Made in Bangladesh

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More from FMC

Meghna Group has launched their locally designed and made high end bike brand 'VELOCE', couple of video reviews for models Legion 50 and 40 respectively. Those with bike knowledge will realize that these are well spec'd bikes even by international standards:

Local bicycle manufacturers thriving on growing demand

 

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SENER announces a FORAN contract with Khulna Shipyard Ltd. in Bangladesh

The SENER engineering and technology Group has signed a contract with Khulna Shipyards Ltd. in Bangladesh for the implementation of the shipbuilding CAD/CAM System FORAN, developed by SENER, to be used in the design and production of new projects. Khulna Shipyard (KSY) belongs to the Ministry of Defense of the Bangladesh Government, and is operated by its Navy.

The scope of the contract includes installation of the FORAN System in all design disciplines (Hull Forms; General Arrangement, Naval Architecture; Hull Structure; Machinery & Outfitting; Electrical Design; Drafting). Regarding the services, SENER will cover training, maintenance and on-site technical assistance. The first phase of training have been concluded already.

With more than five decades of reputation, Khulna shipyard leads the shipbuilding industry in Bangladesh and has built every kind of vessel addressing rules and regulations from the most important international classification societies. Thanks to investments promoting the expertise and new technologies, the company is making a strong effort to become a leader in shipbuilding.

For its part, SENER’s FORAN System, a CAD/CAM/CAE software for design and production of all kinds of ships and offshore structures, has celebrated its 50 years in 2015, half a century of continuous reinvention that makes it the longest available in the market. Today, FORAN is in the state-of-the-art of technology, installed in 40 countries and used in world-renowned programs.

 

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Exporting Bangladesh-made ships: Challenges and prospects

 

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Bangladesh-made catamaran launch MV Green Line 2 for Dhaka-Barisal-Dhaka route. All Business Class.

A video presentation on the 64m FAC and future corvette builds at KSY

 

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As described in the video - they're supplying some pretty big names in the bicycle world, like FELT, Raleigh etc.

True - mostly lower-end fitness and trail bikes for now, but everything in good time....

 

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Summit Technopolis Ltd. - Kaliakoir Hi tech Park, Bangladesh
Concessionaire from the Bangladesh Hi–Tech Park Authority (BHTPA) under the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to develop the Hi–Tech Industry of Bangladesh comprising of IT/ITES Bio–tech companies, non–polluting manufacturing /assembly lines and precision engineering companies in a total land area of 91 acres divided into 2 blocks.

Summit Technopolis, a new venture from the Summit Group of Bangladesh, yesterday started construction to build the country's biggest hi-tech park in Gazipur.

The government awarded Summit Technopolis two of the five blocks of the 232-acre Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park in June last year. The two blocks span over 65 acres and 29 acres of land respectively.

At the ground breaking ceremony yesterday, Officials from the new venture Summit Technopolis said it will develop its blocks with modern multi-tenanted buildings, industrial plots, and research, development and recreational facilities.

EWIS Tech Manufacturing, a joint venture between Sri Lanka's IT firm EWIS and Tech Manufacturing Company of Bangladesh, will set up a modern hi-tech manufacturing facility to produce smart electronic devices. They are the first of many tenants availing of the facility.

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak inaugurated yesterday's ceremony, while ICT Secretary Shyam Sunder Sikder chaired the event.

Muhammed Aziz Khan, chairman of Summit Group and Hosne Ara Begum, managing director of the Hi-Tech Park Authority representing the govt. were also present.

Summit Technopolis will invest $114.56 million for Block-2 and $93.03 million for Block-5. At the ceremony, Palak said nearly 70,000 youths would get jobs in the next 10 years at the hi-tech park.

“It will be a specialized economic zone and a lifeline of the country's IT sector. A world-class business environment will be created for the local and foreign investors at the park.”

Summit Group is the country's largest power producer, generating over 1,200MW of electricity and operating the country's largest fibre optic network reaching over 30,000km.

Earlier, the government signed another deal with Bangladesh TechnoSity, which started to develop the 40-acre Block-3 from October last year.

