Category: Business

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) For building new business friendly ties, the Egyptian Government Delegation visited CBD Punjab’s project site . CEO Lahore Central Business District Development Authority (LCBDDA) Mr. Imran Amin, COO Brigadier (RTD) Mansoor Janjua, LCBDDA Board Members and directorate heads of LCBDDA welcomed the delegates. Delegation was given a detailed visit of CBD Punjab sites and were briefed about the ongoing and future projects.

Delegation was led by General Ahmed Hamed, accompanied by Dr. Hany Shaheen and First Secretary of Egyptian Embassy, Mr. Amr Essayed Nassredin Elsayed Mr. Imran Amin CEO (LCBDDA) while visiting the site area, briefed the delegation that CBD Punjab had already auctioned 5 mixed use commercial plots for Lahore Prime, has successfully generated an investment of Rs 24 billion PKR and now, the authority is preparing for auction of Lahore’s first planned Downtown. This Downtown comprises of 7 mixed commercial plots.

Lahore Downtown is themed on existing downtown in the first world countries. General Ahmed Hamed said that ‘’business districts like CBD Punjab are door openers to new opportunities that can be materialized for the betterment of any state. Our visit to CBD Punjab has wiped out all the myths of economic instability”.

Mr. Imran Amin – CEO (LCBDDA) while expressing his views on Egyptian Delegation visit said “Visits of foreign delegations are a blatant proof that CBD Punjab has made a positive impact on economic map. People want to know more about CBD Punjab and its project. We are not only a business hub, we are a beacon, designed for the well-being of our future generations.

Every step which is taken by CBD Punjab whether it is urban development, building better business relations with other countries, economic development and job creations, it is directly linked to welfare of Pakistan’’. Egyptian delegation briefly discussed ideas and opportunities to build better economic relations between both countries. Delegation was also given a brief presentation about Pak-Egypt Business Corporation at CBD Punjab’s office.

Abu Dhabi (Nut Desk) His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Minister of Presidential Affairs, today launched e&, marking the transformation ambitions of Etisalat Group into a global technology and investment conglomerate.

Commenting on the launch, HH Sheikh Mansour emphasised the importance of capitalising on opportunities that the fast-evolving business landscape continues to present in the age of technological disruption. He commended the efforts of e& in devising a more progressive business model that sustains its hypserscaling ambitions, promotes new ventures and partnerships, and maximises value across its operations.

His Highness said, “The transformation of e& from a telecom company founded more than four decades ago in the UAE into a global influence in digitalisation highlights its role in upholding the UAE’s sustainable economic development and diversification plans. We commend e& for being the national champion that steers its global digitalisation leadership through pioneering advanced technologies, advancing ICT infrastructures, and fuelling geographic expansions while unlocking value.”

The launch of the new brand identity for Etisalat Group was attended by His Excellency Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs, H.E. Mohamed Bin Hadi Al Hussaini, Minister of State for Financial Affairs and H.E. Jassem Mohamed Bu Ataba Alzaabi, Chairman of e&.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Euro Oil Pvt. Ltd. and Shahnawaz Pvt. Ltd. have signed a lubricant supply agreement. The Chief Operating Officer of Euro Oil, Mr. Sohail Ahmad and the Director & General Manager of Shahnawaz, Mr. Naseem Shaikh signed this agreement. This ceremony was witnessed by Mr. Burak Isildak, Market Manager – Turkey & Middle East of PETRONAS Lubricants, Mr. Majid Maqbool, General Manager Lubricants Euro Oil and Mr. Taqi Mohammad, Director Technical Shahnawaz.

According to this agreement, Euro Oil will supply PETRONAS Syntium to Shahnawaz for Mercedes cars in Pakistan. PETRONAS Syntium is specially formulated with Cool Tech Technology that helps defend against excessive engine heat, keeping engines performing optimally for a trouble-free drive.

Euro Oil Pvt. Ltd. (Exclusive Marketer of PETRONAS Lubricants International) and Shahnawaz Pvt. Ltd.  (Authorized General Distributor of Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars and Commercial Vehicles in Pakistan) have agreed to collaborate for the supply of PETRONAS Lubricants to Mercedes Benz Service Centres across Pakistan.

foodpanda collaborates with Climate Change Ministry to launch first e-bikes for e-commerce

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) foodpanda, one of the leading e-commerce companies in Pakistan, today became the first e-commerce player in Pakistan to launch e-bikes on its platform for delivery riders. As part of the ground-breaking initiative, which is being undertaken in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Climate Change, foodpanda handed over the first set of e-bikes to its riders in a ceremony held in Islamabad – which was attended by Malik Amin Aslam – Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change. 

