Author: Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

The US dollar on Tuesday has hit an all-time high against the Pakistani rupee in the interbank market. According to details, the value of the greenback surged by 0.85 paisa today to trade at Rs168.95 in the interbank market, earlier the all-time highest was Rs168.58.

The value of the US dollar soared by Rs16.67 during the last four months. Yesterday, the trading of the greenback in the inter-bank market closed at Rs168.10 paisas.

Currency dealers, ex­­perts and analysts have many reasons for the steep fall in the local currency value against the US dollar, but they said there was no intervention from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to stop this devaluation to bring stability.

The Pakistani rupee had touched an all-time low of 168.43 against the greenback last year in August before recouping some losses to hit a 22-month high of Rs152.95 in April 2021.

The local unit rose by 6.2 percent or Rs10.51 against the US dollar in the currency market during the fiscal year 2020-21 that ended on June 30.

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Pakistan information technology and telecom sector witnessed a major milestone on September 9 when a globally renowned telecommunication equipment manufacturer, ZTE Corporation, and United Communications announced to join hands to manufacture SIM based 4G/5G mobile handsets and various mobile broadband products in Pakistan.

As per the press release issued by the ZTE here on Monday, an agreement signing ceremony was held in Islamabad, which was jointly hosted by ZTE and United Mobile, and Federal IT and Telecom Secretary Dr Muhammad Sohail Rajput was the chief guest.

Ministry officials, including Member (Telecom) Omar Malik, Member (Legal) Babur Suhail and Director (Wireless) Muhammad Jahanzeb were also present at the occasion. ZTE Pakistan CEO Li Guowen, Deputy CEO Mao Zhixia and CBO Rao Shahryar Sultan, and United Mobile CEO Faisal Motiwala, COO Hamza Rasheed and Hammad Hanif (Head of Development) were also present at the ceremony. Other officials from ZTE who attended the event were Jiang Duxin, Liu Shaofeng, Jiang Hao, Malik Khurrum, Shahzad, Saad Anis and Malik Taimoor.

Through this agreement, United Mobile will introduce the complete range of ZTE mobiles in Pakistan, on the basis of Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Policy 2021. In addition to mobile phones, ZTE terminal end devices, along with ZTE IoT devices and accessories, will also be introduced in the local market in future as well.

Both the companies also shared that as part of this co-operation, they will try their best to achieve a short-term target of US$25 million by June 2022. Moreover, United Mobile announced to introduce ZTE’s premium handsets under CBU model immediately and will work with ZTE to make the globally successful 5G smartphones available in local market as soon as possible.

While addressing the ceremony, Federal IT and Telecom Secretary Dr Muhammad Sohail Rajput said that the incumbent government has an export oriented, technology based vision of the future, and that the Ministry has engaged all stake holders in the IT and telecom sector, and have introduced policies that encourage investment and exports.

While assuring ZTE’s commitment to Pakistan and also China-Pakistan friendship, ZTE Pakistan CEO Li Guowen shared ZTE’s vision and future expansion plans in Pakistan based on the massive opportunities available in the local market.

United Mobile CEO Faisal Motiwala during his address remarked that this collaboration marks another step towards the fulfilment of ‘Vision Digital Pakistan’, and yet another milestone achieved for the Pakistan technology industry towards localisation and self-sustainability. “Our collaboration with ZTE is aimed towards adding value to the supply chain of mobile phones and IT devices, and to be able to offer better value to consumers in Pakistan,” he added.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) 

A 20-member German Emirati Chamber of Commerce & Industry (AHK) business delegation, which is visiting Pakistan for a firsthand assessment of business and investment opportunities in the country held a meeting today with foreign investors, members of Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI). The German Business delegation was accompanied by Mr. Holger Ziegeler, German Consul General in Karachi, and First Secretary for Economic Affairs at the German Embassy in Islamabad.

OICCI CEO/Secretary General M. Abdul Aleem, shared a detailed presentation, highlighting the liberal policies in Pakistan for foreign direct investment (FDI) which offers tremendous opportunities for new investment. Commenting on the investment opportunities in Pakistan, Mr Aleem stated that ‘OICCI members have benefitted by taking a longer-term view which is illustrated by the fact OICCI members have re-invested over US$ 18 billion in the last 9 years which is more than the total FDI inflow into the country during this period”.

The OICCI shared with the 20 members of the German Business delegation the results of recent Business Confidence Index Survey carried out during May to July 2021 showing a dramatic upswing in Business confidence across Pakistan by 59% since the last BCI survey done in the same period in 2020. “The OICCI members randomly included in the survey are more upbeat as their confidence level has gone up by 108’, Mr Aleem added.

Mr Oliver Oehms, CEO of the visiting German Emirati Joint Council for Industry and Commerce and other members of the delegation enquired about several matters, including potential sectors for investment, special concessions for major investment in Pakistan, incentives relating to Special Economic Zones, major development projects on tourism, impact of increasing inflation on businesses in Pakistan,  tax incentives for putting up export based industries using imported raw materials and the most reliable government agency to facilitate the potential foreign investors. All the queries were duly responded by the OICCI members at the meeting.

The OICCI is the collective voice of major foreign investors in Pakistan. The over 200 OICCI members, from 35 different countries, have a presence in 14 sectors of the economy and contribute over one-third of Pakistan’s total tax revenue, besides facilitating transfer of technology and skills and providing employment to a sizeable number of people. 57 OICCI member companies are listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange and 50 members are associates of the 2020 Global Fortune 500 companies. Besides their business operations the OICCI members realize their corporate social responsibilities and are major contributors to various CSR activities benefitting 6.2 million persons from underprivileged communities in 2020.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)

Reckitt has successfully added to their growing list of accolades as their number one selling brand, Dettol, has been recognized as the ‘Most Innovative Brand’ at the 2021 DarazMall Awards, along with Reckitt itself being recognized as ‘Best Performance Marketer’. E-commerce has always been a priority at Reckitt and they have worked closely with Daraz since the last four years to increase market penetration and make business more dynamic to keep up with shifts in consumer behavior.

To increase business growth, Reckitt launched on Daraz in 2016 and since then has worked closely with Daraz on a number of digital campaigns. Reckitt is one of the first few brands that came onboard on the FMCG category on Daraz and since then, business has grown a lot over the years in terms of GMV, participation in campaigns, marketing, and contribution in campaigns. Currently, Reckitt Dettol’s store stands at 15,700 number of followers, ranking it amongst one of the highest amongst FMCG brands. The brand also ranked as one of the top 3 brands sold on the 11.11 campaign, having sold 10,000 litres of disinfectant spray in 2020.

On this event, Kashan Hasan, CEO Reckitt Pakistan commented, “We have multiplied our business with Daraz since 2019 and we need to continue to work towards developing habit change as well as understanding our consumers better, investing behind trying and testing new ideas along with ensuring that we have the right data to do that. So, to me the future is very bright and I’d like to thank Daraz for recognizing our efforts and for partnering with us to jointly grow this business”

Driven by its purpose to make business more sustainable, Reckitt has formed a strong partnership with Daraz. This achievement further reiterates the brands’ purpose to serve their customers even better by introducing cutting edge digital innovation and catering to the ever-changing consumer behavior.