Tender evaluation is ongoing for the Block-4 that spans 36 acres. The government has set aside Block-1, which spans 65 acres, for its own use.

 

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Western Marine Shipyard LTD. in Bangladesh has chosen to equip their new build, a 54 m offshore patrol vessel, with a Servogear Ecoflow Propulsor TM system, a Controllable Pitch Propeller system, made by Servogear in Norway. In addition to the main propulsion from Servogear, the vessel will have a Water Jet placed in the center of the transom, working as a booster.

The vessel will be built by Western Marine Shipyard LTD. in Bangladesh and will operate for the Kenyan Ministry of Fisheries.

Main propulsion:

Engine type wing, Servogear: MTU 16V4000M93L-1DS
Engine power wing, Servogear: 3440kW@2100RPM, per wing installation
Engine type, WJ: MTU 20V4000M93
Engine power, WJ: 3900kwkW@2100RPM
Speed at MCR Servogear only: 25 knots
Speed at MCR Servogear + WJ: 35 knots

 

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Coastal Container vessels constructed by Khulna Shipyard

Image credits: Shadman Al Samee

 

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Tung-Hing Manufacturing BD Ltd. (Elastic Manufacturer, back-end garments ind. supplier)
Design+Construction period: 2012~2015
Chief architect: Arch. M Hasan
Assistant architect: Abdullah Al Zahid Khan
Location: Comilla EPZ
Floor area: 65000sft × 6 floors
Site area: 10 acre

 

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New F-Commerce Platform ShopUp Launches

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=210729352602432

ShopUp, an F-Commerce platform that helps Facebook pages conduct business more professionally was launched in collaboration with Bangladesh Startup Lab at EMK Center on the 9th of January 2016.

Samira Zuberi Himika, Founder and Managing Director of Team Engine and Director of BASIS, Elita Karim, Renowned Singer and Editor of the Star Weekend, Shahid Hussain Shamim, Director of Probortona, Lipi Khandker, Managing Director and Designer of Bibiana, Minhaz Anwar, CEO and Managing Director of Betterstories Ltd and the participants and organizers of Bangladesh Startup Lab were present in the launching ceremony.

While ShopUp is for anyone and everyone who dreams of growing their Facebook businesses bigger, their main target group is women, as women run the majority of businesses on Facebook, and face the most challenges in growing their businesses.

Bangladesh Startup Lab and ShopUp are united by the common goal of nurturing women in digital commerce, which is one of the most potent sectors in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Startup Lab has arranged for workshops on business development, resource planning, marketing, etc, while ShopUp has developed a platform to enable businesses to scale their operations.


SDAsia’s ‘Innovation Extreme’ Held At Radisson Blu

‘Innovation Xtreme,’ SDAsia’s flagship event was held at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel, Dhaka on the 19th March 2016. This was the second time the event was held this year. Grameenphone, the leading telecom operator in the country, was the lead sponsor for the event. The event brought over 25 local startups and 25 renowned industry experts under one roof.

Speaking at the event, Mustafizur Rahman Khan, CEO & Founder of SD Asia, said, “Through this one-day event, we showcase the potential of existing innovators and entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. By bringing international and local investors, entrepreneurs, businesses under one roof the event works as a catalyst to deepen the interest about the Internet-based local economy.”

This year’s Innovation Xtreme had Microsoft as its Gold Partner, along with IPDC, top-of-mind, The Daily Ittefaq, Tech in Asia, and Facebook as the event partners. The event had a diverse group of participants, including students, developers, academics, corporate, international organizations, and local & international media.

FayazTaher, Co-founder and CFO of SD Asia, said, ‘This year’s Innovation Xtreme was much bigger than the first time we organized it, because now we have more entrepreneurs and investors who are interested in Bangladesh’s startup ecosystem.’

With the theme of ‘Bangladesh: The Next Tech Frontier,’ the event was aimed towards showcasing Bangladesh’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and giving a platform to local startups to meet the investors. Therefore, the objective of this year’s Innovation Xtreme event was to highlight the technological and economic potential of Bangladesh in front of a diverse community.