The initiative reaffirms foodpanda’s pledge to work towards environmental sustainability. foodpanda has partnered with Jolta Electric to scale e-bikes on its platform and will also explore financing opportunities with different banks to support its riders.

Malik Amin Aslam, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change while speaking at the occasion said, “This partnership is geared towards fostering a culture of environmental wellbeing, in line with Prime Minister’s Clean Green Pakistan Initiative. As the number of delivery riders have significantly gone up, this is going to be the first of its kind practical action. Needless to say, it is a collective action approach and will pave the way for other players to take this as an example and follow suit.”

While sharing his views, Muntaqa Peracha, Interim CEO at foodpanda said, “Launching e-bikes is in line with our core philosophy of embedding technology into our business and aimed at defining a direction for the future. foodpanda is today a household name and has over the years become an integral part of people’s lives through its value-added offerings. This is reason enough for us to stay one step ahead and demonstrate our commitment to climate action at a time when there is a great urgency to act.”

In December last year, foodpanda and the Ministry of Climate Change pledged to work together for launching and accelerating efforts to protect the environment. foodpanda recognizes that climate change is one of our greatest challenges which requires immediate action. Partnerships like these and other initiatives are small steps in the right direction to mitigate the impact of climate change.

The ceremony was attended by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam, Muntaqa Peracha, Interim CEO foodpanda Pakistan, Hassan Arshad, Principal, Policy & Communications foodpanda Pakistan and Usman Sheikh, CEO Jolta Electric, along with other senior representatives from the companies. 

 

The Consumer Confidence Index increased to 77.0 points in Q4 2021, compared to 70.8 points in Q3 2021, translating into 8.8% q-o-q increase.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) Dun & Bradstreet Pakistan and Gallup Pakistan have issued their report on ‘Pakistan Consumer Confidence Index (CCI)’ for Q4 2021. The Consumer Confidence Index increased to 77.0 points in Q4 2021, compared to 70.8 points in Q3 2021, translating into 8.8% q-o-q increase. This improvement in sentiment is driven primarily by improvement in future expectations as respondents reported a greater increase in Future Expectations (up 13.6%) compared to Current Situation (up 2.3%) in this quarter.

During the current quarter, all CCI parameters witnessed a slight improvement while still indicating pessimism, driven primarily by increase in future expectations (up 13.6%) Q-o-Q. Overall increase primarily stemmed from improved perceptions regarding Household Savings (up 16.3%).

Unemployment continues to drag consumers’ enthusiasm and remained the most pessimistic parameter (NI = 55.3). Across all parameters, consumers were only optimistic regarding Future Financial Situation (NI = 109.3). During Q4 2021 survey, 91% consumers believed that daily essentials have continued to become expensive/very expensive in the last 6 months compared to 94% in Q3 2021.

Mr. Nauman Lakhani, Country Lead of Dun & Bradstreet in Pakistan stated, “The eighth issue of Pakistan Consumer Confidence marks the end of the calendar year 2021 and completion of two cycles of CCI. Current Consumer Confidence growth of almost 9% as compared to the sharp decline last quarter is healthy, but consumers remain in the ‘pessimistic’ zone. The slight improvement is a likely indication of normalizing demand, amidst people adapting to the ‘new normal’.”

Mr. Bilal Ijaz Gilani, Executive Director Gallup Pakistan, added, “The current quarter results show improvement in overall consumer sentiment, driven largely by improved expectation for future. Having said this, the overall sentiment remains in the negative with majority rating current and future situation of their finances to be in dire straits. Given the continued pressure of inflation, slow economic growth and disparity between small vs large and those selling to domestic vs international markets growing, the chances of sentiments improving drastically in the short term are low as well. Businesses therefore need to keep this current and short-term forecast in mind while planning for expansion.”

