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Joel Ahmed

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  1. https://www.thedailystar.net/bangla/সংবাদ/বাংলাদেশের-স্বাধীনতা-সার্বভৌমত্ব-রক্ষায়-চীনের-সহযোগিতা-অব্যাহত-থাকবে-চীনা-পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা-সার্বভৌমত্ব রক্ষায় চীনের সহযোগিতা অব্যাহত থাকবে: চীনা পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী শুক্রবার, জুলাই ১৬, ২০২১ ০৮:০২ অপরাহ্ন বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা, সার্বভৌমত্ব ও অখণ্ডতা বজায় রাখার ক্ষেত্রে চীন তার সহযোগিতা অব্যাহত রাখবে বলে চীনের পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী ওয়াং ই জানিয়েছেন। গতকাল বৃহস্পতিবার উজবেকিস্তানের রাজধানী তাসখন্দে অনুষ্ঠিত একটি সম্মেলনে অংশ নেওয়ার পর বাংলাদেশের পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী এ কে আব্দুল মোমেনের সঙ্গে একটি দ্বিপাক্ষিক বৈঠকে তিনি এ কথা বলেন। উজবেকিস্তানের তাসখন্দে ‘সেন্ট্রাল অ্যান্ড সাউথ এশিয়া কানেকটিভিটি চ্যালেঞ্জেস অ্যান্ড অপরচুনিটিস’ শীর্ষক ওই সম্মেলনটির আয়োজন করা হয়। চীনা পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রণালয়ের এক বিবৃতি অনুযায়ী, ওয়াং ই বলেছেন যে চীন বাংলাদেশের সঙ্গে আন্তর্জাতিক সম্পর্কের ক্ষেত্রে বৈশ্বিক ন্যায্যতা ও ন্যায়বিচারকে গুরুত্ব দেবে এবং অভ্যন্তরীণ বিষয়ে হস্তক্ষেপ না করার মতো প্রাথমিক আদর্শ মেনে চলবে। বৈঠকে ওয়াং ই মোমেনকে জানান, উন্নয়নের ধারা অব্যাহত রাখতে বাংলাদেশ-চীনের কৌশলগত অংশীদারিত্বমূলক সহযোগিতার ক্ষেত্রে চীন বাংলাদেশের সঙ্গে কাজ করতে আগ্রহী। এছাড়া চীন বাংলাদেশকে প্রয়োজনীয় ভ্যাকসিন সরবরাহ করবে উল্লেখ করে চীনা পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী জানান, মহামারির বিরুদ্ধে লড়াইয়ে বাংলাদেশের ভ্যাকসিনের চাহিদা পূরণের বিষয়ে আলোচনার জন্য চীন প্রস্তুত আছে। আব্দুল মোমেন চীনা পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রীকে জানান, বাংলাদেশ সব সময় ‘ওয়ান-চায়না’ নীতিকে সমর্থন করে এবং হংকং, তিব্বত ও জিনজিয়াংয়ের মতো চীনের অভ্যন্তরীণ বিষয়ে বাংলাদেশ চীনের নীতিকে দৃঢ়ভাবে সমর্থন করে। আঞ্চলিক সংহতি বৃদ্ধি এবং বাণিজ্যিক ও অর্থনৈতিক উন্নয়নে স্থল ও সমুদ্রপথের মাধ্যমে এশিয়াকে আফ্রিকা ও ইউরোপের সঙ্গে সংযুক্ত করতে বেল্ট অ্যান্ড রোড ইনিশিয়েটিভ বাস্তবায়নে কাজ করছে চীন। বাংলাদেশ ইতোমধ্যে চীনের এই উদ্যোগে যোগ দিয়েছে। অন্যদিকে, যুক্তরাষ্ট্র চাচ্ছে বাংলাদেশ তার নেতৃত্বাধীন ইন্দো-প্যাসিফিক স্ট্র্যাটেজি (আপিএস) এ যোগ দিক। এর আগে, গত মে মাসে বাংলাদেশে নিযুক্ত চীনা রাষ্ট্রদূত লি জিমিং মন্তব্য করেন, বাংলাদেশের উচিত হবে না কোয়াডে যোগ দেওয়া। এতে চীনের সঙ্গে বাংলাদেশের সম্পর্কের অবনতি হতে পারে বলেও মন্তব্য করেন তিনি। এছাড়া যুক্তরাষ্ট্র, জাপান, অস্ট্রেলিয়া ও ভারতের সমন্বয়ে গঠিত কোয়াডকে তিনি সামরিক জোট হিসেবে অ্যাখ্যায়িত করে বলেন, চীনের উত্থান ও প্রতিবেশী দেশের সঙ্গে সম্পর্কের বিরোধী এই জোট।
