The day-long Digital Polli Smart Village Expo-2024 was held on the ground of Rangpur Town Hall. Rangpur Additional Divisional Commissioner (General) Md. Abu Jafar inaugurated the fair on Sunday, March 10, under the initiative of Business Promotion Council of the Ministry of Commerce and E-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB).
Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) of Rangpur district Md Rezaul Karim presided over the event while the General Secretary Abdul Waheed Tamal along with Rangpur Superintendent of Police Md Ferdous Ali Choudhury were present as special guests.
e-CAB Digital Commerce Standing Committee Chairman- Ibrahim Khalil, Vice-President Zahiduzzaman, General Secretary- Mir Shahed Ali along with e-CAB Women Forum President Nazneen Nahar were also present as guests. At the end of the opening ceremony of the fair, Rangpur Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Mobashwer Hasan joined other guests to visit the fair.
e-Cab, the organizer of the fair, informed this information in a press release on Tuesday. It was informed that the chief guest of the opening ceremony, Rangpur Additional Divisional Commissioner (General) Md. Abu Zafar, assured full cooperation for the development of e-commerce sector in Rangpur district and expressed sincere thanks to the organizers of the fair for such a wonderful event.
While visiting the fair-grounds, Rangpur Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Mobaswer Hasan assured that he will provide all kinds of cooperation to accelerate the activities of digital village in Rangpur district. In the opening ceremony of the Expo, certificates and allowances were given to 200 entrepreneurs trained under Digital Village of Rangpur.
A total of 35 local and national stalls were participated in the fair by small, medium entrepreneurs and many reputed e-commerce companies. Bikroy.com presents their services to the public. The e-commerce initiative of Tathya Apa project – ‘Lalsabuj.com’ Marketplace had 9 stalls with a number of products of women entrepreneurs. e-Cab Women Forum and many women entrepreneurs of Wee were present in the fair with their products. Traditional handicrafts, home-made food, Shatranji and food items were also on display in the fair.
In addition to the fair, a seminar titled ‘E-commerce support for rural women entrepreneurs’ was also organized at 3 pm under the initiative of National Women’s Organization’s Tathya Apa project under the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs.
Deputy Commissioner of Rangpur Mohammad Mobaswer Hasan was present as the chief guest in the seminar while Shahnaz Begum Neena, Project Director (Joint Secretary), Tathya Apa Project (2nd Phase); SM Nazimul Islam, Deputy Project Director (Administration & Finance) and Md. Lokman Hossain, Deputy Project Director (Training & Monitoring) of Tathya Apa Project (Phase 2) were present as special guests.
Besides, e-CAB General Secretary Abdul Waheed Tamal and Assistant Commissioner (Land), Rangpur Sadar Mosammat Farida Sultana were present as special guests at the event. The seminar highlighted the overall development of rural women entrepreneurs by taking various steps and providing them with technical assistance to increase the commercial potential of their enterprises.
At the beginning of the seminar, a training session was arranged for Lal-Sabuj Entrepreneurs with Mir Shahed Ali, Managing Director, Aimesh Limited and Maryam Sultana, CCO of ComJagat Technologies as trainers. In the training session, details on how entrepreneurs can use the lalsabuj.com marketplace are shown through videos. Besides, some other relevant issues are discussed in the development of technical skills of entrepreneurs.
Shahnaz Begum Neena, Project Director (Joint Secretary), Tathya Apa Project said that currently there are more than 18900 entrepreneurs in Lalsabuj.com. She expressed hope that more women entrepreneurs will benefit through the lalsabuj.com e-commerce platform in the future and one day it will be possible to bring agricultural products of women entrepreneurs under this platform. He feels that information will also play an important role in increasing the number of customers by increasing registrations. He also expressed optimism that women of this country will be self-reliant through Lalsabuj and they will play a significant role in the national economy.