Digital World brings promises for business

Creating much hype among the young tech-savvy people, a four-day Digital World-2017 ended yesterday ushering promises for companies, startups and public sector organisations.

The organisers -- the government's ICT division and Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) -- expect business involving digital products to reach record levels.

Some Tk 100 crore worth of business will be generated, they stated presenting their targets prior to the event's inauguration.

The exposition last year brought in around Tk 70 crore worth of work orders, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT, had stated then.

Subir Kishore Choudhury, secretary to the division, said over five lakh people came to the event at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre while 19 lakh watched programmes online.

Mustafa Jabbar, president of BASIS, said the initial success was the huge response. “People, especially youths, were very enthusiastic about new technologies and I think this is one of the biggest achievements,” he said.

He said the Dhaka visit of humanoid robot Sophia played a part in attaining the success. This enthusiasm will help Bangladesh reach its target of earning $5 billion through exports by 2021, said Jabbar.

However, Rashad Kabir, managing director of Dream71 Bangladesh Ltd and an organising committee member, pointed out that the programme drew success in terms of garnering people's attention.

“If we can bring garment industry leaders and bankers to this event, that will ultimately help bring business and digitise their systems,” said Kabir, who is now exporting products to nine countries.

He suggested that the organisers reserve 25 to 30 percent space of the venue for the participation of foreign countries next year, which would help even more businesses to connect. A huge number of foreign experts and companies attended this year's event and held a good number of meetings.

It was also the first time that e-commerce businesses, around 85 companies, showcased their products. Rajib Ahmed, president of e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB), said they were very happy as most companies got business and were able to meet global companies.

“Companies also sold some products here but partnership meetings were their main success, which will ultimately help the industry grow further,” he added.

Apart from Sophia's appearance, there were other events that attracted visitors such as sessions on gaming, digital marketing, e-commerce and innovation. Facebook's presence was noticeable with a myriad of experts from the world's largest social networking site attending workshops and seminars.

The closing session's chief guest was AMA Muhith, finance minister. It was here that Palak termed it one of the most successful events in the country's history.