Digital Mela attracts small IT businesses

The second day of the Digital Bangladesh Mela 2023 attracted a huge crowd of small IT business owners and representatives from across the country seeking better service providers at the venue.

The three-day fair, organised by the Posts and Telecommunications Division, is being held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area in the capital. It aims to highlight the digital progress and connectivity status of Bangladesh.

The fair on Friday accommodated a total of 77 pavilions and 52 stalls by different ICT solutions providers, telecom operators, mobile financial service providers, internet and infrastructure service providers, etc.

Yasir Arafat, a broadband service provider in Munshiganj, came to the fair on the day in search of better service from big ISPs or transmission companies.

“It was a great scope for me to search for internet service providers as we lack a full-fledged setup for running a broadband business. I used to purchase a line permit from a reputed ISP, but as I do not have good connections with the big companies to take another option,” he said.

“Sometimes, the companies I purchase services to run my business impose illogical conditions and charge extra money. I came here to search for a better service provider,” he added.

Sohel Mahbub, manager (marketing and sales) at IT Net, a fibre cable and transmission business entity, said, “We are getting good response from the ISPs which work locally. As a registered company, we offer nationwide internet service. Local service agents visit our stall and can get a clear idea about services and pricing.”

“Our visitors are mostly small business owners, alongside IT professionals and entrepreneurs, university students. They want to know the business scopes in the ICT sector,” added Sohel.

Besides, organisers arranged an essay and painting competition for IT savvy kids which drew a good number of participants. In addition, IT graduates thronged the fair on the day to know the current technology trend.

“We are participating in the fair with our solutions for some very important verticals like smart education, smart healthcare, smart digital power, and smart port. We are also demonstrating how the industries can benefit from Huawei Cloud & Computing and 5.5G,” said Tanvir Ahmed, head of media at Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Limited, the titanium sponsor of the event.

“As a global leader in the ICT industry, Huawei invests a significant amount of its revenue in research and development. We want to facilitate others and share the knowledge with ICT ecosystem partners and youths. This fair is a perfect platform to achieve that,” Tanvir added.

In the meantime, four mobile operators held a Mobile Congress for the first time comprising four seminars at the fair on Friday.

On the last day, Postal and Telecommunications Medals will be awarded to 22 individuals or institutions under 14 categories.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the fair through a video message on Thursday.