The event was divided into 12 interactive sessions, where local and international industry experts reflected upon the promising future of Bangladesh’s tech startups and how investors can help Bangladesh’s startup ecosystem to grow on a global scale. The speakers also talked about the challenges tech startups face under the Bangladesh’s socio-economic system, and the ways big corporations and the government can improve it.

Representatives from Fenox (Venture Capital), Facebook, Microsoft, Top Of Mind, Bongo, Razor Capital, Segnel Ventures, MasterCard, IMJ Investment Partners, Chaldal.com, GOBD and BDJobs were present at the event.

 

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Western Marine -built
Container carrier MV Shamayel (new Build as of March 2016)

Ship Name : MV SHAMAYEL
Owner: Aryan Traders
Builder : Western Marine Shipyard Limited
IMO No - 9763382
Length OA: 82.5m
Length BP: 78.77m
Breadth molded: 15.00m
Depth: 7.20m
Capacity: 176 TEUs of container
Class: Germanischer Lloyd
Route: Chittagong Port to Pangaon Inland Container Terminal.


MV SHAMAYEL During Sea Trial on 25 March, 2016.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1151003884923261

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Local companies in our IT sector
Shameem Ahsan
18th Apr 2016

When our vision is sky-high, we also need appropriate strategies to achieve the target. Dominance of local IT players is crucial for local market development, whereas multinational and transnational companies are dominating the Bangladeshi IT industry. Foreigners are given access to important and confidential documents. Consequently, the country is facing major threat and our national security is at risk. Bangladesh Bank became prey to the hackers during the recent debacle of about USD 100 million electronic theft. To amend this situation, control of our IT industry must be in the hands of local companies.

We want growth of our local companies. Conversely, we have seen that ICT public procurements for foreign funded projects are easier to get for large foreign organizations. Local companies cannot participate in spite of having the proficiency, due to the difficult conditions imposed by the foreign funding agencies. As a result in most cases this money flows out of the country. Singapore, Malaysia and many other countries have public procurement guidelines where it’s specified that 50% or more of the public procurement must be done by local body. We also need similar law and guidelines for our country to give much deserved preference to the local players. We can then avoid importing hundreds of million dollars’ worth of IT and ITES every year which will work for local market development. BASIS has already made some amendment proposals in the Public Procurement Policy and Act which have been agreed to by the Honorable Prime Minister, the Prime Minister’s Advisor on ICT, the Planning Minister and the ICT State Minister.

Bangladesh and Worldwide media reported how Chinese hackers broke into the systems of Bangladesh Bank. Speculations are on the rise that confidential information were also stolen during the hack. Few months back, hackers robbed money from ATM booths of a number of banks. These banks use expensive foreign software and technology. Our local IT companies offer high quality IT and ITES, yet we are spending a fortune for bringing in foreign companies and experts. We are using IT solutions made by these foreign companies, in the process giving them access to our sensitive information.

Our local IT companies are creating world-class Software. The likes of Microsoft, Dell, Nokia, Samsung, Wells Fargo Bank, City Bank NA, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, State Bank of India, and HSBC are using Software developed by Bangladeshi IT companies. Many of our local companies have massive global presence. These companies are contributing in our economy and creating employment for thousands. On the contrary, in Bangladesh, there is a lack of awareness and dependency on local companies. Local businesses aren’t taking services from these companies; this is creating unnecessary distress for these companies. If government agencies come forward and take necessary actions to actively patronize Bangladeshi IT products, local companies will be able to get a level playing field.

Foreign Software vendors who supply IT solutions to Bangladeshi businesses leave the country upon completing their transaction. There are no source codes available for these software, making them difficult to customize. After sales support from these vendors are also poor. Mega public projects like obtaining National ID Cards and passports are handled by foreign companies. Our private and sensitive information are now exposed to threat from these foreign countries. Government must give these projects to local companies to safeguard sensitive information.

