The Banking industry and Banking Fair 2015

Banking Fair Bangladesh 2015 kicks off 

The first National Banking Fair was inaugurated in Bangla academy on the November 24. This 5-day long fair is not the most innovative, but an unusual promotion of the banking sector of Bangladesh, in an attempt to make the citizens aware and more confident about banking services.

‘Mobile ATM Booth’ service introduced in Bangladesh

The highlight of the banking sector comes with another unusual innovation, the ‘Mobile ATM Booth’.  An ATM literally on wheels, its goal is to make the banks “reach” their clients. This was launched by Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd. to expand ATM services for rural, as well as the urban regions.

Recent highlights of the Banking Fair Bangladesh 2015 include different banks extending their reach through banking strategies. 

Youth Entrepreneurs Summit 2015

Young entrepreneurs urged to come with innovative ideas

“Global Youth Entrepreneurs Summit -2015” held last Friday hosted business leaders, experts and the Information Minister himself, to organize an event on encouraging young gnenration entrepreneurs to invest efforts in more novel and innovative businesses. Organized by the Dhrubotara Youth Development Foundation (DYDF) in collaboration with the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), the Information minister spoke directly to new young businessmen in an attempt to energize their entrepreneurial activities.

Facebook closure and F-commerce

FB-based business badly hurt

The recent decision by the government, which is not a new one, to close social media empire of Facebook has greatly affected E-commerce, as this mode is still the largest utilization for operations of the industry. An estimated loss of Tk 2 crore daily has been reported and a 25% setback of the overall E-commerce sector is expected by market insiders. Thirty percent of E-commerce is dominated by Facebook-commerce. Orders, sale, logistics are all disrupted by this security intervention, an expected date still not known for resuming normal service.

Headlines Nov 16 - Nov 17

Hello there readers. Not a great many choices to chose from last week but we covered the country's global entrepreneurship ranking and a section of business tips for digital marketing. Read on to find out.

Nov 16  :  Global Entrepreneurship ranking  Bangladesh's recent position
Nov 17  :  Digital Marketing  Digital Marketing strategies

Digital Marketing

Talks about electronic and social media does not seem to end! While we are busy posting anything and everything left and right, targetted businesses are clawing their best to reach customers through their online presence. So who is doing better? Us or them? A random individual post to a friend or a digital media marketing promo to the community? Read on. Today we talk about the Return On Investment of Digital Marketing.

What’s the ROI of Digital Marketing?

The link seems to initiate reader engagement by claiming that, Social posts mean Nothing! But it starts further reasoning by throwing out a common diplomatic phrase: "it depends".

Global Entrepreneurship ranking

To start a new week, we look at how Bangladesh has been doing in the context of international entrepreneurship standards.

Bangladesh ranks 125th out of 132 countries in GEI 2016
Granted Bangladesh is slowly emerging as a middle income economy, where export diversification is less than dynamic, the Middle and Affluent Class is rising and RMG and leather are the main noteworthy export items driving our economy. Entrepreneurship is booming on the e-commerce front, which is a young sector by all means. Social business is attempting a breakthrough with important groundwork being held in its early stages/ Other than this, business processes are slowly being transformed with the help of online payment and mobile banking options, while registration and utility connections are still lagging far behind. Rental difficulties are related to finance, while financial flexibility is one of the struggling issues businesses face in any economy, including Bangladesh. Taking all this into consideration, let us focus on an international entrepreneurship index and witness how Bangladesh performed recently.

Headlines Nov 8 - Nov 12

Last weeks CES blog mentioned a couple of topics, which had really had no particular theme, but covered some business tips, business rankings and entrepreneurship experience. The list ended in something very interesting, with a student experience of early entrepreneurship initiatives. Here are the posts listed below.

Nov 8  :    Home business marketing tips on home business management
Nov 9  :    Bangldesh Doing Business 2016 Bangladesh 2016 rankings
Nov 10  :  CES Talk Series : The Road to Middle-Income : Bangladesh's Growth Story
Nov 12  :  Student entrepreneurs Life of a student entrepreneur

Student entrepreneurs

Student entrepreneurship is something that some have lived through, while others have seen it in one of their friends who were great company at the start of university, but later on rarely got to meet due to their friend's startup business. Student entrepreneurship is something Bangladesh has gained much popularity on, naturally since the mother-of-all-degrees in the country, the "BBA", supposedly trains young individuals for the business world. Starting a new business as opposed to being handed one from inheritance, is enormously different; and it is considerably gutsy to overcome the real life business risks and emotional shackles of being an entrepreneur, that too as a student. When already in the life of one, the battles a student faces are quite intriguing and thus acutely appropriate for our blog.

CES Talk Series : The Road to Middle-Income : Bangladesh's Growth Story

On November 10, 2015, Center for Enterprise and Society (CES) has arranged for a renowned speaker, Mr. K Mahmood Sattar to present a talk titled “The Road to Middle-Income:  Bangladesh’s Growth Story” under the banner of ULAB. The talk attended by  the Vice Chancellor of ULAB Mr. Imran Rahman; ULAB Registrar Lt Col Foyzul Islam (Retd); Pro Vice Chancellor Dr. Jahirul Haque; CES advisor Mr. Sajid Amit; Deans, Faculty members and Researchers at ULAB.