  2. https://www.thedailystar.net/toggle/news/nine-bangladeshi-youths-make-the-forbes-30-under-30-asia-list-2080621 Nine Bangladeshi youths on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list Tue Apr 20, 2021 11:39 AM For the first time, a total of nine Bangladeshis have made the 'Forbes 30 under 30' Asia list. Launched in 2011, by the prestigious business magazine Forbes, the '30 under 30' lists the thirty movers of shakers under the age of thirty. From 2016 till 2020, a total of nine Bangladeshis got themselves listed for their outstanding work. This year alone nine Bangladeshis under the age of thirty got listed for their work in three sectors: enterprise technology, social impact & retail & e-commerce. Here's who made the list this year: Shehzad Noor Taus Priyo (24) & Motasim Bir Rahman (26), cofounders, Gaze Taus and Mostasim's startup Gaze has been making waves in the last couple of years. Gaze builds API for visual recognition with AI supporting features like spoof-proof face recognition, OCR, object recognition etc. Mir Sakib (28), founder of Cramstack Mir made the list on enterprise technology category for his startup Cramstack. Cramstack helps industries with its natural language-driven search interface to analyse and visualise data. Shomy Chowdhury (26) & Rijve Arefin (26) & cofounders of AWARENESS 360 Shomy & Arefin cofounded Awareness 360, a Kuala Lumpur-based NGO, which now has 1,500 volunteers in 23 countries and campaigned for 150,000 on personal hygiene basics such as handwashing, water-filtration, sanitation etc. Ahmed Imtiaz Jami (27), Founder, OBHIZATRIK Foundation To work with underprivileged children, Jami founded OBHIZATRIK Foundation. So far his foundation, with the help of 3500 volunteers, has supported 1 million people on poverty elimination, education, health and nutrition, human rights issues etc. Rizvana Hredita (28) & Md Zahin Rohan Razeen (22), Cofounders, Hydroquo+ Hredita & Razeen's startup Hydroquo+ provides AI-powered water management solutions that report on the quality of the water; identify leakage and provide forecasting of demand based on usage. Morin Talukder (27) Cofounder, Pickaboo Morin's cofounded e-commerce venture 'Pickaboo' is renowned in Bangladesh for listing quality products and fast delivery. It was one of the first few startups to offer EMI and same-day delivery.