We have seen in India that Telecom, Heavy Industries and Renewable Energy sectors have policies to protect domestic producers from the increasing penetration of foreign manufacturers. The Telecom Ministry has made guidelines about making a large portion of equipment procurement from domestic manufacturers mandatory for all telecom companies, in a bid to revive the sagging telecom manufacturing industry. Creating policies that put highest significance on local investment was the reason behind the developments in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan. Instead of spending money on foreign products, these countries nurtured their local entrepreneurs which gradually took them almost to the level of developed counties. World economists termed it an “Asian Miracle”. In Bangladesh, current investment scenario is opposite. Local investors have to undertake a lot of risks while the importers of the same IT products are enjoying incentives. It’s causing adverse effect on our local IT industry and sending a large pile of money out of the country every year. We encourage foreign investments. However, to ensure survival of local IT companies, foreign investors must work in at least 50% participation with a local company. It will create a level playing field. Besides, tender participation must include 50% partnership condition.

We are optimistic that by 2018, we will achieve 1 billion dollar IT export and the IT sector will be able to contribute in country’s economy like RMG; given that these amendments and proposals are materialized. Local companies can and should make up the majority of our IT sector.

The author is President, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, Director, FBCCI and General Partner, Fenox Venture Capital

 

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WALTON ZX2

MRP Tk. 35000++

Basic Information

Operating System:
Android 5.1 Lollipop
Ram:
3GB
Processor:
2GHz, ARM Cortex-A53, 64 Bit Octa-Core
GPU:
PowerVR G6200
Capacity:
64GB
Call Mode:
Dual Card, Dual StandBy
Sim Type:
Dual Micro-SIM
Camera
Rear Camera

• 24MP Auto Focus with Dual-LED(Dual Tone) Flash
• Sapphire Crystal Lens Cover
• f/2.0
• Back-Illuminated Sensor(BSI)
• 2nd Generation Optical Image Stabilization
• Auto-Focus,Manual Focus(Professional Mode)
• Touch Focus,Touch Shot
• ISO Control
• Exposure Compensation
• White Balance Presets

Shooting Mode:
Professional Camera Mode,Magic Focus,HDR,Panorama,Smart Scene,Ultra Pixel Mode
Front Camera

• 13MP Auto Focus
• f/2.2
• Back-Illuminated Sensor(BSI)
• Face Beauty
• Smart Scene
• Touch Focus
• Touch Shot

Display
Dimensions:
6-Inch Quad HD
Resolution:
2560X1440
Touch:
10000:1
PPI:
492 ppi
Touch:
10 Fingers Multi Touch
Material:
Corning Gorilla Glass 4
Display Technology:
SUPER AMOLED
Processing Unit

• 64 Bit Octa-Core Processor
• ARM cortex-A53 2.0 GHz
• PowerVR G6200 GPU

Memory and Storage

• 3 GB RAM
• 64 GB Internal Storage
• Expandable Up To 128GB

Network and Connectivity

• FDD-LTE / TDD-LTE / WCDMA / GSM

• Wi-Fi
• 802.11 ac/b/g/n Wi-Fi
  Supports dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz)
• NFC,Micro USB V2
• OTG,OTA,Wireless Display, WLAN Hotspot
• Bluetooth 4.0

Sensors
Motion Sensors:
Accelerometer (3D), Gyroscope, Gravity, Linear Acceleration, Rotation Vector
Environment Sensors:
Light(Brightness)
Position Sensor:
Proximity, Magnetic Field (Compass), Orientation
Fingerprint Sensor:
Biological Fingerprint Recognition Sensor
MultiMedia

• 4K Video Playback and Camcorder
• DTS Sound System
• HIFI Music

Battery
Battery Capacity:
3500mAh
Type:
High Density Li-Polymer Battery
Special Features

• Premium Metal Design
• Rear 24MP AF & Front 13MP AF Camera
• Professional Camera Mode
• 64bit 2GHz Cortex A-53 Octa-Core Processor
• 3GB RAM,64GB ROM
• Biological Fingerprint Recognition Sensor
• Smart Gesture, Air Gesture, Double Tap to Wake/Sleep
• Notification Light
• Super AMOLED Quad HD Display
• 4K Video Playback and Camcorder

Copyright Walton Mobile Bd@2015-16|All Rights Reserved.

