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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2016
E-commerce needs better internet, payment methods n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Lack of broadband internet penetration, logistic support to deliver products, payment gateway and mistrust in the rural areas are the key barriers to expanding commerce across Bangladesh, e-commerce experts have said. Policymakers, entrepreneurs and experts from the e-commerce sector came up with the remarks at a seminar titled “How to expand e-commerce to rural areas.” The seminar was organised yesterday as part of the three-day “Digital World 2016” expo. “Lack of access to broadband internet, logistic network, escrow architecture, unavailability of e-commerce platforms in mobile devices, absence of commodity exchange, lack of availability for an efficient agro-marketing network, policy deficiency and no financing infrastructure for e-commerce are the key barriers in the way of expansion of e-commerce in the rural areas,” said Rezwanul Haque Jami, the vice-president of e-commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB) in his keynote presentation.
BANGLADESH E-COMMERCE INDUSTRY FACTSHEET Over 5,000 pages on Facebook About 700 websites
400 e-CAB members
70% consumers live in Dhaka 50% e-commerce companies rely on own logistic
Monthly transaction Tk400cr
Over 60 million internet users
Yearly growth about 10%
Facebook users 30 million
70% transaction cash on delivery
128.93 million mobile phone users
80% consumers live in urban area According to government statistics, 66% of Bangladeshis live in rural areas, while e-CAB says 80% of its transactions are based in urban areas. A deep mistrust of online transaction and monetary security prevails, and there is a lack of campaigns targeting rural e-commerce, meaning the unavailability of online marketplaces for trading goods is a less known fact in the rural areas, said Jami. Since the mistrust is a barrier, both the industry stakeholders and
Smartphone users 10 million the government will have to take steps to formulate policy and set standards to build trust between consumers and suppliers, said Mohammad Abdur Rouf, chief operating officer of Aarong. “A big challenge is money collection from the rural area and if we can ensure it, the expansion would be beyond our expectation,” he added. “Urban consumers dominate the e-commerce scene. To include rural people, we will have to con-
centrate on supplies from the rural area as there are underutilised products there,” he said. Talking on internet accessibility, Bagdoom.com CEO Syeda Kamrun Ahmed said that though Bangladesh had launched 3G internet, it was not available in rural areas. Broadband internet penetration was very poor as well. “There are lots of opportunities in making investment in technological development as well as infrastructure including logistic support,” said Kamrun. She urged the government to ensure access to finance including easy term loans and collateral free loans for small entrepreneurs. E-CAB is working with the Bangladesh Post Office to be able to use its network to deliver products, said e-CAB President Razib Ahmed. He also urged the authorities concerned to introduce courses on e-commerce to create skilled manpower. He urged the Commerce Ministry to introduce a call centre with 100 people to resolve complaints received from consumers. The government is funding, promoting and assisting the industry to
reach rural people, said Nahim Razzaq, MP, Convener of Young Bangla. “Postal Card can be a tool for payment gateway,” he said, echoing Razib’s remarks. “People in this industry will have to work through a framework to build the confidence of consumers,” he added. E-commerce is a growing industry and strict regulations may hurt its growth, said Senior Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon. “But we are working to formulate a policy for the sector and gradually it will be implemented to shape the sector,” said Mamoon, who was present as the chief guest. All the panel discussants stressed on awareness, building trust and policy to expand e-commerce business in the rural areas. The strengths of Bangladesh that may support the expansion of e-commerce are a growing number of mobile users, countrywide postal network and mobile financial services that could make payment easier in rural areas, the panelists said. There are over half a million mobile banking agents under 18 banks in Bangladesh. l
