Some 15,000 rural women entrepreneurs from 490 Upazilas across the country are now involved with Laalsobuj.com, an e-commerce marketplace aimed at improving women's living standards and accelerating their empowerment.
Laalsobuj.com, an e-commerce marketplace for women entrepreneurs, has started working to create about 100,000 rural entrepreneurs every year.
This information was presented at a virtual inauguration ceremony of the marketplace on Thursday.
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Fazilatun Nessa Indira inaugurated the marketplace as the chief guest, while Secretary of the ministry Md Sayedul Islam chaired the function.
Laalsabuj.com has been developed with a collaboration between "Tottho Apa Project: Empowerment of women through information communication technology to build a Digital Bangladesh (2nd Phase)'', run by Jatiyo Mohila Sangstha, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, and Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI), which will work to create more female entrepreneurs across 490 Upzilas of Bangladesh.
Among the special guests were the chairman of Jatiyo Mohila Sangstha, Begum Chemon Ara Tayab, chief executive officer of BFTI, Dr. Md. Jafar Uddin, Executive Director (Additional Secretary) of Jatiyo Mohila Sangstha, Maqsura Noor, director of BFTI and team lead Md Obaidul Azam and president of I-CAB, Shomi Kaiser at the function.
The project director (Additional Secretary) of the Tottho Apa project, Mina Parveen gave a welcome speech and presentation.
Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Fazilatun Nessa Indira said this journey of Bangladesh's Golden Jubilee and Mujib Centenary, Laalsobuj.com E-Commerce Marketplace is a unique manifestation of women's empowerment.
The involvement of rural women in the digital economy proves that we have truly achieved a digital Bangladesh, she added.
Ms. Mina Parveen said in her presentation that it is one of the main goals of the Tottho Apa project to assist e-commerce service to rural women by information centers.
To meet that goal, an MoU was signed between the Tottho Apa Project and the BFTI under the Ministry of Commerce aiming to build a marketplace for emancipation by selling the products rural women entrepreneurs produce and collect.
1,470 trained information officers and information service assistants from 490 information centers of Tottho Apa Project are working on assisting the women entrepreneurs by registering, updating the information and images of the products.