WSS-4H5 Direct Cool Reftigerator
- Type: Direct Cool
- Gross Volume - OD: 25 cft
- Gross Volume: 545 Ltr (+/-)
- Refrigerant: R134a
- MRP Tk.69,900.00

 

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Bangladesh eyes increasing local cotton production
Senior Correspondent, bdnews24.com

Published: 2016-04-27 23:17:16.0 BdST Updated: 2016-04-28 00:55:29.0 BdST

Executive Director of the Cotton Development Board Md Farid Uddin said they had already selected Barind areas of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapai Nawabganj, where other crops cannot be produced, for cotton cultivation.

“We can produce 1 million bales of cotton in 200,000 hectares of land,” he said, adding that this can save 10 percent to 15 percent import costs.

He was talking to bdnews24.com on the sidelines of the two-day world cotton summit in Dhaka which began on Wednesday.

Bangladesh is one of the largest cotton importers in the world, as the country produces one percent of the total requirement of cotton for making yarns and fabrics for clothes.

The country is the second largest ready-made garments exporter in the world.

Last year, Bangladesh imported 6.1 million bales of cotton, which was double the amount it imported in 2006. India and Uzbekistan are the main sources of those imports.

Global cotton buyers and sellers have convened in Dhaka at the world cotton summit, the organisers say, to understand the market better.

The Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) is organising the summit jointly with the global event manager IBC Asia (S) Pte Ltd at a Dhaka Hotel.

The Executive Director Uddin said Bangladesh government’s policy was not to cultivate cotton on land where crop is grown.

“But we have places where we can promote cotton, like coastal areas where no other crops can be produced due to saline intrusion.”

“We are also targeting hilly areas as we have managed to utilise only 2 percent of that region so far. We also want to promote cotton production in the areas where tobacco is being cultivated.”

He said the government had taken up a project for research and expansion of cotton production.

 

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Innovators of Digital Bangladesh

Devnet Limited/A.K. Sabbir Mahbub

A journey in a decade
How a man’s dream helped launch a digitization trend in Bangladesh

Even a decade ago, only one percent of Bangladesh’s population had access to telecommunication services. There were only one million fixed-line phones available, against a population of over 100 million. Be it due to the poor transmission line or the high cost or low availability of the internet, international calls were a service some could only dream of, and only the affluent could afford.

Before the advent of the digital culture in Bangladesh, things were difficult – or put aside. Land registration plotting, for example, was often ambiguous and in turn made land rights issues more complicated. Certificate issuance was often inefficient as documents such as birth certificate were manual and kept away in piles that led to confusion and mismanagement of documents.

The culture of mobile phones revolutionized this system, triggering an era of digitalization that brought in dynamite changes in the society. Currently, digitalization has cast its net in all sections of the society, with a momentum that is only growing bigger and bringing enormous changes in the fields of public service, business, education, and health services.

The Bangladeshi government’s agenda of a “Digital Bangladesh” has played a big role in this as well. As a result, today, mobile phones and internet services are no longer a rare commodity even in the rural areas. Furthermore, digitalizing most of the paperwork has led to reduction of operation times and increase in public service efficiency at the municipalities.

The state may have introduced the “Digital Bangladesh” but there are certain entrepreneurs who helped execute and shape this project into a reality for the large Bangladeshi population. These entrepreneurs belong to a spectrum that involves people working both from top-down as well as those involved on a grassroots level.

Devnet, a pioneer in the document management system in Bangladesh, specializes in system development and services on digitalizing – and then managing – paper-based documents.

A document management system helps putting documents in order so that they are easy to refer to later on. It allows document related work to be done faster, more efficiently and on a large scale; it also makes it easier to store and save documents.

Though it may not sound innovative, it has changed volumes for the Bangladeshi people whose lifestyles have been impacted by this system. The wide mobile network system, for example, has been able to accelerate its services because of the service of storing and documenting subscribers’ information. While processing 1000-2000 papers could be done manually, it would be extremely tedious and inefficient to process 10 million papers – and the digitalization of documents helps get rid of this problem.

It is difficult to imagine how hand-written application forms can be organized and managed in this information age, and Devnet arrived just to answer this challenge.

Challenges to solutions
“Tell me your challenge, then we can find a solution,” says AK Sabbir Mahbub, founder of Devnet.