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New Jamaat chief’s 1971 role questioned In the following paragraph, the new Jamaat ameer remembered the party’s former chiefs Ghulam Azam and Motiur Rahman Nizami; former nayeb-e-ameer Maulana AKM Yousuf; former secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid; former assistant secretaries general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla; and party’s former central executive committee member Mir Quasem Ali and others “who had made outstanding and significant contribution throughout their lives for establishing a just and welfare society in Bangladesh on the basis of Islamic ideology.” He claimed that the five top Jamaat leaders – condemned war criminals Quasem, Nizami, Mujahid, Kamaruzzaman, Quader Molla – had been hanged “unlawfully” by the incumbent “authoritarian” government “because of their pro-active and dynamic roles.” Maqbul also alleged that Ghulam Azam and Yusuf had died in jail “because of the government’s oppression and torture. I am praying to Almighty Allah for the acceptance of their martyrdom.” He claimed that Jamaat leaders Abdus Subhan, Delawar Hossain Sayedee and ATM Azharul Islam
had been kept in jail to face slow death as they were sentenced on the basis of false and baseless allegations of crimes against humanity. His remarks resulted in criticism among cross-sections of people for mentioning the sacrifices of the freedom fighters for the country’s independence and hailing the war criminals in the same statement. During the war, Jamaat top brass had branded the freedom fighters as miscreants, atheists and agents of India, and acted against the creation of Bangladesh by collaborating with the Pakistani occupation forces as a party. Jamaat was also behind the formation of peace comittees, razakar forces, al-Badr and al-Shams. Jamaat has always been critical of the ongoing war crimes trials while Maqbul, as the party’s acting ameer in the last six years, made many infuriating statements regarding the trial and judgements. The religion-based party is also believed to be behind the rise of extremism and communalism in the country as it resumed politics after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Maqbul got the acting ameer post of Jamaat after the arrest of previous chief Nizami in 2010 for
war crimes. He had attended party meetings and issued statements regularly from unknown locations. Earlier he served as the nayeb-eameer, assistant secretary general, regional coordinator and Rokon. Hailing from Omrabad village under Purbo Chandrapur Union of Dagonbhuiyan in Feni, Maqbul was a teacher at Feni Model High School in 1971 and later joined Jamaat-e-Islami after his retirement. He lost the 1991 elections contesting from Feni 2 constituency. Maqbul also supported the 13-point charter for demands of radical Islamist platform Hefazat-e-Islam when the latter waged all-out movement against the government in 2013 demanding blasphemy law to try atheist bloggers and a ban on Ahmadiyya Muslims. In March this year, he threatened to wage tough movement if the state religion provision in the constitution was revoked by the apex court. After taking oath, Maqbul asked the government and other parties to arrange a national dialogue with all the political parties and stakeholders to solve the existing problems and crises of the country. He earlier called for national unity after the July 1 Gulshan cafe attack.
Allegations of 1971 crimes
According to Feni district freedom fighters’ Commander Mir Abdul Hannan, Maqbul was a razakar commander during the war. Upon his directives, members of al-Badr and razakar forces abducted freedom fighter Maulana Waz Uddin, a former leader of Bangladesh Students Union and vice-president of Feni College Central Students’ Union, and killed him in Chittagong. Dagonbhuiyan unit commander Shariat Ullah Bangali accused Maqbul of masterminding the death of 10 Hindus at Laalpur village of Joylaskar Union. The victims were burnt to death. “Razakar Mosharraf Hossain Mosha killed freedom fighter Ahsan Ullah of Khushipur village of the upazila on the order by Maqbul. Mosha, hailing from Safua village, is still alive,” Shariat told the Dhaka Tribune, demanding investigation into the allegations against the new Jamaat chief. Hannan alleged that around 200 razakars of Feni including Maqbul had been enjoying impunity as no charges were brought against them at the International Crimes Tribunal. Former ameer of the district unit and central leader Prof Liakat Ali refuted the allegations. “Some dishonest people are trying to make
a leader of the Islamic movement controversial by making false accusations against him,” he claimed.
‘War-time allegations baseless’
After Bangla Tribune published a report on Maqbul’s war crimes on Tuesday, Jamaat Nayeb-e-Ameer Prof Mozibur Rahman in a statement claimed that the allegations were imaginary, confusing and baseless. Mozibur alleged that the report was published as part of a conspiracy since there had been no allegations of war-time crimes had been brought against Maqbul since the independence. “Such an allegation against a party like Jamaat-e-Islami which is following Islamic ideology and principles is completely unacceptable and irrelevant. They cannot confuse and misguide the countrymen by publishing such false, baseless and ill-motivated report,” the statement added. l
Corrigendum In a story titled “WB pledges biggest ever $2bn climate fund to Bangladesh” published yesterday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was inadvertently mentioned as the Indian prime minister. We regret the error.l