Second Bangladesh Retail Congress held

Global and local experts yesterday discussed the potential of retail business in the country, at Bangladesh Retail Congress at Le Meridien hotel in Dhaka.

Bangladesh Brand Forum organised the second edition of the event with the theme “Redefining Retail in Bangladesh”.

Damodar Mall, CEO for grocery retail at Reliance Retail Ltd and the author of Supermarketwala; Philippines' franchise guru Armando O Bartolome, president of GMB Management Services Global Inc; Arijit Chakraborti, partner of PwC, and Shabri Prabhakar, head of international business at Coffee Day Global Ltd, presented keynote papers on their respective fields.

Three panel discussions on the future of retail for Bangladesh and technology and skills development in retail were held where 18 local industry stakeholders took part.

The local experts included Prof Syed Ferhat Anwar of the Institute of Business Administration under Dhaka University; Kazi Jamil Islam, managing director of Express Leather Products Ltd; Prof Mohammad Abdul Momen, director of Pride Group; Reaz Uddin Al-Mamoon, managing director of Epyllion Group; Syed Nasim Manzur, managing director of Apex Footwear Ltd, and Tamara Hasan Abed, senior director of Brac Enterprises.

Two local case studies were presented by Hatil Complex Ltd and Daraaz Bangladesh Ltd. Earlier, Shariful Islam, founder and managing director of Bangladesh Brand Forum, delivered the welcome address.

Kazi Jamil Islam, managing director of Express Leather Products; Sabbir Hasan Nasir, executive director of ACI Logistics Ltd (Shwapno), and Rasheed Mymunul Islam, deputy managing director of Monno Group of Industries, also spoke.