foodpanda has launched ‘pandamart’- a convenient platform for ordering daily necessities online and receive delivery within 30 minutes.

Although the coronavirus pandemic has increased people’s dependency on online shopping and the sudden rise of demand has often led to delays in delivery.

“With the launch of pandamart, foodpanda aims to redefine the shopping experience for consumers in Bangladesh by delivering whatever they need in as fast as 30 minutes from the thousands of original and genuine products they have in their inventory,” foodpanda said in a press release.

Regarding pandamart, CEO of foodpanda Bangladesh, Ambareen Reza said, “On-time delivery drives better collaboration with your customers, ensures reliability of delivery and most importantly, customer loyalty. Customers expect you to meet the promised delivery date. It is important to set the right expectations with your customers and meet them. With pandamart, we aim to do just that.”

With wide varieties of over 3,000 items, ranging from regular household staples to baby products and cleaning supplies, pandamart has original and genuine products of all large multinationals and reputed local companies in its stock, the company said.

Combined with the best deals and offers, and a large array of items to choose from, pandamart is committed to providing a better online shopping experience every time and meet the rising demand, it said.

The launch of pandamart has also created new business opportunities for vendors, and employment opportunities for riders and warehouse staff to join the platform, as the demand for delivery of daily necessities increases, foodpanda said.

foodpanda started its pandamart ventures in Dhaka and other major cities. The service will slowly roll out to the rest of the country, the company said.

Recently, bKash held a meeting with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to exchange views on customer safety and aspired to work more collaboratively in coming days. The discussion includes how the two parties can jointly work to ensure safety in MFS sector that contributes to the financial inclusion of the country.

The meeting was held at the headquarters of CID with the vision of ensuring customer safety in MFS, which is greatly considered as an efficient, convenient and popular technology-based service for financial transactions.

CID Chief Barrister Mahbubur Rahman, BPM, PPM, Additional Inspector General presided over the meeting. Kamal Quadir, CEO of bKash was present at the event.

DIG of CPC, CID Md. Jamil Ahmed, BPM, PPM; DIG (Training) Md. Shah Alam; Additional DIG Md. Kamrul Ahsan, CPC and other senior officers of CID were present in the meeting. Chief External and Corporate Affairs Officer Major General Sheikh Md. Monirul Islam (Retd.) and other senior officials were also present from bKash.

The 718 MW natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant project at Meghnaghat (on the outskirts of Dhaka), country’s largest gas-based IPP, being set up by Reliance Bangladesh LNG & Power Limited has made significant progress despite the ongoing pandemic.

Contradicting a UNB report released on November 15, Reliance in a recent statement said the project at Meghnaghat, the country’s largest gas-based IPP, has “made significant progress” despite the pandemic.

In September 2019, the company signed agreements with the Bangladesh government to build, own and operate the power plant at Meghnaghat, some 40 km from Dhaka. The project is due to achieve commercial operations within 36 months of signing the agreements, save for certain delays pursuant to the ongoing pandemic Force Majeure that all projects have been facing.

A total of four contracts were signed by the company with different entities of the government to implement the project. Of the four agreements, officials said, the Power Division signed the implementation agreement while state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board inked the power purchase agreement and land lease agreement and Titas, gas distribution company of Petrobangla, signed the gas supply agreement.

The project has made substantial progress with regards to financing and engineering, procurement and construction. The company signed agreements for arranging USD 642 million financing from reputed development financing institutions. Asian Development Bank will provide loans of up to USD 200 million, Japan Bank for International Cooperation will provide USD 265 million and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance the remaining USD 177 million.

The company has also signed an agreement with General Electric (GE), which is going to supply major equipment to the project, and appointed Samsung C&T as its Engineering, Procurement, & Construction (EPC) contractor to build the gas-fired power plant.

The government will purchase electricity from the project for a 22-year period. The project will use imported re-gasified liquefied natural gas (R-LNG) for generating electricity, which will be supplied by state-owned Petrobangla.

JERA Co. Inc. (the largest utility company in Japan) and Reliance Power Limited (one of the largest private generation companies in India), through their step-down subsidiary, will be jointly developing a 718 MW (net) gas fired combined cycle power project at Meghnaghat, Narayanganj, Bangladesh (the “Project”). Reliance Bangladesh LNG & Power Limited (the “Company”) is the 100% foreign-owned company incorporated in Bangladesh for setting up this Project, as a joint venture of the two sponsors.

Read Also: Reliance’s power plant project sees little progress in one year

The 17th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit kicked off Friday in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Themed "Building the Belt and Road, Strengthening digital economy cooperation," this year's expo aims to deepen cooperation in trade, digital economy, science and technology, health and other fields to foster a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

With a planned exhibition area of 104,000 square meters, the expo has set up 5,400 booths in the venue. In addition, more than 1,500 enterprises from home and abroad will participate virtually in the four-day event, according to the organizers.

The expo will also host 11 high-level forums and more than 160 economic and trade promotion activities.

Initiated in 2004, the annual expo is an important platform for promoting trade and bilateral relations between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). 

Read Also: Pharma export to Asean market likely to reach $1.2 by 4 years: Webinar

The fourth edition of Banglalink Ennovators, a digital ideation competition for innovative youngsters, ended on Thursday with the announcement of the top three teams. 

The announcement came at the grand finale of the program, which was held virtually. 

Around 16,000 youngsters participated in this year's competition. 

Five teams presented their ideas at the grand finale, and the jury board picked the top three from them.

Team Decode clinched the top spot for its innovative idea on a skill development platform.

And Team White Collar Crew became the first-runner up and Team Blink the second runner-up for their ideas on gaming platforms. 

Banglalink Chief Executive Officer Erik Aas said, "If such innovative youngsters are given the right opportunities, they can unleash their true potentials and come up with innovative digital strategies to tackle many socio-economic challenges."

All the top three teams will get a direct entry to Banglalink's "Assessment Center of the Strategic Assistant Program" along with attractive prizes. 

Also, the top five teams will qualify for Banglalink's "Advanced Internship Program" and will participate in "Learn from Startups" and "Campus to Corporate."

Banglalink's Chief Human Resources and Administration Officer Monzula Morshed said, "Our digital mindset, innovation, and collaborative efforts enabled us to organize Ennovators under challenging circumstances during the pandemic."

The telecom operator has been organizing Ennovators since 2017. 

Banglalink is a subsidiary of VEON Limited – a Nasdaq and Euronext listed connectivity provider headquartered in the Netherlands.

Read Also: Registration opens for Banglalink’s innovators 4.0