair will link the non-resident Bangladeshis of London to the Bangladeshi market as they will be able to shop local products from abroad,’ ICT secretary Nazrul Islam Khan said at a briefing while announcing the fair at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka on Tuesday.
He said the government and the industry people were jointly organising the fair to take forward the scheme of creating digital Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services former president Mahbub Zaman said the market for Bangladeshi e-commerce companies was huge in London.
‘There are around 12,000 Bangladeshi restaurants in UK which bought their spices and other goods from India and Pakistan. We can easily penetrate into the market with our better quality products,’ he said.
The organisers said women entrepreneurs and SME firms would get special treatment about rates and other issues at the fair.
‘We believe such initiative will help us explore new business opportunity abroad. Because of e-commerce now we can reduce so many geographical obstacles which will help us grow fast,’ said Computer Jagat chief executive officer Abdul Wahid.
Information minister Hasanul Haque Inu said the present government was sincere to make Bangladesh technologically sound for economic betterment.
‘We are reaching the internet facility to the upazila levels and from there the farmers will reach the world market in the future. This is a process which will help the farmers and manufacturers to reach the market. At the same time, the customers are getting their desired products via internet without facing any hazard,’ he said.
‘I believe the UK-Bangladesh e-commerce fair will open a new path for the local businesses to expand in London,’ he said.
Bangladesh Bank deputy governor Naznin Sultana and foreign ministry director general Asad Alam Seyam also spoke on the occasion.
-With New Age input
