Digital e-commerce solution for Rural Bangladesh

Bangladesh Government recently announced a new project to take e-commerce to rural areas of the country.

The plan is to setup online e-shops in 64 districts that will connect to a central e-commerce website bringing buyers and sellers together in one platform.

These e-shops will list local businesses and therefore skipping any middleman and enabling sellers to offer their products to buyers in different parts of the country.

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak launched this service and stated “We hope this project will empower the lower-income group in the rural areas.” “It will play an important role for the rural population’s livelihood as well as protect the local industries, thereby improving the country’s economy,” he added.

The plan is to train 1,000 entrepreneurs over e-commerce, who will then train the rural people on how to use the planned e-shops.

This concept already exists globally in the IT sector offering freelancers to trade their skills across multiple countries. Websites like iworkguru.co.uk , Freelancers.com and many others already offer similar services that can be used by anyone in Bangladesh and trade not just nationally but internationally. The limiting factor for Bangladeshi businessmen is the countries postal service reliability and necessary IT skills.

It is a good initial start for Bangladesh in this digital age and is better late than never. What could help Bangladesh rural areas even more is connecting those targeted businesses to trade outside the country. This can be done if Bangladesh government is prepared to invest in improving the postal service and enable small packets to be easily sent with a more reliable delivery to anywhere in the world.