Turning dreams into reality
30 September 2010, 18:00 PM
Julfikar Ali Manik, back from London
A session in progress at the Nokia World in London.
Shampa Akter(inset).
Shampa Akter, a homemaker and entrepreneur of Kushtia, was not present at the biggest gathering of Nokia held recently in London. But her success story has been narrated to the world of mobile technology as an example of how mobile phones can develop and change the lives of ordinary people, even in the least developed countries.
In mid September, around three thousand people from over a hundred countries gathered at Nokia's two-day World Summit 2010 in London.
On September 15, day-two of the conference, a brief pictorial presentation drew the attention of the less than half dozen Bangladeshis. Shampa's pictures along with her dreams in life appeared in Bangla on display screens at the conference centre.
Shampa was a simple housewife with a dream to own and operate her own business. She took part in Nokia's 'Don't stop dreaming' competition and won the seed capital to start her boutique business in September 2009. She now employs 35 local women in her business in Kushtia and supplies clothes to retailers in Dhaka.
Shampa uses Ovi mail to connect to wholesalers and retailers in Dhaka and also sends pictures of her designs and clothing to retailers to get orders. This saves her travel time and cost, and ensures that she gets orders and feedback from her customers on time.
This is the story of Shampa that was narrated at the conference as the best example of how a mobile phone and its multi-dimensional facilities change lives of ordinary people across the globe.
"Dream: to open a tailoring shop and boutique and create scope for employment for many poor women thorough it," also appeared on the big screens in Bangla.
"In many of the emerging markets, the role we play is not only that of provider but also an educator. Many of our devices provide tools to engage in and access the internet and communicate with friends and family, either via SMS or voice but also over email chat and social networking etc.," Chris Carr, Nokia's vice president (sales) of Southeast Asia Pacific, told The Daily Star on the sidelines of the conference.
In Nokia's eyes, Bangladesh is one of the emerging markets for mobile technology.
Nokia, a leading global brand in the mobile handset market and the leader in Bangladesh's market, announced their upcoming smart phones.
"We are not here to look backward," Nokia's Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki announced in the summit. It was a clear message to the competitive mobile technology world that they were ready to take all the challenges in the global market.
In addition, there are some other concepts for developing countries like Bangladesh, where 40 percent of its 160 million people are living below the poverty line, the per capita income is $750 and over 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas.
Carr elaborated, "Our role in markets, particularly in rural areas, is to educate the people on what content is available to help them enrich their lives, which is different from the role we play in the market in, for example, Singapore, where the understanding and awareness and capabilities of what's available is a little better understood. That's part of our social responsibility as a company -- we're looking to educate people, to help people discover the value they can derive from mobility."
Educating people or making them aware is one of the strategies of expanding the market of the technologies, but this is from the sense of social responsibility of a business house and through implementing its corporate social responsibility.
"We have corporate social responsibility programmes in all the markets," added Carr.
"When we put an office into a country, we realise we have an obligation beyond supplying handsets to the market. We commit to educating, we commit to different campaigns with a social responsibility element. We commit to provide after market services. We have a retail presence. We continue to invest in the market and put back in the market some of the money that's derived as a result of the turnover in the market. That's something that we take as part of entering into a market, so we are not there just to extract value but also to contribute to the improvement of society and the lives of individuals within that society."
At the conference village, there were several stalls displaying the latest and upcoming facilities in Nokia handsets. Experts described the new devices and applications to the curious participants. It was an interesting occasion for the innovative developers of applications.
'Nokia Money' was one of the latest attractions for many, including people from the Bangladeshi banking sector.
Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director and chief executive of Brac Bank, attended the Nokia World Summit to understand how 'Nokia Money' can further mobile banking in Bangladesh, besides remittance transfer through mobile.
Brac Bank formed an organisation called bKash Ltd, which is part of the process of introducing mobile banking facilities in Bangladesh.
"I am here to look for the technologies to implement our new idea of introducing mobile banking," said Rahman at the Nokia Money stall, where an expert was narrating the use of the devices and how people would be benefited.
If the deal goes smoothly, Brac Bank is likely to come to an agreement with Nokia for using their devices/technology to introduce mobile banking in Bangladesh.
On Brac Bank's move, Carr said, "It is in an exploratory phase, but there is a clear intention based on our understanding of the market that we want to be able to deliver that service."
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