Browse Category

Asia

Pathao to launch mobile wallet next year

Pathao, a ride-hailing app in Bangladesh, plans to launch its own mobile wallet next year to reduce consumer reliance on cash payments. “Payments is a big challenge. Bangladesh is a cash-based economy and most of the transactions Bitcoinhappen over cash,” Pathao’s CEO and co-founder, Hussain Elius, told CNBC’s “Street Signs” last week. “However, we are very excited to move into the e-transaction space and just next year, we are launching our own wallet,” he said, adding that switching to e-payments would take time as people are “s...

BD version of Go-Jek raises over $ 10m

$ 4.5 billion-valued ride-sharing startup Go-Jek may be busy in Southeast Asia, where it is aiming to step into the gap following Uber’s exit, but that isn’t stopping it from looking at opportunities elsewhere in the world. Over in Bangladesh, motorbike-taxi hailing service Pathao has announced that it raised a “pre-Series A” investment led by Go-Jek. The Indonesian firm first invested in Pathao last year, and it is leading this new deal which includes participation from existing backers Openspace uberVentures — which just rebrand...

Sumitomo gets order for aviation security equipment

Sumitomo Corporation (head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Kuniharu Nakamura), together with NEC Corporation (‘NEC’; head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Nobuhiro Endo), NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation (‘NEC Networks & SI’; head office: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo; President: Masao Wada), Morita Corporation (‘Morita’; head office: Sanda, Hyogo Prefecture; President and Representative Director: Kazumi Ogata), and SANWA COMSYS Engineering Corporation (‘SANWA COMSYS Engineering’; head office: Suginami-ku, Tokyo; biman-300

LafargeHolcim to increase limestone production

LafargeHolcim plans to increase production of limestone from its Nongtrai mines in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district, Bangladesh, from two to five million tonnes per year. The company also plans to export limestone. The company has received notice from the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board for a Lafargepublic hearing on the expansion plan at Nontrai for excavation of limestone. In 2009, the company had applied to Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change for environmental clearance, says a report. Meghalaya-based Lafarge Umia...

Antidumping probe on jute goods from BD in India

After finding sufficient “prima facie” evidence of dumping of jute products, India has started a probe to ascertain if an anti-dumping duty can be imposed on such imports from Bangladesh and Nepal to save the domestic industry. The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) has launched the investigation into imports from the two neighbouring countries on the request of Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA). The association has filed an application “for initiation of anti-dumping investigation and jute goodsimposition of anti-du...

HTC releases six smartphones in BD market debut

Taiwan’s HTC has entered the Bangladesh market for the first time, launching a flagship smartphone and five mid-tier Desire models in a country where local brands hold the biggest market share. The six HTC phones, namely the One M8 Eye, Desire 820s, Desire 626G+, Desire 620G, Desire 526G+ and Desire 326G, will become available in the South Asian nation this week via HTC’s HTCnew distributor Next Nine Corp (NXT9). The prices of the phones range from 11,490-38,990 Bangladesh taka (US$148-$503). “We are pleased to launch our smartphones in the Bangladesh mark...