President calls for rigid prevention of e-commerce fraudulence

On Thursday President M Abdul Hamid urged all concerned, including ICT enterpreneurs, to develop skilled human resources along with inventing advanced technology for cyber crime control and preventing cheating in the name of e-commerce.

“In addition to invention of advanced technology, the ICT entrepreneurs need to take effective steps in building skilled manpower to combat cyber crimes,” the President told the inaugural function of three-day “Digital Device & Innovation Expo 2021” at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) here.

Referring to spreading the uses of information and communication technology (ICT), he said the level of cyber crime is on the rise, often creating social unrest on various social issues.

President Hamid, in his video speech for the Expo-2021, was very critical about the ongoing e-commerce as well as online shopping that have multiplied due to the outbreak of pandemic COVID-19 at recent time.

Expressing grave concern over the illegal activities of some unscrupulous businessmen, the President said those entrepreneurs are cheating people in the name of e-commerce.

“The e-commerce is now an important commercial sector . . . It has been possible to keep the country’s economic activities vibrant by using ICT,” he added.

The dishonest traders use to deliver low quality or substandard producta while in many cases after receiving payment for the order, the Facebook page or website is found closed without delivery of the product, the President observed.

He said as a result, the buyers are being deceived and losing interest in online shopping at present, but the buyers’ faith and confidence must be restored anyhow.

“It is necessary to strictly control and monitor the deception by a handful of unscrupulous people so that the expansion of a huge potential sector like e-commerce does not stop anyway,” Hamid added.

Pointing out the incumbent government’s digitization process, he said the country in the mean time did a tremendous development in the IT sector as the implementation of ‘Digital Bangladesh’ gives us the strength and courage to face the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Lauding the country’s young generation’s expertise in invention, Abdul Hamid said the children of Bangladesh are now making various materials including robots and also participated in the International Robotics and Blockchain Olympiad and they achieved respectable position.

The President hoped that utilizing these talented young people, “we would be able to build Bangladesh” as the model of a developing country in the world through the innovation, expansion and use of local sustainable technology.

Mentioning that Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman laid the foundation of science, research and ICT with the aim of joining the digital revolution, he said in 1972, he took the initiative to become a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Bangladesh became a member of the ITU in 1973.

Subsequently, the journey of Digital Bangladesh started from 2009 under the farsighted leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a worthy successor of Bangabandhu, and the country has made unprecedented progress in the ICT sector, the President said, adding the contribution of Prime Minister’s ICT Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy in this procees was immense.

The head of the state said at present 99 percenr area of Bangladesh is under mobile coverage with over 160 million mobile phone users while the number of internet users exceeds 11 crore and broadband internet reaches 3,600 unions even in remote areas of the country.

Noting that the government has taken various steps to create entrepreneurs in the ICT sector, the President hoped that all these initiatives would create new entrepreneurs in the IT sector as well as generate huge employment opportunities.

Bangladesh government’s ICT Division, Bangladesh High-Tech Park Authority, Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy, a2i, Startup Bangladesh Ltd along with Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) organized the programme with the theme “Make here, sell everywhere”’.

ICT State Minister Junaid Ahmed Palak, MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministry AKM Rahmatullah, MP, among others, were present there.

The programme would bring together all the stakeholders related to the ICT industry under one roof while showcasing the country’s success stories in producing state-of-the-art ICT products and services to the global audience, the President hoped.