Job Opportunity at CES!

Job Description for Research Associate at the Center for Enterprise and Society, ULAB. Application Deadline: Aug 31, 2017.

Pictures from the E-Commerce Survey Report Launch by CES

Select pictures from the Report Launch Ceremony from the survey "Shopper Survey on E-commerce in Bangladesh" featuring Professor Imran Rahman, Mr. Fahim Mashroor, Mr. Minhaz Anwar, Mr. Sajid Amit, Mr. Ishtiaque Ahmed, and Mr. Adib Sarwar.

CES Talk Series – “Journey of an Entrepreneur” by Sylvana Sinha, Founder and MD of Praava Health

On Tuesday, April 4, 2017, the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), through its Center for Enterprise and Society (CES), organized a talk titled “The Journey of an Entrepreneur” featuring Ms. Sylvana Quader Sinha, Founder and MD of Pravaa Health. Also in attendance were Professor Imran Rahman, Vice Chancellor, ULAB; Mr. Sajid Amit, Director, CES, ULAB; Ms. Sabrina Imam, IT Director, Praava; Mr. Sanjeev Pubbichetty, COO, Praava; and Mr. Saleh Anand, IT Analyst, Praava.

Ms. Sinha spoke about her journey as a lawyer in the United States, with roots in Bangladesh, and how she came to found Praava. Pravaa is launching a network of urban health centers offering family doctors and a full range of diagnostic services in mid-2017. Ms. Sinha’s vision is to increase the range of quality, reliable, affordable health care options in Bangladesh.

Before founding Praava, Ms. Sinha, as a lawyer, advised governments in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Asia on governance and legal reform. Ms. Sinha also served as a foreign policy advisor to the 2008 Presidential campaign of then-Senator Barack Obama. She later joined The World Bank, where she worked on judicial reform and human rights in Afghanistan and on other issues, including conflict and development and women’s economic rights in Islam. Ms. Sinha is a graduate of Columbia Law School, where she earned a certificate from the Parker School of Comparative and International Law.

The talk was delivered to a full-house of undergraduate students interested in entrepreneurship and understanding the challenges and prospects thereof, in Bangladesh.

The event was covered in online newspapers, which you can read in these news links of The Daily Star, The Independent, The New Nation, and e-paper of The Financial Express (April 5, pg 3). The news can also be found in the photos attached.

Follow our Talk Series and other events here: http://ces.ulab.edu.bd/talks-and-seminars/

Uber in Dhaka

Uber to launch taxi service in Dhaka soon
For those who are familiar on what "Uber" is,  they will be excited to know that Uber is coming to Bangladesh. Having planned to launch this transport service for the last eight months, it is reported that Uber will hit Dhaka streets in a matter of weeks.

An American multinational online transportation network company, Uber have revolutionized transport in many cities. Using requests through an app, people can commute more easily to and from their destinations. Costs are based on either distance in a smooth ride, or travel time in typical Dhaka congested roads.

If you want to know more about it, find out in the link.

The advent of E-Koshai

With the rise of E-commerce and the burgeoning of "smart" entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, the type of business is progressively expanding from product to service. When businesses make this transition, it is an indication of a tertiary stage of development, with service-based solutions overlapping commodity-based ones.

Online shopping has been growing popular throughout the years and with innovative packages offered during peak seasons, Eid is a target for most e-commerce businesses. Apart from all the other promotional products offered at discounts or attractive prices, other services have been seen to solve basic problems during Eid. The other biggest Islamic festival in the country, brings with it some regional and traditional issues that many a times entail the sufferings of the citizens.

A e-solution for the Koshai problem?
Discovering new business trends and current opportunities, businessmen have been quick to offer innovative solutions, this Eid in the form of "E-Koshai", a butcher service for all the livestock slaughtered during Eid-ul-Adha. Two such businesses have been identified. They claim in their social media that business this Eid has gone successfully. One of those, Sheba Platform Limited, had a supply of 158 three-member butcher teams covering the city with 17 supervisors throughout the Eid. Rated quite highly, the expert butchers cost Tk250 for every Tk1,000 of the cost of the animal. Medium skilled butchers cost Tk200 for the like. The other business, Quicknok, had 120 butcher team. They have maintained high standard by collecting information on these butchers around the city, including their NID.

A risky country for Business

Bangladesh ranks among riskiest countries for business

To all woe and worry, are times Bangladesh has set its landing page in, in an international business homepage. Recent flout of events striking fear in all respects of the country, not only the restaurant/cafe business, is at the heart of the all the upheaval.

