<div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">KATALYST/Swisscontact, a project funded by DFID, SDC and SIDA is working in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1:place>Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region> to promote the competetiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises of Bangladesh. Rural ICT is a new area of the project and we have come out with a new Business Model, basicaaly focusing to serve the businesses as well as rural communities.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">The evolution process of GHAT was little lengthy and we have gone through a systematic approach to develop the model.
After 2 phases of market study, the research team developed the model, we invited expression of interest from the interested party who wants to invest and finally selected to operators based on their Business Plan and equity participation.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">This centers named GHAT (where people gather for transportation, mainly boat), and offering bundle of services. As the focus on business, we tried to concentrate to develop location & sector (business) specific contents in local language. At the same time some common services required by businesses. Also citizen services are being offered through the centers. The services are available both off-line and on-line.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in
0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">To ensure the commercial viability of the centers, training, desktop publications, internet and digital photo services. Rural people can ask for any new employment opportunity at local as well as national level or anyone can get the admission information for colleges & universities. <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">The 1st center launched on <st1:date Month="12" Day="20" Year="2005">20th December 2005</st1:date> and 2 others are ready go operation. We have planned to replicate the model all over the country and want to see the model as Self sustaining. GHAT is
purely operated by private sectors with holistic approach and as a development project,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>K is supporting the content development, awareness building activities for the pilot phase of 18 months. <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Due to strategic reason and KATALYST mandate of commercial sustainability, we are trying to keep the GHAT locations not to remote rural, where services may not very lucrative and affordable by the users. However, our experience shows that the rural people frequently visit this locations to market their product or any other social reasons. Additionally we are patronizing the Info-mediator’s role to reach the rural communities at deep rural areas.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">During the whole process, we experienced the critical challenges of content development, developing demand based & updated information and finally the delivery mechanism, some are to be resolved.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">We are assuming that once the model start working, more private sector investors will be interested to become as Franchisee of GHAT and soon will be replicated in other areas, in fact, we already received a no. of request from the investors. <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The web version of GHAT is still under regular updates and we are expecting to see a good structure by the end of January 2006. The web is </FONT><A href="http://www.ghatbd.com/"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>www.ghatbd.com</FONT></A><o:p></o:p></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">For any further details please contact me.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Thanks,<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Shahid Uddin Akbar<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></B></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">ICT Consultant<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">KATALYST/Swisscontact<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><st1:country-region><st1:place>Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">And <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Coordinator<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">ICT for Development Program <st1:country-region><st1:place>Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region> (ICTDPB)<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><st1:place><st1:City>Dhaka</st1:City>, <st1:country-region>Bangladesh</st1:country-region></st1:place><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></div><p>
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