DBH Finance PLC. (DBH), the largest housing finance institution in the country, has recently signed a project services agreement with International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Being pioneer and specialist housing finance institution, DBH has strong focus in affordable housing finance. In collaboration with IFC, DBH aims to strengthen its affordable housing loan product by establishing a value proposition for the affordable housing segment and effectively target the lower-middle income segment.
Martin Holtman, Country Manager of IFC for Bangladesh, Bhutan & Nepal and Nasimul Baten, Managing Director & CEO of DBH Finance signed the agreement on behalf of their organizations. Partha Guha Thakurta, Asia Pacific Head of FIG Risk Advisory, IFC, A.K.M. Tanvir Kamal, DMD & Head of Credit, DBH, Md. Hassan Iftekhar Yussouf, DMD & Head of IT, DBH and other high officials of both the organizations were present in the program.
Bangladesh Computer Society (BCS) organised its annual general meeting (AGM)-2022 at BCS Innovation Centre in the city on Saturday.
BCS President Eng. Subrata Sarkar presided over the meeting while BCS Vice President Rashed Ali Bhuyian, Secretary General Kamruzzaman Bhuyian, Treasurer Nazrul Islam Helali, Director Zahirul Islam and all the councilors of the society joined the meeting.
In the meeting, BCS General Secretary Kamruzzaman Bhuyian presented the annual financial statements and audit report of 2022 and discussed various activities initiated in 2023.
The meeting approved the statements and the audit report.
Huawei announces six startups as the winners of the Huawei ICT Incubator 2022 program. The winners will get seed money as the award in addition to the opportunity to meet global startups for knowledge sharing.
The announcement came in a Gala event held at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel today. Leading global ICT infrastructure provider Huawei organized the event with the cooperation of the strategic partners Startup Bangladesh Limited and Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy (iDEA).
The competition has two groups, namely, the Idea Stage and the Early Stage. The winners of the Idea Stage and the Early Stage, respectively, are Insure Cow (Champion), Durjoy DSS (1st Runners up), and Relaxy (2nd Runners up); and Jahaji Ltd. (Champion), Palki (1st Runners up), and We Gro Technologies Ltd. (2nd Runners up).
The champions will get BDT 500,000 as prize money and USD 125,000 Huawei Cloud credit; whereas 1st and 2nd runners-up will get Tk 300,000 and Tk 100,000 as prize money, respectively, in addition to USD 80,000 Huawei Cloud Credit. Apart from these, a co-founder from each company will visit abroad to meet successful foreign startups.
An independent jury panel, comprised with iDEA project, Huawei Bangladesh, Startup Bangladesh and other renowned leaders of the startup ecosystem of Bangladesh, selected the winners. The honorable guests of the gala event announced winners’ names in the event. Zunaid Ahmed Palak, MP, Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division graced the event as the chief guest. H. E. Li Jiming, Ambassador of China to Bangladesh, was present as special guest along with Professor Vincent Chang, Ph.D., Vice-chancellor of Brac University, Pan Junfeng, CEO of Huawei Bangladesh; Sami Ahmed, Managing Director of Startup Bangladesh; Md. Altaf Hossain, Project Director (Joint Secretary), iDEA Project, BCC, ICT Division.
In his speech, the chief guest, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Honorable Minister of State, ICT Division, said, “From a startup, in just 35 years, Huawei has become a huge company. This can be an inspiration to follow for startups. Under the prudent leadership of our Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the PM’s ICT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy, we have successfully realized the Digital Bangladesh vision by 2021, riding on the four pillars of Digital Bangladesh. We have inaugurated several institutes to enhance the skills of our youth in the ICT sector, which I believe will help them be equipped with future skillset. I thank Huawei for its involvement in three ongoing projects with the ICT Division. Besides, I call on Huawei to consider Bangladesh a significant market for them so that they can play a positive role in the country’s ICT sector and support Bangladesh in achieving its vision to become ‘Smart Bangladesh’ by 2041. I wish luck to all the participants and winners of Huawei ICT Incubator 2022.”
H. E. Li Jiming, Ambassador of China to Bangladesh, stated, “China and Bangladesh are important strategic partners of cooperation with each other and share extensive and in-depth cooperation and common interests in various fields. China has been Bangladesh’s largest trading partner for twelve consecutive years since 2010 and ranked among the top sources of FDI. In recent years, Chinese enterprises have expanded their investments in Bangladesh in terms of infrastructure, science, and technology, among which ICT is one of the most remarkable and promising ones. I am confident that the two countries will enjoy more favorable opportunities for cooperation in ICT and foresee much brighter prospects for win-win cooperation.”
Professor Vincent Chang, Ph.D., Vice-chancellor of Brac University, said, “It gives me great pleasure to see that globally leading technology leaders such as Huawei are helping the youth to become truly future-ready. Including this Incubator program, as per my knowledge, Huawei is also running other skill development programs like Seeds For The Future, ICT Skills Competitions here, and also partnering with universities across Bangladesh to build Huawei ICT Academies where the youth can enhance their skills.
Huawei Bangladesh CEO Pan Junfeng said, “For over 23 years, Huawei has been working with the ICT sector, telecom operators, and local partners in Bangladesh. Huawei ICT Incubator is part of our continued efforts to facilitate the country’s young minds by empowering them, training them, and providing them with unmatched opportunities. Throughout the entire program, participants got the chance to learn from industry experts and gained both business and technical knowledge to further refine their ideas. I congratulate all the winners who will be making a difference through their ideas in the near future.”