Rated by a London-based risk analysis firm, the Civil Unrest Index lists Bangladesh at No.6 of the top 200 countries, staging public protests, mass demonstrations, ethnic or religious violence, which aggravates Bangladesh's image further. Previously, the World Bank listed Bangladesh the 174th easiest country to do business, revealing the difficulty businessmen face in this economy.

Investing in the Stock Market - Interview with CES Director Sajid Amit

The Director of Center for Enterprise and Society (CES), Sajid Amit, shares some invaluable opinion about the share market of Bangladesh, during the recent CES training on Technical Analysis. 

Part 1:

In Part 1 of the interview, he emphasizes how the risky feature of the sector should not be taken lightly by the middle and the lower-middle class to invest in the stock market, without Investor-Literacy and adequate information. The potential of the Stock Market in the economy is undeniable according to him, since investment in real-estate is not a affordable substitute for the citizens. 

Below is Part 1 of the two-part interview:

Part 2:

In Part 2 of the interview, Sajid Amit talks about the characteristic of the Bangladeshi stock market.

He explains capital market efficiency in Bangladesh and in the US explaining how they fall in the spectrum of weak to strong form.

The Director emphasized the value of financial journalism, which was inaccurate previously. So a multi-faceted awareness training program should be designed, including financial journalists, traders and researchers.

Speaking about IPOs, in-comparison with India, the big companies and locally operating MNCs are not listed in our stock market. Along with introducing their IPOs, big banks should also invest.

With these strategies in place, the development in Bangladesh would be quicker than in other countries and the future of Stock market, according to Sajid Amit, looks promising.

Below is Part 2 of the two-part interview:

PayPal enters!

Sonali Bank signs MoU with PayPal
PayPal is finally coming to Bangladesh!

After holding talks with the ICT minister in July 2015, an MoU has been finalized by PayPal after sending it to them a month back.

PayPal is an electronic payment systems used on a regular basis worldwide for paying online. Businesses and shopping most of them use this system. Since Bangladesh was facing difficulty in arranging remittances to enter the country, while a vision of thriving e-commerce is dawning, the government has made it official. State-owned Sonali Bank has signed this MoU of business cooperation.

Apps and games development institutes on way

A prospect of creating 2,000 new jobs in the IT industry is being planned with a vision to cross boundaries of our current economy. This is no revolution in the globe, but it certainly is a revolutionary prospect for Bangladesh. Apps and Games development is the new initiative for the ICT division of the government. A USD $100 bn global market, the extension of IT in this field will enable youths, the target employment demographic, to jump on board and drive the industry.

Training is being setup, costing around Tk 281 crore, utilizing 525 trainers, 8,750 app developers and 2,800 game animators, along with marketing and content experts, who will receive high-level training. Focus initially is towards the local 13 crore mobile users, who currently suffice their demand through software imports. This is the targetted turnaround, while tapping into local opportunities

Tips on your first job : university students

7 steps university students need to know to prepare for today’s job market

The job market. Familiar to all and a walk-in-the-park for none. The Director of CES, Mr. Sajid Amit, upholds the stark reality of the rising income class and the larger young population with the relatively small proportion of the present overall student size of the country. In doing so, he presents 7 practical steps that students can take to come prepared for the job market. Job creation will not boom overnight, whether it be private or government initiatives. Neither will high-paid, high-skilled work, even if the young imminent workforce is preparing for with more university education. What can they do to succeed amidst 99 other competitors for a single position?

The Director of CES shares some strategies, in these 7 steps to a higher quality candidate.

1. Identify yourself, aided by a mentor.

2. Target companies of your choice

3. Prepare a CV during first year

4. ....

Read more to find out.

 

Reading in the time of Dubsmash - Dhaka Tribune

Reading in a time of Dubsmash
Reading is virtue, or so it can be said. This was certainly so for the Director of CES, Mr. Sajid Amit, who wrote an article recently about his younger self growing up as an avid consumer of the product of well-known, classic English writers. The habit was reinforced through english medium curriculum, whereas he also acknowledged the regular popularity of Bengali writers amongst the youths, on the flip-side of bangla medium backgrounds. Later on he experienced exposure to more advanced, specific topics during higher education abroad.

From all of these experiences, and the knowledge accumulated, Mr. Sajid Amit has admitted to have enhanced his current business interactions with clients. Occasionally even, these supported him in streamlining business deals.

In the article, attesting that social media has taken over much of our reading habits, he publicized a wish to have an outlet wholeheartedly for readers, to remedy the dwindling hobby of reading amongst our current generations.

Read more in the article.