  3. https://futurestartup.com/2020/03/04/fahad-ifaz-on-ifarmer/ iFarmer's Fahad Ifaz Talks Building an Agriculture Finance and Supply Chain Company, iFarmer’s Business, How Ideas Evolve, and Running a Startup By Ruhul Kader | Mar 4, 2020 Co-founder and CEO of iFarmer, Fahad Ifaz, talks about his path to entrepreneurship, the germination of iFarmer, how it has evolved over the years from an idea to build an uber for urban farming to an innovation agri-tech and fin-tech company, how they crafted the business model of iFarmer and iFarmer’s enduring edge as a platform as it expands, the state of iFarmer’s business today and its ambition going forward, how iFarmer is putting data at the center of farming and finance, explains the intricate operation of iFarmer, reflects on why it is critical to have a healthy disregard towards naysayers when you are building something innovative and of potentially high impact and much more. Future Startup: Could you please tell us about your background and elaborate your path to entrepreneurship? Fahad Ifaz: I have 10 years of experience in Agriculture market development, policy, financial inclusion and innovation across South Asia. Previously, I have worked at Swisscontact, World Bank, CARE Australia, and SPRING Accelerator. I founded my first company in 2012 called amarCV – it was a CV building tool and the vision was to develop a LinkedIn for Bangladesh. However, I gave up on the project too early, made an exit and eventually my partners took over the operation. My second company was EDGE Consulting – which was a boutique consulting company that helped donors, NGOs and private companies with project design, evaluation and management consulting. I still remain a director in the company but do not play an active role. My third company is Misfit Technologies – which I started in 2017 with 3 other co-founders. One of our projects has spun off into iFarmer. I am still on the board of Misfit Tech but am not involved in operations. Future Startup: When and how did you get started with iFarmer? What motivated you to start iFarmer? Fahad Ifaz: We started farmer as a project in 2018. The first business model was to create an Uber for Urban Farming. So we created a platform where people could lease their house or factory rooftops for farming. But after spending 6 months on this, we realized that it is not scalable and there are challenges with getting rooftops in Dhaka city, where more and more people are moving to apartments and it’s difficult to get consensus on how to manage those apartment rooftops. Then in August 2018, we pivoted to our current model. This was largely motivated by my 10 years of experience working at the Bottom of the Pyramid, particularly with the farmers and other agriculture value chain actors. Future Startup: What went into building the initial operation of iFarmer? How did you put together initial investment and other things to get started? Please walk us through what the first few months of your journey were like and the challenges you faced. Fahad Ifaz: We focused on getting the right team in place. We identified the skills that we require in the team, reached within our network to find people with the necessary skills. But we also needed people who would believe in the vision of the company. The second step was for the whole team to go through a very steep learning curve. We did not want to know everything about agriculture finance, or supply chain or investment in general. We just wanted to learn enough to get us going. Because we believed in evolving and iteration of the model as we learn, adjust and move forward. During our early days, we also had support from Startup incubators such as Toru, where Saif bhai from Toru helped us with strategic advice. Until recently iFarmer was mostly bootstrapped by the co-founding team. Future Startup: Could you please give us an overview of iFarmer in terms of services you offer, how many users you have, the size of your business, etc? Fahad Ifaz: We are an agri-tech/fintech platform that offers farmers with access to finance, training and knowledge and then access to the market. On the other side, we enable any individual to invest their money in a farm (equity financing model), as we work closely with these farmers and enable them to sell to a large buyer (thus eliminating middlemen). We started with livestock farms of various types and cycles but will move into fruit farms, cash-crops, and agri-machineries soon. We are working with 1200 farmers at this point in time. We have facilitated more than 4 crore taka to these farmers in about 11 months from a few hundred investors. Future Startup: From a product perspective, how does iFarmer work as a platform? How do you work with your partners? How does the tech part work? Fahad Ifaz: iFarmer offers farm assets as an investment opportunity for retail middle-income investors. They can invest through our website and soon to be launched app, get a regular update on their investment, reinvest, cash out, etc. On the backend, we onboard farmers who can absorb these investments. We