Shah Alam Nur :
Bangladesh Post Office is working to launch e-commerce services with a view to providing modern and hassle free postal services for the people.
A pilot project is slated to begin the divisional headquarters in this month.
The government would like to use its vast network of 8,500 post offices to offer the services and become the market leader in e-commerce by 2021, SS Bhadra, acting Director General of the Postal Division told The New Nation on Tuesday.
He said “We have modernised services drastically in the past few years, and hope to serve people better with the launch of e-commerce.”
According to Posts and Telecommunications Division, Bangladesh’s e-commerce sector is currently growing by around eight to 10 per cent a year, having a market more than Tk 2.00 billion, and the post offices are capable of taking the services to the remotest parts of the country.
Though the state-owned entity is yet to make a definitive list of the e-commerce services it will offer, it has decided to dedicate an independent website to e-commerce.
Currently, e-commerce services mostly cover the urban areas, but the post offices can help take it to a national level, using its capacity to reach every door, which other e-commerce service providers are not yet capable of.
Bangladesh Post Office currently cannot make deliveries for parcels other than personal ones, an official said. He said Australia, India and Japan are among the countries that have launched e-commerce services through the postal network, and the Post Office has already collected reports on those to make a plan.
People will be able to use cash, postal cash cards, or electronic money transfer service (EMTS), all already offered by the Post Office, to pay their e-commerce bills.
Postal cash cards, launched in 2011, are a service like any debit card, with cash points available at some 1,446 post offices. Currently, there are some 73,000 postal cash card holders in the country.
The government also introduced EMTS in 2010, which has gained popularity since then, and some 2,750 post offices are equipped to offer the service, the Posts and Telecommunication Division’s data showed.Transactions through the EMTS stood at Tk 800 million in the last five years. The postal division’s revenue was Tk 2.53 billion against expenses of more than Tk 5.20 billion in fiscal 2014-15, and revenue stood at just Tk 2.19 billion against Tk 4.48 billion in expenses the year earlier.
Bangladesh Post Office is working to launch e-commerce services with a view to providing modern and hassle free postal services for the people.
A pilot project is slated to begin the divisional headquarters in this month.
The government would like to use its vast network of 8,500 post offices to offer the services and become the market leader in e-commerce by 2021, SS Bhadra, acting Director General of the Postal Division told The New Nation on Tuesday.
He said “We have modernised services drastically in the past few years, and hope to serve people better with the launch of e-commerce.”
According to Posts and Telecommunications Division, Bangladesh’s e-commerce sector is currently growing by around eight to 10 per cent a year, having a market more than Tk 2.00 billion, and the post offices are capable of taking the services to the remotest parts of the country.
Though the state-owned entity is yet to make a definitive list of the e-commerce services it will offer, it has decided to dedicate an independent website to e-commerce.
Currently, e-commerce services mostly cover the urban areas, but the post offices can help take it to a national level, using its capacity to reach every door, which other e-commerce service providers are not yet capable of.
Bangladesh Post Office currently cannot make deliveries for parcels other than personal ones, an official said. He said Australia, India and Japan are among the countries that have launched e-commerce services through the postal network, and the Post Office has already collected reports on those to make a plan.
People will be able to use cash, postal cash cards, or electronic money transfer service (EMTS), all already offered by the Post Office, to pay their e-commerce bills.
Postal cash cards, launched in 2011, are a service like any debit card, with cash points available at some 1,446 post offices. Currently, there are some 73,000 postal cash card holders in the country.
The government also introduced EMTS in 2010, which has gained popularity since then, and some 2,750 post offices are equipped to offer the service, the Posts and Telecommunication Division’s data showed.Transactions through the EMTS stood at Tk 800 million in the last five years. The postal division’s revenue was Tk 2.53 billion against expenses of more than Tk 5.20 billion in fiscal 2014-15, and revenue stood at just Tk 2.19 billion against Tk 4.48 billion in expenses the year earlier.