Devnet began in 2000 as an application development company that engaged in developing various applications used for operations of companies. However, given the business was not very stable, Sabbir did not have a salary assured.

At first, even his family was not very confident about this project. However, his parents, despite being the strongest opponent of his views, were also the strongest support system. He began his business with his mother’s retirement allowance of Tk1.5lakh.

Seven years since its establishment, Sabbir decided to specialize business in one field and it brought about a huge shift. Sabbir decided to develop an original product for Devnet instead of working to improve the existing software of other companies.

With the experience of 7 years, he already realized that Devnet had the superiority on ‘archive technology’, digital preservation of documents. He thought, as the Bangladesh economy grows, there would be huge demand in this field, and this document management system would expand as well. He believed in his instinct and started to focus on developing the original archiving system.

He expected that promoting the original product would lead to an expansion of his business, by paving way for stable income as well as accumulated knowledge and capabilities.

However, his challenge arose soon enough since he had put all his eggs in one basket. He realized this the hard way.

This was a good five years before the Bangladeshi government shared the visions of a “digital Bangladesh.” The global transition from the analog to digital world was only beginning to unfold then, and many Bangladeshis were happy living analog lives – given their habit and comfort in it. In Ergonomics terms, it is difficult for humans to make a quick shift to technology.

Analog to Digital
For a country where many important documents such as bank account application, cell phone service registrations, tax payments, birth reports are still handwritten, it is a huge challenge to be able to have those documents on computer. In order for that, they need to be processed digitally.

There could essentially be two ways for computer input of these data: manually, as a human types out the document details online, or through the PC using character recognition software and loading the data onto itself. Devnet put an emphasis on the latter, with the aim to make this rather tedious and challenging work efficient.

Although the product was good for digital archiving, it had little prospect as a business. This system was still too early for people in Bangladesh. It took 8 months to get the first customer, and even after that, there were very few customers.

The situation improved drastically in 2006 when, with the advent and quick of growth of mobile phone use, it became an urgent issue to protect personal information of the users. The Bangladesh government decided to impose a mandatory rule on all telecom companies to disclose contractors’ personal information.

With a rapidly growing mobile industry, by that Bangladesh telecom companies had already a few ten million contractors, so this act would be a radical measure in terms of customer management.

This is when Sabbir – and Devnet’s – luck turned around. Sabbir received a call from an officer at Banglalink, one of the fastest growing mobile networks of the country, who requested to see a demonstration of the digital archive system.

Although Devnet had emerged out of the sinking ship, it took a bit more time to reach victory. While working for Banglalink, they gradually – but successfully – expanded their business and enhanced their skills. With Digital Bangladesh developing at a similar pace, Devnet was able to take off accordingly. In 2010, they produced their second archive system and the third version in 2014.

Meanwhile, they had processed 40 million mobile phone contract forms. They handled projects for prestigious organisations such as United Nations. In a research conducted by the peacekeeping organsation on health care services, for which they had to interview 30 million households, Devnet digitalized all the handwritten questionnaires. It took them only 10 months to complete the digitalization and make the date usable.

Devnet has since expanded its business and started providing private companies with document management services. It currently has 6-7 year long-term contracts with about 70 companies.

It currently has a staff body of 110 permanent members and 250 temporary members.

These workers have been accumulating and enhancing their skills, and with their prestigious track records, they have been entrusted to process highly confidential data such as for the National Library, the Army and many land register documents.

Sabbir’s dream does not end here. He explains there is more.

“One of the current projects is to develop a business model of online cloud-based document management platform that is able to correspond to all the input sources – not only to handwriting. Moreover, as a new growing business area, we have started to embark on document management system for financial institutions such as banks. With the growth of mobile finance service, the cooperation between E-commerce/Mobile Finance Service and deposit and loan service provided by normal banks also became important. We are planning to develop this field by making full use of our strength,” he said, adding that they are already in contract with a few banks.

Sabbir is hopeful about Devnet expanding to Japan as well. He says: “If we can see the problem, we can find the solution. So the Japanese shouldn’t hesitate to take a step with us.”