Apparel sector impacts on recent terrorism

Moody’s: Terror attack has long impact on Bangladesh economy
Global credit-rating agency Moody's Investor Service proposed in a recent analysis about the impact of terrorism that has been plaguing Bangladesh. The agency generally has "political risks", factored into govenrment bond rating calculation and so far the nation's vulnerability has been moderate. This is subject to change in the wake of recent developments.

The Agency, particularly focused on the investor confidence and external payments standing, through diminutive foreign direct investments, especially towards the main forerunner, garments exports. This sector and textile, contribute to over 80% of total export share. Both of these are vital for growth and are stimulated by FDI. 

Plea for incentives - E-commerce

Withdraw all taxes on e-commerce: FBCCI
With the speculation of the possible arrival of e-commerce giants Amazon and Alibaba in Bangladesh in 2017, the domestic sector is still at a nascent stage of development. This thought was shared by the president of the E-commerce association, E-CAB, at a discussion on the aspect of IT in the proposed budget for FY17, at the FBCCI office. The FBCCI president also compared the robust and sustained growth of the RMG sector, which was possible only through continuous government support. He urged this to be replicated to the E-commerce sector as well, a USD$500 bn market globally, with healthy allocations for entrepreneurial loans and waver until of taxes until 2024.

Transit facilty inagurates with India

Indian transit thru BD begins formally

Bangladesh and India are set to formally allow transit facility for trade and transportation, with provision of a third-country access. Goods in transit will be brought from Kolkata to Ashuganj through a river route and then from Ashuganj to Agartala, the capital of Tripura, on land route. It will be inaugurated with transshipment of a consignment to India's northeastern state. All charges are to be bourne by Indian traders, which was free previously.

FBCCI and Realtors on Budget

FBCCI ashamed of ever complicated budget
The FBCCI have expressed their disappointment and frustration regarding the policies in the new budget. Their focus was on the way the budget left out 394 out 447 recommendations made by them, approving a mere 11%. The result anticipates that realtors are will refrain from future pre-budget meetings.

CES Director Sajid Amit's articles featured in Dhaka Tribune

The Director of CES, Mr. Sajid Amit recently featured a few articles which were published by the popular daily newspaper Dhaka Tribune.

A powerful yet simple story was used to illustrate the structure of the financial economy of Bangladesh. The Director of CES, Mr. Sajid Amit related a simple hypothetical story to depict the structure of bank lending and consumer spending in Bangladesh. It also demonstrates the velocity of money circulation in the economy.Please find the featured article in the link below.
June 13: The Story of the $100 bill

The following article was regarding the outlook of the proposed Budget for FY 17 on one of the dimensions of the marco economy – banks, capital markets and NBFIs.
June 11: The budget and outlook for banks, capital markets, and NBFIs

The article below is regarding the recently presented National Budget for FY17.
June 2:   A budget for middle-income aspirations

Workplace safety in domestic RMG

RMG in Bangladesh vis-à-vis global supply chain

Recently a resourceful article was published by The Financial Express, featuring research work from ULAB Business Faculty member Muhammad Faisol Chowdhury. It emphasizes the various developments of the RMG sector of Bangladesh, focusing on the pressing issue of worker's safety.

Mega project Financing

Mega-projects to get Tk 18,700cr

Three ongoing plans for Mega infrastructural projects, has been boosted with new pledges. The government has outlined their decision for injection of greater financial resource for the projects, including the Padma Bridge, Metro Rail and the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.

Designing a separate roadmap, a new policy which will include 10 projects in total, will receive Tk18,700 crore allocation in the next budget. The total costs are equivalent to the whole of next year's Fiscal and values at USD $43.61 bn or Tk 340,214 crore.

India's third internet gateway

Cox's Bazar: India's third internet gateway

With Bangladesh's simultaneous exports and imports of Digital Bandwidth to India, both countries are looking on for development. As Bangladesh has the first Submarine Cable SEA-ME-WE4, landing in Cox's Bazar in 2005, the country is struggling at times to provide consistent internet during outages. During this time, 6 other private outfits through Kolkata, are insufficient to meet local demand. Bangladesh is eagerly waiting for the second promised under-sea cable. which lnads at Kuakata.

CES - Technical Analysis Training Program

ULAB launches training program on Stock Market
 
On Saturday, April 30, 2016, the Center for Enterprise & Society (CES) at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) began a three-day skills development program on Technical Analysis Training for stock market brokers and traders at Haji Ahmed Brothers Securities Limited (HABSL).

To inaugurate the training inauguration ceremony, the Vice Chancellor of ULAB, Professor Imran Rahman, the Managing Director of HABSL, Mrs. Ayesha Dada, Director of CES at ULAB, Mr. Sajid Amit, and