Mr. Sattar was invited to speak about his vast experience in the Banking sector which spans over 33 years, currently holding prestigious independent Directorship of reputed organizations, like Association of Bankers Bangladesh, BRAC bank and bKash. He connected his corporate career with the development of Bangladesh and its current status, and the prospect of a Middle Income country by 2021.

Bangldesh Doing Business 2016

DCCI for quick business regulatory reforms
Today we look at Bangladesh's performance in the international business ranking.

Graduating to a lower-middle income economy, Bangladesh has made progress. This was witnessed in last session's "Doing Business 2015" report by the World Bank, where Bangladesh improved its rankings. This fiscal years publication, reported however, that Bangladesh is facing a bumpy road to its progress, as it slid down two places in "Doing Business 2016" ranking of 189 countries. We ranked 174th.

Home business marketing

As you may have noticed, we have developed a style of information presentation where strategies for success at entrepreneurship and ease of business will receive precedence over current business news, which however, will also be highlighted within the week.

Top 3 Things You Need to Know to Prosper in a Home Business 

Home Business, albeit for the most part through e-commerce, is on the rise in Bangladesh. This is one of the defining factors for the shift in the country’s reality towards a lower-middle income economy. Home business specifically in urban areas can add that extra income source, or even an entire income source, for many entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. Like many other businesses, this faces all the hurdles and challenges which has to be overcome. All home business owners want to succeed. Another general fact. But the realistic struggles might be the downfall of many of those enthusiastic owners. Thus here we present a few key pointers which would channel all that effort and the outstanding business initiative home businesses may have towards efficient success stories.

Headlines Nov 1 - Nov 4

Last week, the CES blog has been refocused, revamped towards delivering entrepreneurship strategies, in addition to making the community aware about everyday news highlights which spring into the economy. This format will be continued for a while, but both styles will be varied and presented to our readers.

Here are the highlights of last week, which covered some enlightening aspects for the growing internet community in Bangladesh. E-commerce, blogging, social media enthusiasm and promotion of mobile applications have risen in the country extensively; so we highlighted a long list of promotional strategies for marketing those entrepreneurs who are developing mobile apps. Below you will find the links of the large list divided by themes into four days of posts.

Nov 1  :  Blog Refresh! Mobile Apps    Most basic steps or strategies to prioritize initially
Nov 2  :  Blog Refresh! Mobile Apps pt2    Basic social media activism and feedback
Nov 3  :  Blog Refresh! Mobile Apps pt 3   Online presence and community interaction
Nov 4  :  Blog Refresh! Mobile Apps pt 4   Technical nitty-grittys of app promotion

Blog Refresh! Mobile Apps pt 4

... Continued from yesterday

So in the final checklist of how to promote your mobile apps, which is a very popular market right now in Bangladesh, we highlight the technical side of app promotion. This list is ordered similar to the last few days. There are many aspects of marketing through channels that are coming into the country, but some of them are still not established yet. Only those which are relevant, and there are quite a few, have been presented today.

Blog Refresh! Mobile Apps pt 3

...Continued from yesterday

Moving on with the comprehensive list of business tips for promoting Mobile apps, in this post we post all about being social with your promotions. How to start, what to do, who to reach and how to maintain social promotion is all we cover in relevant order. A reminder once again that although the tips here are in order of importance, the reference list numbers from the original link is given.

Those who cannot access the original link, you can also find it here:

65 Simple But Effective Ways to Promote Your Mobile App

Blog Refresh! Mobile Apps pt 2

..Continued from yesterday

As we mentioned last time, we would be helping you with business tips to excel at your efforts. For mobile apps and some similar online promotion of your products, the list presented yesterday is rather long and was promised to be presented in bits each day.

Headlines Oct 25 - Oct 28

Here are the headlines from last week. A few business sectors and an interesting development on the rise of incomes of the middle class population has been covered. Feel free to read through the article which strikes your fancy.

Oct 25  :  Trudging State Banks  State banks register low growth
Oct 26  :  Middle and Affluent Class (MAC)   Bangladeshi MAC grow 2 million a year
Oct 27  :  Denim  Denim shines as a sector, 3rd expo on the way
Oct 28  :  Revised river transit fees  Revised rates for sharing waterways with India

Blog Refresh! Mobile Apps

Enough about business news! Let's talk about nurturing your business and helping it match your vision! 

We would try to focus on short snippets of strong business ideas and pragmatic business tips, at least for this week to make information really useful your life and business.

Chasing many other societies, Bangladesh has witnessed a tremendous inspiration in ICT and many of its applications. Entrepreneurs are hyped about E-commerce, individuals are zealous about making themselves heard about their interests online and businesses are marketing their products increasingly on social media. Marketplace has shifted in a virtual world and it seems like the tunnel is not so long when the virtual will match the business volume of the physical marketplace. The stone already rolling, ancillary efforts to promote business, business ideas or even life interests are increasingly done through blogs; and mobile apps.

Just for Small Business- All Business Blog     65 Simple But Effective Ways to Promote Your Mobile App

A very interesting read, this link does what it suggests, listing ways to promote mobile apps. In Bangladesh, apps are still mostly relevant towards business, put more simply, with an interest to generate revenue. This is a section of business process for some and the entire business pivot for others. In such an environment, this list can be all the help you need.