The CCI report has been developed by assessing Consumers’ Confidence about the economy as well as their personal financial situation. The Index covers four key parameters i.e., Household Financial Situation, Country’s Economic Condition, Unemployment, and Household Savings. The Index reflects ‘Current Situation’ (economic changes witnessed in the last six months), as well as ‘Future Expectations’ (changes expected for next six months) of consumers across the country.

The CCI ranges from 0 to 200, with 100 as the neutral value. A score of less than 100 indicates pessimism while a score of more than 100 indicates optimism.

Lahore (Nut Desk) TPL Corp, Pakistan’s leading conglomerate, invited some of the nation’s most illustrious athletes from diverse sporting backgrounds to reward them with Life Insurance. This is the first step in TPL’s collaboration with these young sportspeople to work towards the development of sports in the country. 

These individuals included Mahoor Shahzad, the Women’s Singles Champion at the 2017 Pakistan International tournament; Shehroze Kashif, the youngest climber in the world to summit K2 and Mount Everest, Hajra Khan, Captain of Pakistan Women’s National Football Team and Talha Talib, Pakistan’s first Bronze medal winner at the World Weightlifting Championship.

TPL Corp CEO, Ali Jameel stated, “I’m pleased to see young individuals making our country proud with their achievements. I would like to express my gratitude towards Mahoor Shahzad, Shehroze Kashif, Hajra Khan and Talha Talib for their contribution towards sports in Pakistan and hope to collaborate with them on making relevant sports reforms.”

During the occasion, conversations were held about the challenges that athletes face and how we can mitigate them. Additionally, Mr. Jameel promised getting personalized equipment gear for Talha Talib, imported from the UK.

Speaking about this meeting, the athletes were grateful to receive Life Insurance and hoped that this initiative could open up more opportunities for athletes to train and compete in challenging situations without the fear of any serious injury.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Infinix today launched its first premier 5G smartphone, ZERO 5G, delivering the benefits of 5G – such as higher speeds, seamless connection, faster downloads and greater coverage more accessible than ever before. The smartphone is integrated with a 6nm MediaTek’s Dimensity 900 master processor for high-performance gaming, a uni-curve design for a sleek look and feel, a 48MP AI Triple camera with 30x ultra-zoom for crisp close-ups of distant objects, a 6.78” FHD+ ultra-smooth display with 120Hz Refresh Rate and 240Hz Touch Sample Rate for lower latency and immediate responsiveness and a 5000mAh with 33W quick charge technology to power users through their entire day.

<INSERT IMAGE HERE> “Infinix is setting a strong course in today’s fast-growing marketplace and providing innovative, yet high-performance 5G technology that is more attainable to users through the new ZERO 5G smartphone,” stated Charles Ding, Deputy Product Director of Infinix Mobility. “Our innovation gives users a smartphone with better performance from a slimmer and stylish design that includes every key technology feature they are looking for in a 5G device that offers the most bang for its buck within its price range.” Accelerate Your Day Infinix is improving the user experience with 5G technology with super fast connectivity that better supports bandwidth-heavy apps such as gaming and video streaming. With the growing number of people using their smartphones for mobile gaming and streaming, 5G connectivity has become a crucial feature for smartphone devices.

The Infinix ZERO 5G is equipped with a powerful 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 900 5G chipset bringing a full-domain and full-speed 5G network experience. Its Clever 5G Mode automatically switches between link4G and 5G according to the user’s bandwidth, which can significantly improve download and gaming speed and reduce power consumption. MediaTek’s Dimensity 900 5G chipset is built on a 6nm high-performance manufacturing node and integrated with a 5G New Radio (NR) sub-6GHz modem with carrier aggregation.

The chipset is equipped with an octa-core central processing unit (CPU) consisting of two Arm Cortex-A78 processors with a clock speed of up to 2.4GHz and six Arm Cortex-A55 cores operating at up to 2GHz that deliver exceptional performance for snappier app responses, faster frames per second (FPS) for gaming and better connected experiences. With the chipset’s Arm Mali-G68 MC4 graphics processing unit (GPU) and an independent artificial intelligence (AI) processing unit (APU), power-efficiency is optimized to extend battery life even further for mobile gamers.

The ZERO 5G smartphone provides even faster and more reliable connectivity for gamers with Wi-Fi 6 and 2×2 MIMO technology that offers about 1.2Gbps connectivity speeds. Infinix takes the ZERO 5G’s connectivity solutions even further with Dual 5G SIM technology, which enables the smartphone to connect to two separate 5G SIMs, intelligently switching to the fastest network and enabling seamless internet access from both connections as needed, powering users day’s like never before on an Infinix device.

