Robi Axiata Limited has unveiled a new digital brand, “Robi for Business”, for its enterprise business customers to provide future-ready and state-of-the-art digital solutions. The core purpose of the new brand is aptly captured in the tagline- “Your partner in digital transformation”. The brand unveiling event took place on Sunday at a city hotel.
The key feature of Robi for Business brand would be to serve the enterprise customers with reliable, innovative and tailor-made digital solutions supported by advanced and customized customer services.
Malaysian High Commissioner, H. E. Haznah Md Hashim, Axiata Enterprise’s CEO, Dr Gopi Kurup, Microsoft Bangladesh’s Managing Director, Md Yousup Faruqu, Founder & Managing Partner SBK Tech Ventures & SBK Foundation, Sonia Bashir Kabir, all the members of Robi Management Council and the eminent top executives of local and multi-national companies were present at the program.
Malaysian High Commissioner, H. E. Haznah Md Hashim congratulated Robi Enterprise Business for successfully launching a fresh new brand to advance its digital vision. As a Malaysia based company, Robi’s foray into the digital realm will further strengthen the ties between Malaysia and Bangladesh, she opined.
Axiata Enterprise CEO, Dr Gopi Kurup said: “The enterprise sector of Bangladesh is rising rapidly on the back of a fast-growing economy. Alongside the digitalization of the society, we are observing a growing appetite for innovative digital solutions in the enterprise sector. In line with the vision of Axiata Group in enterprise segment, I am very glad to see Robi leading this emerging new frontier for digital enterprise solution. I am sure the new brand will help Robi to give special focus to this area of business.”
Robi’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Adil Hossain Noble informed the guests at the event that Robi is currently serving Bangladesh Army, UN and many other esteemed organizations with cutting-edge digital solutions. Robi has also successfully completed some Smart City projects involving Dhaka City Corporation and Cumilla City Corporation. These projects included automation of tracking their resources, attendance, security and safety measures at various levels. Robi is the first and only telco yet to provide cloud platform in the industry.
He added that Robi is also the first telco to have partnered with Microsoft to offer its clients with Microsoft office applications, Server, Cloud, Security and other licensing solutions. Besides, as the first telco to have partnered with google workspace, Robi is especially focusing to cater to its SME clients, a segment where Robi enjoys the leadership position.
Speaking on the occasion, Robi’s Acting CEO and Chief Financial Officer, M. Riyaaz Rasheed: “Launching of Robi for Business marks the formal beginning of our journey beyond connectivity business. Partnering with the highly renowned local and global tech giants and supported by a highly skilled digital workforce, we are now fully prepared to serve our valued customers in the enterprise sector in their digital transformation journey. We look forward to all your support and patronage in the coming days.”
Food delivery service ‘FOODANO’ started its journey to deliver the food and grocery items at shortest possible time among the customers. The country’s leading business conglomerates PRAN-RFL Group launched the service through a program held at group’s office at the capital’s Badda on Sunday.
Kamruzzaman Kamal, Director (Marketing) at PRAN-RFL Group and Choudhury Atiur Rasul, Director (Accounts) inaugurated the new venture of the group.
Addressing the program, Kamruzzaman Kamal said, “The busyness of the people are increasing day by day. That’s why they are interested to get ready food items sitting in home. People of the developed countries are collecting ready food items through giving online order instead of cooking food at home. This trend is also increasing in our country. We have taken the initiative considering the demand of customers so that they can collect their favorite food items with shortest possible time.”
Nur Muhammad Rasel, Head of Business at FOODANO said, “Interested people need to download our apps from google play store to get our service. After fulfilling the registration, customers can order food items from their selected shops. Representative of FOODANO will deliver the products within half hour.”
He also added, “We are going the start our service through food and grocery items. Other services will be included considering the demand of customers.”
State minister for information and communication technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak on Thursday said that Barisal would be developed as silicon city which would make a significant contribution in building a smart Bangladesh.
The state minister made the remarks while exchanging views with the newsmen after laying the foundation stone of the IT/Hi-Tech Park at Kashipur Mouza in Barisal in the morning, said press a release.
‘Construction of the park will be completed within the next two years. It will create employment opportunities for 3,000 and training opportunities for 1,000 youths every year,’ he said.
Hoping that the high-tech park will turn Barisal region into a technology-rich city, the state minister said that, ‘The young generation of Barisal will be able to create employment opportunities for others and prepare themselves for employment by developing their talents properly.’
Later, the state minister planted saplings of various medicinal and fruit trees in the yard of the park.
Barisal City Corporation Mayor Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah, Managing Director of Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority Dr Bikarna Kumar Ghosh, concerned officials of ICT department, leaders of different levels of district Awami League were present, among others, at the ceremony.
Under the project of setting up IT or high-tech parks at district level , the hi-tech park in Barisal is being constructed on an area of about 6.5 acres at a cost of Taka 170 crore.
The project taken under the authority of Hi-Tech Park of ICT Department is being funded by the Government of India.
Speakers at a roundtable on Wednesday expressed that the role of insurtech players has to be formalised and boosted to bring about the paradigm shift within the overall insurance sector of Bangladesh.
BASIS organised the roundtable discussion titled “Potential of InsurTech in Advancing Bangladesh’s Economy” at it’s auditorium Karwanbazar in the capital.
Senior officials from the Bangladesh Bank and private banks, non-bank financial institutions, insurance companies and other key stakeholders attended the event. The roundtable discussion was moderated by FidaHaq, Co-Chairman, BASISFinTech Standing Committee.
Masud Rana, Additional Director (BFIU), Bangladesh Bank, stated, “Bangladesh Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) should make necessary amendments to their policies to allow tech companies and insurers to work collaboratively to develop and modify products to provide 4IR based and hassle-free services to customers.”
“To ensure the development of the insurtech industry and to suitably serve end beneficiaries, our roundtable today has proposed a few groundbreaking ideas and suggestions to properly structure and redesign the insurance policies” added Fahim Mashroor, Chairman, BASIS FinTech Standing Committee.
Bangladesh has immense potential in the financial service market, that’s what Fida Haq expressed while touching upon a few key barriers that need to be overcome to bring about the necessary changes required. Participants focused on the insurance gap in Bangladesh of nearly 6 billion USD and a very minimal contribution of the insurance sector - 0.4% to be exact - to the GDP of the country.
Insurance sector in other countries - including the sub-continent - have considerably much more market penetration than Bangladesh.
Thus experts concluded with a few solutions to overcome the dismal situation currently prevailing in the insurtech sector: provision of the insurtech companies with permission to operate as Digital Insurance Agents or to begin with provide an NOC until the insurance act is revised to accommodate them. Secondly, there needs to be significant revision of the existing regulations and mandates as per current market needs.