Category: Business

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has renewed Telenor Pakistan licence at a price of $449.2 million for 15 years, with enhanced terms and conditions for coverage and quality of service. The Authority stated that Telenor Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd has signed renewed license with Pakistan Telecom Authority.

The license signing was held at the PTA Headquarter. The signing was due since 2019. Renewed license has enhanced terms and conditions for coverage and quality of service, as established during the recent Pakistan Spectrum Auction.

The license is renewed at a price of $449.2 million for 15 years, out of which Telenor Pakistan has already paid $333.64 million on account of license renewal fee and applicable mark-up.

Telenor Pakistan stated that it has signed its GSM license renewal template issued by the PTA under protest and without prejudice, said the cellular mobile company.

Despite the signing of the license after paying the fee in full, the company stated it reserves the right to continue seeking a legal resolution to its dispute with the PTA on the case. The PTA had issued a 15-year license for network operations to Telenor Pakistan in 2004, which was due for renewal on May 25th, 2019, a failure of which could impact its nationwide operations.

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Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday inaugurated the Green Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, the port city’s first mass transit system. Federal Minister for Planning and Development, Asad Umar, Governor Sindh, Imran Ismail and others accompanied the prime minister during the inaugural.

PM Imran Khan was also briefed by the operations of the mass transit system project, the city was waiting for a long.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, PM Imran Khan congratulated Javed Qureshi, Asad Umar and Imran Ismail for their vigorous efforts for the launch of the mega project.The premier said the past government did nothing for the development of Karachi and we saw the megacity being destroyed with our own eyes.

He said that Karachi is the growth engine of Pakistan and upliftment of the city means upliftment of Pakistan. The prime minister said the Green Line Bus project will be fully functional by the mid of January.Giving the example of Tehran, PM Imran Khan said Karachi cannot be transformed into a modern city until the removal of administrative flaws.

“Despite international sanctions, Tehran is a modern city,” he added.

Commenting on the water issue of Karachi, the premier said, he is personally monitoring the K4 project. He asked the Sindh government to reconsider their decision on the Bundal Island as the development on the island will ultimately benefit the province.

PM to inaugurate Sukkur-Hyd Motorway in 2 to 3 months: Umar 

Speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar said the incumbent federal government will continue to uplift Sindh province especially Karachi as it is the economic hub of the country.

He ruled out the claims of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz about completing the infrastructure of the Green Line Bus project and added that PML-N gave no mega projects to Karachi.

He also criticized Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and asked what Sindh’s ruling party has done for the province including Karachi from the past 13 years.

Umar announced that PM Imran Khan will inaugurate Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway in upcoming 2 to 3 months.

The route and stations

The bus service will start from KESC Powerhouse Chowrangi in Surjani Town and terminate at Municipal park after passing through Nagan Chowrangi, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad and Gurumandir, with 25 stations along its route. The bus service will cater to 135,000 passengers on a daily basis.

The 80 buses will be operated by 200 drivers who have completed their training. Around 22 stations between Surjani Town and Numaish Chowrangi have been completed. Another three stations to extend the service to Municipal Park are yet to be constructed.

The government has yet to announce the ticket prices for the Green Line BRT project. However, according to experts, the government will set Rs15 minimum and Rs55 maximum prices for bus service.

The Green Line project

Karachi’s Green Line BRT project with intersections is 22 km long which includes 12.7 km elevated, 10.9 km at grade, and 422 meters underground, and has 25 stations.

The phase-II common corridor from Gurumandir up to Municipal Park with a length of 2.5 km has two underpasses at M.A Jinnah Road.

The state-of-art underground bus terminal with a parking facility and the commercial mezzanine floor was also constructed at Numaish intersection.

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Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)

TECNO has finally launched the most anticipated and its first-ever Gimbal Camera phone in Pakistan. The newly launched Camon 18 series consists of three phones, Camon 18 Premier, Camon 18P, and Camon 18t. The phones are available in both online and offline markets for sale.

