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A source of inspiration in business

Star Business Report
Amjad Khan Chowdhury's long career is full of awards and accolades, but the Daily Star-DHL award inspires him the most — to reach new heights of success.
“It is the most important and coveted award for businesses in Bangladesh,” said the chief executive officer of PRAN-RFL Group, one of the biggest agro-processing companies.
Last year, Chowdhury won the Business Person of the Year award for transforming a simple idea of producing agro-processed foods into a com-panyof30,000 employees in 1991.
Chowdhury said his colleagues in PRAN-RFL Group achieved the recognition. The award is the recognition of the quality of the products the company sells at home and abroad and the values its employees nurtures.
The award inspired his company to continue with the current goals: to improve the status of dairy industry in Bangladesh, said Chowdhury, the president of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He also said the evaluation process of Bangladesh Business Awards is indeed as best as it could be in present times and circumstances.
This year the awards stepped into its 12th year. The award has become the country's premier recognition of businesses that have made major
strides in economic development.
This year's awards ceremony will be held at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka tomorrow.
Selina Quader, owner of Agroconcern, an agriculture products producer, said many women are doing fantastic jobs across the country, but there are only one or two dedicated awards to recognise their contribution.
"Through the Bangladesh Business Awards our work and contribution to the economy and society is being recognised,” she told The Daily Star.
Selina won Bangladesh Business Awards in 2004 in the Outstanding Woman in Business category.
She said her responsibility to the society and economy has gone up after winning the award. "I feel more encouraged to work harder and achieve more success."
She said she expanded her business after being encouraged with the award. When she received the award eight years ago, Selina used to export only a small amount of potatoes.
Last year her export reached to 40,000 tonnes, which is about 60 percent of the total potato exports of the country.
Selina, who has been engaged in the agriculture business since 1984, has been exporting potatoes for a decade. She also produces seeds.
She grows potatoes in Rangpur and Dinajpur and sends her produces to countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Indonesia, Russia and Brunei.
She has four farms where there are 35 permanent and 100 temporary workers. She also produces non-conventional vegetables and fruits such as strawberries, capsicum and maize.
Her farms also conduct researches to develop high-yield varieties of vegetables. She urged the government to continue subsidies for the agriculture sector, particularly 2o percent cash incentive for potato exports.
Many are now showing interest to come into the business following her success in potato exports, she said. She said the august initiative by The Daily Star and DHL Express should continue.
“The award organisers should also work hard to find out real entrepreneurs who arecontributingto the most so thatthe award carries more value and weight.”
“The award should not be metropolitan-based. The organisers should go out of the cities and bring out the actual entrepreneurs from rural areas,” she said.
She also suggested the award organisers consider women entrepreneurs for the other four categories of the Bangladesh Business Awards, not only for the women in business category.
The Daily Star, the country's most-read English newspaper, and DHL Express, the world's leading logistics company, have introduced the award to honour the country’s best businesses and the people behind them.
The awards are given in categories such as Outstanding Woman in Business, Enterprise of the Year, Business Person of the Year, Best Financial Institu-