FBCCI to work for restoring confidence in e-commerce sector

The country’s apex business body, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industries (FBCCI) has said it will work for regaining the consumers’ confidence in e-Commerce as this sector holds huge potentials for growth.

The sector suffers a crisis of consumer confidence, the FBCCI’s Standing Committee on E-Commerce said at its first meeting on Thursday promising to work to overcome this situation and create new entrepreneurs.

Shomi Kaiser, director in charge of the committee and president of E-Cab said e-commerce businesses have bloomed during the Covid pandemic and generated thousands of employment.

In some isolated cases, the image of e-commerce has been tarnished. In order to overcome this crisis, the Ministry of Commerce will provide unique identification numbers for e-commerce companies, she informed.

A Complaints Management Cell will also be formed soon under the supervision of the directorate of national consumer Rights Protection.

All These initiatives will soon regain the consumers’ trust on e-commerce, Shomi added.

She mentioned that a year-long roadmap would be drawn up by the standing committee for the development of the overall e-commerce ecosystem.

Speaking as the chief guest at the meeting, FBCCI President Md. Jashim Uddin said to create sustainable e-commerce, entrepreneurs in this sector must ensure institutional transparency and accountability and compliance.

FBCCI Senior Vice President Mostofa Azad Chowdhury Babu said that in order to restore confidence in e-commerce, it is necessary to formulate specific policies in this sector.

Presiding over the meeting, the Chairman of the Standing Committee TIM Nurul Kabir said that, lack of bank loans, poor penetration of cards, over-reliance on cash on delivery and absence of cross-border e-commerce policies are some of the major challenges facing the business.

In the open discussion, the co-chairmen and members of the committee complained that the commerce ministry has not yet made the digital commerce cell fully functional and also it is yet to fix who will monitor the SOP in E-commerce.

The speakers demanded tax relaxation till 2030 and to include e-commerce in government procurement till 2030.

Also present at the meeting were FBCCI Director Amzad Hussain, Secretary General Mohammad Mahfuzul Hoque, Standing Committee Co-Chairmen Mohammad Abdul Haque, Mohammad Sahab Uddin, Mostafizur Rahman Sohel, Zia Ashraf, M Rashidul Hasan and others members.