The premium device from the series, Camon 18 Premier, comes at the price of PKR 55,999. It is equipped with the Gimbal Camera, 60x Hyper Zoom, a 120Hz AMOLED Display, 32MP front & 64MP back camera, 8+256GB Storage, and the G96 Processor.

The Camon 18P is embedded with some outstanding features for its price of PKR 34,999 including a G96 Processor, 8+128GB storage, 16MP front & 48MP back camera, and a 120Hz FHD display. Whereas the last phone from the series, Camon 18t, is priced at only PKR 28,999 and comes with 48MP cameras for both front and back, along with G85 Processor, 4+128GB storage, and a 1080 FHD display.

The CEO of TECNO Mobile Pakistan, Kelvin Zeng, expressed immense joy on the occasion,

“We are really happy to launch our first-ever Gimbal Camera Phone in Pakistan. Camon 18 Premier is going to be the game-changer for professional videographers with its steadiest and smoothest captures. The series is fully equipped with brilliant camera lenses and technology to provide a professional experience to the user. As TECNO aims to bring the best for its consumers, we look forward to a positive response from the local consumers”.

The phones will be available in various colors; Camon 18 premier comes in Ocean Moonlight and Summer Breeze. Whereas, Camon 18P and Camon 18t will be available in Dusk Grey, Iris Purple, and Ceramic White. So hurry and get your best camera phones asap!

For more, follow TECNO’s official website and social media pages.

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Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Huawei Consumer Business Group (BG) has recently launched a router product in their AX Series – HUAWEI WiFi AX2. It is the new smart router which supports Wi-Fi 6 technology and is an addition in the HUAWEI WiFi AX Series for home users.

The HUAWEI WiFi AX2 Wi-Fi 6 Smart Router supports significantly improved throughput and capacity to provide smoother HD video streaming, more responsive online gaming experiences and more.

Featuring HarmonyOS Mesh+, it lets users easily connect multiple units of HUAWEI WiFi AX2 for better Wi-Fi coverage at home. The Super Seamless Roaming feature ensures low-latency roaming for an uninterrupted Wi-Fi experience. Besides better Wi-Fi speed and coverage, the new router is also compatible with the HUAWEI AI Life app, with which users have access to a wide array of smart tools for managing their home networks. It also comes with Huawei HomeSec™ which helps safeguard user data privacy and ensure only users with access rights are granted Internet connectivity.

The HUAWEI WiFi AX2 will arrive soon in stores nationwide to attract the users with its amazing performance and fast paced coverage.

About Huawei Consumer BG
Huawei’s products and services are available in more than 170 countries and are used by a third of the world’s population. Fourteen R&D centres have been set up in countries around the world, including Germany, Sweden, Russia, India and China. Huawei Consumer BG is one of Huawei’s three business units and covers smartphones, PC and tablets, wearables and cloud services, etc. Huawei’s global network is built on over 30 years of expertise in the telecom industry and is dedicated to delivering the latest technological advances to consumers around the world.

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Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)

In continuation of its efforts to improve and simplify customer experience, Easypaisa, Pakistan’s No.1 Payments App has added new features into its Money Transfer product.

Based on extensive user research, a completely new interface provides brand new and convenient user journeys for Easypaisa users to continue to send and receive funds to other Easypaisa customers, any Bank Account or to any person’s CNIC.

The feature to send money to a person’s CNIC is one of Easypaisa’s most used services and provides immense value to customers who need to send up to PKR 25,000 urgently to almost any location in Pakistan. With the largest agent network of over 150,000 Easypaisa shops, receivers can receive funds instantly and securely after completing a biometric verification.

In this revamp, customers have now been given an industry first feature of being able to view all Money Transfers sent on CNICs, view the real-time status of those payments (if they are pending or collected) and also the ability to perform an edit of the CNIC number or an instant reversal without the hassle of calling the Easypaisa helpline.

Commenting on the development, Omar Moeen Malik, Business Head, Easypaisa, said; “The wide scale acceptability and adoption of digital channels is crucial for a transition towards a modern, sustainable economy. At Easypaisa, we are paying attention to even the smallest details so that user experience within the App can be enhanced. Our eventual goal is to create an overall ecosystem for digital payments that is secure, convenient and easy for all Pakistanis”.

