Exporters have to spend only Tk 30 for an hour video conferencing and Tk 1,000 for annual membership to be in regular contact with their potential buyers, said Ashraf Momtaz, official of the Trade Information Centre of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
“We have launched this programme as a separate section of our Trade Information Centre in January, and already received huge response from the exporters,” he said.
“Now the local exporters will be able to reduce timeline for producing things as per the exact requirement. It will help them save their money and time,” he added.
He said EPB had completed the entire process of video conferencing system at a minimal cost. It had to buy a number of computers and other necessary equipment including Internet connection with web-cams.
Momtaz was describing the new service to the enthusiastic visitors at the three-day Digital Innovation Fair - 2010 that kicked off on Thursday at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Novo Theatre in Dhaka.
Despite being a Digital Innovation Fair, which mainly focuses on new ICT innovations and services, it was indeed a fair that aims to accelerate the country's trade and economy.
Apart from the EPB initiative, the commerce ministry was displaying the online company registration system.
Introduced last year, a total of 12,183 public limited companies, private companies, partnership firms and trade organisations have registered online in 2009, said Ranajit Kumar Roy, assistant register of Joint Stock companies and Firms.
“Now one can register his or her company online, which takes only four hours to complete the total procedure,” he said adding: “Entrepreneurs have to apply online and pay fees that he or she can pay directly to bank or through credit cards, and it's done.”
Meanwhile, the country's businessmen are now able to query about their imported goods that is on the way to Chittagong port from across the world.
“This became possible from the moment the Chittagong Port was automated. Now one can check the cargo status, including the services that the port provides for the cargo and also electronic invoices,” said Salimullah Khan, project manager of Container Terminal Management System of Chittagong Port.
Besides, National Board of Revenue has also taken initiatives for online Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) and VAT registration by the beginning of the next fiscal year.
A total of 51 public service providing agencies, including all ministries and departments, are showcasing their services and initiatives at the fair.
Services range from providing e-health services to the areas hit by cyclone or water surge.
Information centres at union level that helps grassroots people to avail access to government forms, passport and visa information, government notices, birth and death registration and citizenship certificates were also on the display.
A seminar on Implementing ICT Policy 2009 to Achieve Digital Bangladesh was held yesterday at the fair.
Speakers at the seminar stressed the need for using ICT as a tool of reducing poverty and enhancing the country's economic growth.
Yeafesh Osman, state minister for science and ICT, and Habibullah N Karim, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), spoke among others at the seminar.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Sayeda Akter
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