Sami Ahmed, Managing Director of Startup Bangladesh, said, “It goes without saying that the startup ecosystem in Bangladesh is continuously growing. Startup Bangladesh is working relentlessly to flourish a venture capital ecosystem in the country by providing necessary support to early-stage and Idea-stage startups. This is where we align with this Huawei ICT Incubator program, which also aims to facilitate young startup entrepreneurs. It was a wonderful experience for us as a strategic partner of this program, and we found Huawei as a very collaborative company indeed.”
Md. Altaf Hossain, Project Director of iDEA, shared, “In a world of rapid change, young people are leading the way through the right combination of skills and knowledge. In such a backdrop, an innovation-induced culture can provide Bangladesh with its own fuel to strive forward through young minds. As a strategic partner of Huawei ICT Incubator program, iDEA strongly resonates with Huawei’s philosophy of upskilling the youth and providing them with ample opportunity to thrive.”
Kajal Abdullah, Co-founder and CEO of Jahaji Ltd., said, “We are glad that Bangladesh nurtures a support mechanism for aspiring entrepreneurs. Throughout our journey in this ICT incubator program, we were taken through various training and skill development regimens, which helped us to transform our respective ideas into functional business models. I would like to wholeheartedly thank Huawei, Startup Bangladesh, and iDEA for making this program happen.”
Around 180 participants applied for this year’s ICT Incubator program. Divided into two groups – The idea stage and the Early stage, 68 startups were selected to join the Incubator Bootcamp, where they were mentored and provided technical training. After this, the participants presented their startup ideas before the jury panel. Based on the judgment of the jury members, a total of 20 startups from both stages were selected as finalists for the gala event. Finally, the top 3 from the Idea stage and the top 3 from the Early stage have been announced as winners at the gala event.
Transforming shopping experiences for Bangladeshi people over the past eight years, the country’s largest online marketplace Daraz Bangladesh celebrates its 8th anniversary. Daraz rejoices in the success of preserving its streak of outstanding business excellence for eight consecutive years with a special anniversary campaign dedicated to its loyal customers and their consistent love and support.
Fashioning the slogan “8 years of Unbound Joy Thank You, Bangladesh!” the campaign is a commemoration of an eight-year-long adventurous journey and will continue from September 4-11, 2022.
In 2014, exactly eight years ago, Daraz began its journey with just five employees and a website. Today, the company has transformed into the leading e-commerce platform as it shares its success with over 7 million customers, 41,000 sellers, and numerous partners and stakeholders. Daraz celebrates this momentous occasion with an anniversary campaign that was inaugurated through a press conference on August 25, 2022, at Ruposhi Bangla Grand Ballroom, InterContinental Dhaka.
Bjarke Mikkelsen, Founder & CEO of Daraz Group, was present as the chief guest at the press conference. Regarding the 8-year anniversary celebration, he said, “The best thing about Daraz Bangladesh is it is a Bangladeshi company, run by the most competent e-commerce professionals of Bangladesh, for Bangladesh. Bangladesh has the potential to be the biggest and most important market for Daraz Group, and our shareholders are interested in investing BDT 1 thousand crore over the next 3-4 years for building e-commerce infrastructure and ecosystem in the country. Our number 1 goal is to build a sustainable business and ecosystem for e-commerce in Bangladesh, besides empowering the young and upcoming entrepreneurs.”
On behalf of Daraz, Zornica Zafirova, Group COO, Syed Mostahidal Hoq, Managing Director; Md. Tajdin Hassan, Chief Marketing Officer; Tasfin Alam Khondoker, Chief Operating Officer; A.H.M Hasinul Quddus Rusho, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer; Shabbir Hossain, Chief Commercial Officer and Md. Riyad Hossain, Chief Human Resource Officer, were also present at the event along with other high officials. Moreover, popular influencers, actors, and models were also present as special guests during the occasion.
On this occasion, Syed Mostahidal Hoq, Managing Director, Daraz Bangladesh, said, “The 7-year-long journey of Daraz Bangladesh has been adorned with many milestones. These are equally significant for the organization and the overall e-commerce sector, as we have been successful in positioning ourselves as the market leaders within such a short time. With over 50 thousand seller partners, I believe that we have expanded the horizon for e-commerce ventures across the country and enabled businesses with the facilities required to maintain operations amid transforming consumer behaviors in transforming society. The acquisition by Alibaba played a major role behind this strength of ours.”
On the ocassion, Md. Tajdin Hassan, Chief Marketing Officer of Daraz Bangladesh, said, “Currently, the e-commerce sector in Bangladesh comprises only 1-2 percent share of the country’s retail sales. In a country with an increasing internet penetration rate, we certainly have a long way to go. For the last seven years, Daraz has been educating the market to influence consumer behavior with an aim to expand the e-commerce services around the nation and contribute to the economy. As a part of these efforts, we have come up with a mega campaign on the occasion of our eighth anniversary, presenting exciting deals for our customers.”
To make this anniversary a memorable one for the shoppers, Daraz has brought a wide array of exciting tractions such as brand-free shipping, mystery box, flash sales, hot deals, mega deals, and so much more! In addition to this, boasting a grand shopping experience, the campaign comprises massive discount offers of up to BDT 15,000, gamification giveaways, vouchers, payment offers, new user gifts, flash puzzle challenges, exclusive launches, and exceptional EMI facilities!
The co-sponsors of the event are Dettol, Bata, ORAIMO Global, Studio X, realme, Singer, Xiaomi and Lotto. The brand partners are Fabrilife, Lux, Pureit, Motion View, Livingtex, Motorola, Infinix, Ribana, Masculine, Godrej, Haier, Parachute Naturale, Furnicom, and CKEYIN. Meanwhile, the event partners of the campaign are Zaynax Health, Lavish Boutique Salon, Prive By Nahila Hedayet, Gala Makeover & Salon, Splendor By Aneeka Bushra, and Powder Room by Esha Rushdi.