have field facilitators and iFarmer agents to conduct the onboarding. Initially, it was done through a manual process but now we are moving to a tech-enabled service where the farmers themselves or with the help of our iFarmer agents and field facilitators can create their profile, apply for finance and so on. At the core of iFarmer is data. We collect almost 40 data points from each farmer to understand the risk factors, their socio-economic behavior and most importantly farming outcomes. We intend to connect these data to offer more services to the farmers, such as farm input, insurance, banking products and so on. We are already connecting the farm outcome or harvesting data to work on an efficient b2b supply chain. We are also building the tech and business model to support the big players such as banks and NBFIs to be able to finance different actors in the agriculture value chain. Future Startup: What is your business model? How do you generate revenue? Fahad Ifaz: We charge a commission from the retail investors and then also get a commission on the final sales of the farm produce. Other than that we are looking at revenue from insurance companies, input companies and so on, who can use our platform to reach out to new customer segments. Future Startup: How big is your team? Could you tell us about your culture at iFarmer? Fahad Ifaz: We have a 12 member team that covers, business development, client services, operations and finance, and tech. The culture at iFarmer is that we believe every day is day one and that keeps us excited and we also believe we can only move forward if we make mistakes, learn and keep pushing forward. Future Startup: On average how many customers you serve per month? Fahad Ifaz: Our key metric is the amount of investment that is generated through our platform for farms. We have been growing at 50% mom over the past 6 months. Future Startup: What are the lessons you’ve learned in terms of growing a business? What other entrepreneurs can learn from your growth journey? Fahad Ifaz: Execution is the key. We can have brilliant ideas, but if we have cold feet when it comes to execution, try to think and solve all the operational barriers before launching something then nothing works. The other thing is trying and doing something innovative is risky and people will say it will never work, but the key is to ignore everybody and execute. Future Startup: What are some mistakes you’ve made if any, that you want other entrepreneurs to avoid? Fahad Ifaz: We make mistakes every day, every week, from running after the wrong metrics, to setting absurd targets to doing a wrong marketing campaign. But the key is to not prioritize mistakes. It is part of the business, make mistakes, correct them or learn from them and move on. Future Startup: Have you raised investment? If yes, how much have you raised? What are the plans now? What does it take to raise investment? What should founders, who are trying to raise investment, be mindful of? Fahad Ifaz: We have just closed our seed round from a Singapore based VC, Angels from Singapore, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Since we operate in a country that is not on the radar of almost every VC or investment organization, we should not only sell the business to them, we should also educate them about the country in itself. We have even taken people to meet our farmers and learn about the agriculture value chain in the country. Future Startup: What are the goals for the future? Fahad Ifaz: Become a sustainable agriculture finance and supply chain company. While doing that, make the lives of our farmers a little better, encourage them to continue growing food for us. Maybe one day every profession will be replaced by robots and automation. But it will be difficult to replace farmers, so we should keep supporting them. The world needs to feed 10 billion people by 2050. Future Startup: Have you found anything particularly helpful or advantageous in the process of building iFarmer? Fahad Ifaz: We have had great support from incubators such as Toru, Startup Bangladesh and also we have seen, in general, everyone living in the city has a connection with farmers and farms. A lot of us dream about going back and get into farming someday. But the reality could be different and that's where we come in. This deep-rooted connection people feel with farm and farming often plays out to our advantage. Future Startup: How do you deal with challenges and stress that come with being a founder? Fahad Ifaz: I read a lot, about other business leaders, startups, innovation. I also think playing a competitive team game like football also helps. Future Startup: What advice would you give to founders who are just starting out? Fahad Ifaz: Always think about the big bet or the idea behind the company. While running after operations, growth, and salary and rent, we often forget why we even started this business. Find the right co-founders who will keep you in track and remind you about that, WHY. Find and build the right team, allow them to make mistakes and grow.
