Source: The Daily Star
On 23rd July 2023, Mr. Zubair Ahmed, Founder & CEO of Hishab attended the summit on Bangladesh-Japan Economic Relations for the Next 50 years: For the Industry Upgradation of Bangladesh as a panelist at Pan Pacific Sonargaon, Dhaka. The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) jointly organised this programme.
There, the participants discussed by three sessions on “Potential of manufacturing sector in Bangladesh”, “ICT and Startup”, and “Energy”, according to the organisers. The name of the session, which Mr. Zubair joined was “ICT & Startup.” In the session, Md. Russel Ahmed, President of BASIS, Mr. Yasuhiro Akashi, COO of BJIT Group & Mr. Tetsuro Kano, President of JCAID, and General manager of Itochu Bangladesh were present as well.
Here are some key takeaways about Hishab from the session.
Q: What is your experiences of collaboration with Japanese companies?
- We are working with one of the largest Japanese company Tepco, Tokyo Electric Power Company. So they’re going to be the first one to actually use or import a genuinely high tech product from Bangladesh.
- We were probably one of the very few companies in the world that work on our own large language model. Recently our focuses is on the Bengali language.
- We also have our own home built ASR and voice recognition technology. It essentially does two things. One is, it can speak to us about any topic. it can negotiate on behalf of you, it can call people, talk to them literally at any time if you want to. And at the same time it can take action like it’s going to buy for you, pay from your wallets and book on your own calendar and probably send an email to you or even call you and confirm you what it did.
Q: What do you expect to Japanese companies for?
- In Japan, almost 30% are elderly so they could utilize our technology and truly become digitally included and perhaps participate more on Japanese society. So I think that’s the way, how we can help Japan more with our technology and collaboration with Japanese companies to form true solution for the Japanese society too.
In the summit, Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura was present as chief guest, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi and Industry Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun as special guests, and ICT Division Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak as the guest of honour.
What is the JETRO?
JETRO is a government-related organization that works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world. JETRO’s core focus in the 21st century has shifted toward promoting foreign direct investment into Japan and helping small to medium size Japanese firms maximize their global export potential.
What is BIDA?
BIDA is the apex investment promotion agency (IPA) of Bangladesh which is responsible for helping foreign investors to set up investments in the country.
What is FBCCI?
FBCCI is the apex trade organization of Bangladesh playing a pivotal role in consultative and advisory capacity, safeguarding the interest of the private sector.
About Hishab:
Hishab is a world leader in telephony based Conversational AI technology. Hishab holds over 20 patents in over 27 countries across the world. Hishab’s team is represented by people from 10 different countries across Europe and Asia. Bangladeshi Engineering meets with Japanese and Indian leadership to bring the world’s MOST innovative solution for digitalization of the mass across the world.
