Home ›› 26 Mar 2022 ›› Front
The Business Promotion Council (BPC), an initiative of the commerce ministry, is piloting the “Digital Palli” project to help marginalised and small entrepreneurs in villages promote and sell their products online.
Under the project, 200 weavers in Manikganj’s Saturia upazila will be trained in e-commerce for three months initially.
The BPC is jointly implementing the initiative with the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB) to build the country’s first such marketplace.
A coordination meeting on implementing the project was held in Saturia recently where Upazila Nirbahi Officer Sharmin Ara, Joint Secretary of the commerce ministry and BPC Coordinator Abdur Rahim Khan, e-CAB General Secretary Abdul Wahed Tamal, and local entrepreneurs were present.
“We have already surveyed the products that will be included in the marketplace,” said BPC Programme Executive Md Faisal Khan.
He said the pilot aims to promote and spread products made in villages across the country and also in international markets.
“If we can digitalise marketing or upgrade the delivery system, anyone can sell their products online from home. Local startups can also join the platform if they want,” he explained.
Faisal said the marketplace would minimise product delivery costs several times, adding the price of a particular product cannot vary in different places in a country.
“Village entrepreneurs will be able to sell their products everywhere and earn much more money from their ventures while customers will receive quality products at cheaper rates,” the BPC executive also said.
He said as opposed to the country’s existing e-commerce businesses that are city-centric, this initiative focuses on villages so that farmers can do business online and brand their products without the assistance of middlemen.
“Though we are piloting the scheme primarily in Saturia, anyone in Manikganj can take part in the training and brand their products on the platform,” he said.
“The BPC will submit the pilot’s findings to the ministry, and the latter will decide whether the initiative can be run elsewhere.”
Md Mehedi Hasan, e-CAB general manager (project), said the marketplace will also be named Digital Palli, which is being built now and will hopefully be launched soon.
“As part of the pilot, we arranged a workshop last week to train weavers in e-commerce,” said Sharmin.
“Baraid is a remote area in the upazila where around 250 weaver families live. Transportation problems disrupt the marketing of their products. If they respond to the ‘Digital Palli’ initiative, they will be highly benefited,” the upazila
nirbahi officer added.