  4. https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/trade/india-may-extend-anti-dumping-duty-on-bangladeshi-jute-goods-1624070803
  5. https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/japanese-firms-invest-64b-1872655 Japanese firms to invest $6.4b Six infra projects will be implemented under the PPP model Major Japanese large firms are to invest about $6.4 billion to implement six infrastructure projects in Bangladesh under the public-private partnership model. The implementation timeline for the projects to be implemented by groups such as Kajima, Sojitz and Marubeni will be set at the fourth Bangladesh-Japan Joint PPP Platform meeting in Dhaka next month. The feasibility study, the construction period and other issues will also be fixed at the meeting, said officials of the Prime Minister's Office and the planning ministry. The government had submitted a list of 18 projects to the Japanese government in December 2017. But Shinzo Abe's administration picked the six projects from the list that it deemed suitable for investment through Japanese private investors. The ministry of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism (MLIT) of Japan has selected a consortium of private investors for each project to be led by a major company. The consortium is known as the sub working group (SWG). The Japanese companies, which have set up their offices in Dhaka to start the construction of the projects, will invest under the government-to-government system without participating in any bidding. At the meeting, Dhaka will seek investment for four more projects, which include the Bhola-Barishal bridge and the deep water container terminal at the Payra port. SECOND METRO RAIL The proposed route of the MRT Line-2 is Gabtoli-Mohammadpur-Jigatola-Science Lab-New Market-Azimpur-Palashi-Shaheed Minar-Police Headquarters-Motijheel-Kamalapur-Demra-Chattogram Road covering around 40 kilometres. The cabinet committee on economic affairs has already approved the project. The metro rail is expected to go on commercial operation in 2030. "Japan SWG will make best efforts to secure MLIT's fund from next fiscal year's budget starting from April 2020 for the basic study of the project," said an official of the PMO. The lead company of the project is Marubeni Corporation. The other participating companies are: Oriental Consultants Global, Katahira & Engineers International, Sojitz and Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Corporation. OUTER RING ROAD The approximate length of the proposed revised alignment is 130km, of which 46km is new alignment and 84km will follow existing alignment that needs to be improved. The lead company is Marubeni Corporation. Other participating companies include IHI Corporation, Obayashi Corporation, Shimizu Corporation and Taisei Corporation. The route of the Outer Ring Road will be Hemayetpur-Kalakandi-3rd Shitalakhya Bridge-Madanpur-Bhulta-Gazipur-Bypail-Hemayetpur. MULTIMODAL HUBS Two multimodal hubs will be built at Kamalapur Railway Station and Dhaka Biman Bandar Railway Station each. The hubs will have road and rail connectivity as well as flyovers for facilitating easy movement of commuters. The lead company of Kamalapur hub project is Kajima, while Sojitz will lead the group of companies that will implement the hub at the airport railway station. DEPOT NEAR DHIRASRAM The government has decided to establish a full-fledged inland container depot near Dhirasram Railway station attached to the Dhaka eastern by-pass road with constant access to container handling and transportation. This will ease the pressure on the Kamalapur ICD. The capacity of Kamalapur ICD is not adequate to serve the increasing share of container handling diverted towards Bangladesh Railway, according to the PPP Office under the PMO. Further expansion of Kamalapur ICD is difficult due to heavy built up of the surrounding area. Apart from capacity constraints, daytime prohibition on movement of commercial vehicles is also very difficult in Kamalapur ICD, according to the PPP Office. The handling capacity of the proposed ICD is 354,000 twenty-foot equivalent units. The lead company is Sojitz. CTG-COX'S BAZAR HIGHWAY The two-lane highway will be turned into a four-lane one under the project. The lead group is Marubeni.
  6. Japan's Infrastructure Development in Multimodal hub-Kamlapur Railway Station, Multimodal hub-Airport Railway Station, Chattagram-Cox's Bazar Highway Extension to 4 lane, Dhaka Outer Ring Road, MRT Line-2, Payra Deepwater Container, Bhola-Barisal Bridge.
  7. https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/home/italy-keen-to-invest-200m-euros-in-bangladeshs-rural-infrastructure-1626007324?amp=true Italy keen to invest 200m Euros in Bangladesh’s rural infrastructure UNB | Published: July 11, 2021 18:42:04 | Updated: July 11, 2021 20:23:52 Italy has expressed interest in investing 200 million Euros in Bangladesh for development of rural infrastructure, transportation system, drinkable water and drainage system. Italian Envoy to Bangladesh Enrico Nunziata expressed the interest on Sunday during a meeting with Local Government, Rural Development (LGRD) Minister Md Tajul Islam. Tajul urged the Italian government to assist in implementing the 'My Village My Town' ideology of Bangladesh government which aims to take all the amenities of towns to remote villages. He thanked Italy's envoy for showing interest in investing in these sectors. He emphasized on enhancing bilateral and economic ties between the two countries and expressed hope it will reach new dimensions and be strengthened in future. Enrico Nunziata lauded Bangladesh as a country with immense possibilities.