Stunning Design Language Smartphone design is heavily driven by the desire for bigger screens and more minimal yet functional features without losing the key technologies – such as camera quality, memory capacity and battery life. The ZERO 5G comes with a large 6.78” FHD+ ultra-smooth display with 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate, giving users a smooth experience and a quicker response to touch input when browsing webpages, consuming online media and playing action-packed games.

The smartphone showcases a Uni-Curve design with a softly curved back using a composite material that mimics the look and feel of glass, creating a device that is more comfortable to hold, yet premium to the touch allowing users to express their sense of style with their device. The rear contour drop camera design is integrated into the curve of the device, creating an ergonomic design that is palm friendly and a move away from traditional camera modules’ harsher right-angle positioning.

The unique design of the ZERO 5G incorporates subtle textures and colors that reflect the serenity of natural sceneries with three bold colors including: Cosmic Black to represent distant galaxies, Skylight Orange to represent the bright and energizing sun and Horizon Blue to represent the mesmerizing sky. Capture Every Moment The ZERO 5G features a crisp 48MP main camera with 30x ultra-zoom comprising of a 13MP portrait camera and 2MP virtual camera.

The 30X 48MP zoom camera allows users to capture stunningly high-quality from a great distance. Users can also capture moments that the human eye cannot normally see, with the 960 frames per second (fps) slow motion capabilities for stunning video captures.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Easypaisa, the country’s leading digital payments platform, has partnered with the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) to digitize the conventional fee collection mechanism. FBISE is a unique entity amongst the Public Sectors organizations with the potential of compatibility to meet the requirements of modern modes of financial transactions. This collaboration, which materialized due to the robust nature of both parties, will enable all fee payments related to FBISE to be paid seamlessly through the Easypaisa platform.

The Prime Minister’s ‘Digital Pakistan’ initiative is rapidly spreading to administrative ecosystems with numerous government departments and institutions shifting towards online processes, especially with respect to payments. FBISE is one of the organizations to have taken a lead in the sphere of digital Pakistan. Easypaisa has been at the forefront of consistent efforts in this regard playing a major role in developing a digital ecosystem that is beneficial for all Pakistanis. FBISE is amongst a host of other government organizations that have shifted towards online fee collection through Easypaisa through this integration, the Easypaisa platform will provide a secure and convenient medium of fee collection to FBISE that will considerably streamline the existing payment process.

Speaking at the development, Shahzad Khan, Head of Channels, Easypaisa said; “Since inception, our objective at Easypaisa has been to revolutionize Pakistan’s financial landscape where digital payments are seamless and accessible to all Pakistanis in a simple manner. Over the years, we have evolved drastically from a basic peer-to-peer money transfer service into a comprehensive infrastructure that can now serve as the enabler for individuals and businesses across Pakistan to transact digitally. This partnership with FBISE is another step towards personification of our ability to create significant value chains through the power of collaboration and technology.”

Talking about advancement, Qaisar Alam, Chairman FBISE quoted “Apart from other innovation in the process of FBISE including system based examination, online services for the students/institutions etc., FBISE has achieved another milestone by signing this agreement now students can deposit fee from home and avail hassle free online services without visiting FBISE office.”

Easypaisa has significantly increased the number of partners and scope of its services in recent times with over 250 unique billers now part of the application’s diverse portfolio. With over 10 million customers using the Easypaisa App in the last 30-days across the Android and iOS platforms, Easypaisa is the most used Pakistani App across all categories and remains committed to transforming Pakistan into a cashless and financially inclusive society.

Islamabad (Muhammad Yasir) Pakistan’s largest digital bank, Mobilink Microfinance Bank (MMBL) showcased its digital banking initiatives and women’s access to financial services at the ongoing Dubai Expo 2020. President & CEO MMBL, Ghazanfar Azzam shared MMBL’s efforts in promoting financial inclusion in an integral event at the Pakistan Pavilion, “Women of Pakistan: Leading a Change”, organized by the Employers Federation of Pakistan (EFP), an apex body of employers in Pakistan that spearheads the private sector in matters of employment, industrial relations, social and economic policy.