Country's first website containing necessary information on price, stock, and supply of daily necessities is being developed. This will help monitor the daily commodity market, said Junaid Ahmed Palak, Minister of State for Posts, Telecommunications and Information and Communication Technology. 

A meeting was held at the Secretariat of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on recently, with a view to create a smart market system to control the prices of goods.

Junaid Ahmed Palak also said that the Department of Information and Communication Technology has started working with the Ministry of Commerce to provide smart solutions for market management and product price control. With that in mind, a consumer-friendly hotline '333' and a website based on production, storage, and marketing information are being created for market surveillance. The State Minister expects this service to be available by January 31.

He also informed that the data on the production, storage, import, and marketing of the commodities will be stored in a central database of the Ministry of Commerce, whose dashboard will be available to the Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, where she can directly monitor the price of goods in any part of the country.

At the time, concerned personnel from the industry said that there was a shortage of daily necessities in the market due to LC complications and the dollar crisis. Furthermore, lack of production and product availability can increase prices of goods which creates a headache for the general people. The way out of this situation is to impose real information-based market management and effective enforcement of laws.

The state minister said during the meeting, that the information and communication technology department will create a website within the next two weeks. As a result, an ordinary buyer can go to the market and call 333 if the price of a product feels unusual. The concerned department can then locate the shop, and take necessary measures to check the prices of the product. Accordingly, actions will be taken against the shopkeeper or trader upon verification of unwarranted high prices. The Directorate of Consumer Protection will cooperate in this regard.

The meeting was attended by top officials of City Group, S Alam Group, Bashundhara Group, Meghna Group, Pran, Swapno, Agora, and various startup organizations. Leaders of various business associations including Bangladesh Shop Owners Association were also present.

Ziaul Haque Bhuiyan, Chief-of-Staff of ShopUp, the country's largest B2B commerce company said, “Market supervision through information and technology is time imperative. The government’s initiative in this regard is really commendable. Market control requires accurate information and data, through which proper planning of the country’s food production, import, distribution, and marketing is possible. As one of the most technology-friendly organizations in the country, ShopUp is determined to support this great initiative of the government by providing all the necessary information.

Apart from this, there is no alternative to long-term planning to reduce the import dependency of food products, protect the rights of farmers, and build a self-reliant Bangladesh with proper information-based decisions in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. It will only be possible to deal with the dollar crisis in the long term and bring the price of goods under control if Bangladesh is self-sufficient in food production.”

ShopUp and its wing, Mokam are ready to support the government with necessary initiatives in this regard. Representatives of City Group, Meghna Group, S Alam Group, Bashundhara Group also assured to help the government by providing necessary information and data in the meeting.

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