  8. https://www.newagebd.net/article/143432/huawei-to-invest-150m-in-talent-development Huawei to invest $150m in talent development Staff Correspondent | Published: 17:55, Jul 11,2021 ICT infrastructure and smart devices provider Huawei has recently announced its Seeds for the Future Programme 2.0 at the Tech and Sustainability: Everyone’s Included forum. Through the programme, the company plans to invest $150 million in digital talent development over the next five years expecting to benefit more than three million people, says a press release on Sunday. The forum, organised at Sehnzhen, China, was co-hosted by Huawei and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Representatives from Huawei, IUCN, the World Economic Forum, Carbon Disclosure Project, Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative, and Singapore Institute of International Affairs participated to discuss the role of technology in driving sustainability and building a more inclusive, eco-friendly world. As an echo for the forum, Huawei Asia Pacific held the APAC Media Virtual Roundtable with laser focus on addressing digital inclusion and sustainable development of this region. Jay Chen, Vice President of Huawei Asia Pacific, announced Huawei’s plan to cultivate more than 40,000 ICT talent in the next five years through multiple programs including Seeds for the Future in the region. ‘In the digital economy, digital talent is playing an increasingly important role in driving digital transformation and economic growth. The access to education is vital for creating opportunities that support sustainable and fair development. Due to the pandemic, we are moving the program online and opening it up to more outstanding students than ever before,’ said Jay Chen. According to a 2020 report by UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), about 2.2 billion people aged 25 years or younger still lack internet connections at home. To improve the situation, Huawei is committed to helping develop digital talent in the countries where it operates. In 2008, Huawei began to roll out talent development programs through scholarships, technology competitions, and digital skills training and has invested more than USD150 million in these programs. Huawei has since benefited more than 1.54 million people from over 150 countries. The Seeds for the Future program, initiated in Bangladesh in 2014, is similarly designed to inspire local talents and encourage them to tackle digital challenges. In Bangladesh, the program has so far seen participation from around 6,000 students . Besides, to better equipped the students with digital facilities, Huawei had partnered with local online learning platform Bijoy Digital to provide digital solutions to the capital’s T&T High school and its branches across Bangladesh to facilitate distance learning during the pandemic. Other talent development programs of the company in Bangladesh include ICT Competition, ICT Academy, and Digital Training Bus in collaboration with various private and public sector organizations and agencies. The programs so far have benefitted numerous young students of Bangladesh so far. Huawei has been a firm enabler in the Asia Pacific for building an inclusive talent ecosystem. Huawei ASEAN Academy has been launched in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia since 2019 and has cultivated more than 100,000 talents for preparing for the digital future. Huawei has built collaborations with around 200 universities in countries across the Asia Pacific. Huawei is a global provider of information and communications technology infrastructure and smart devices. With integrated solutions across four key domains – telecom networks, IT, smart devices, and cloud services – Huawei is committed to bringing digital to every person, home, and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent world. Huawei’s end-to-end portfolio of products, solutions, and services are both competitive and secure. Through open collaboration with ecosystem partners, Huawei creates lasting value for our customers, working to empower people, enrich home life, and inspire innovation in organizations of all shapes and sizes. At Huawei, innovation focuses on customer needs. Huawei invests heavily in basic research, concentrating on technological breakthroughs that drive the world forward. It has more than 194,000 employees and operates in more than 170 countries and regions. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees. As a localized leading global ICT solutions provider, over the last 21 years, Huawei has been working closely with the ICT industry, telecom operators & local partners to fulfill the dream of ‘Digital Bangladesh’ by bringing technical benefits to the people as well as contributing to the society with different CSR programs. Huawei is in Bangladesh, for Bangladesh! This is Huawei’s call to action in Bangladesh, a way of thinking and a way of life that is built on collaboration.
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