Ever since Easypaisa launched a completely redesigned mobile app in 2019, the platform has continued its drive towards introducing state-of-the-art and diverse payment features for the convenience of its users. With multiple product offerings, there are almost 10 million monthly App users across the Android and iOS platforms. Easypaisa remains committed to transforming Pakistan into a cashless and financially inclusive society by creating value through the power of collaboration and technology.

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Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)

TCL and Peshawar Zalmi continue their partnership for the fifth consecutive year. TCL announced as Peshawar Zalmi’s Official TV Partner for PSL 7.

TCL becomes Peshawar Zalmi’s Official TV Partner for the upcoming Pakistan Super League Season 7. Mr Nausherwan Effandi, CCO Peshawar Zalmi presented a “5 Years of Partnership” shirt on the occasion to Mr. Majid Niazi, Head of Marketing TCL Pakistan. 

Peshawar Zalmi & Zalmi Foundation Chairman, Mr. Javed Afridi expressed his pleasure on twitter announcing the 5 years of partnership milestone.

Miss Sunny Yang, GM TCL Electronics Pakistan said “We are excited about the renewal of our partnership with Peshawar Zalmi for the 5th consecutive year. We will continue to play our part in the promotion of sports in Pakistan and as a brand that is a promoter of sports and talent all around the globe, we will keep on extending our support to the team for promoting cricket and young talent”

Head of Marketing TCL Pakistan,  Mr. Majid Niazi hinted towards another successful season with Peshawar Zalmi. He quoted “Our collaboration with Peshawar Zalmi has been a very positive experience for our brand and a fantastic opportunity to explore sports marketing, its our 5th year with Peshawar Zalmi and we plan to take this partnership to much larger scale. As PSL 2022 will happen in Pakistan we are very excited about all the opportunities this will provide to both our brands to connect with our customers. “

Mr. Nausherwan Effandi, CCO Peshawar Zalmi presented the “5 Years of Partnership” shirt to Mr. Majid Niazi on the ocassion of agreement of partnership renewal with TCL.  Mr. Nausherwan added “ TCL are great partners to work with and the fans are also looking forward to our partnership and what we achieve this year. We have already launched Zalmi TV together and worked on a VR App with Peshawar Zalmi players simulations for fan engagement. We are entering into the fifth year of partnership going into PSL 7 which reflects the level of comfort and trust both brands have built over the years. ”

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Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)

Befiler recently won a grant for a digital experiment from Karandaaz Pakistan, a not-for-profit funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Befiler participated in the recent round of Karandaaz’s Digital Experiment Program, and won the grant through a competitive application process. The grant will support Befiler’s vision of promoting tax compliance in Pakistan through digitalization of tax filing process; specifically encouraging women’s participation in financial and tax matters.

The grant will be specifically utilized for promoting tax filing among working women so that they could digitally file their tax returns and handle other business thereby. This will decrease women’s reliance on male family members for in-person meetings with consultants for legal and tax matters.

For Pakistan, embracing digital financial services remains a challenge. The gap is especially wide as only 7% of women in Pakistan are financially included compared to 20% of men. However, Befiler’s user stats reveal that although female users are only 5% of total users, their conversion rate from sign up on Befiler to successful tax filing is more than double compared to male counterparts. This demonstrates that women are more serious about financial and tax matters in comparison to males. Through this grant, Befiler plans to test out interventions specially designed to encourage more women to become active tax filers through Befiler’s user friendly mobile app and outcomes of communication using A/B testing. The lessons learned through the experiment will be widely disseminated for diffusion and uptake to push the entire ecosystem forward.

Akbar Tejani, CEO Befiler Pakistan expressed, “Befiler aims to directly target women for tax filing in hopes to have a higher involvement from them in finance and tax matters. Through this exercise, we hope to give rise to opportunities to women to experience focused and directed marketing encouraging them to engage in tax filing process. This will help in moving past the stereotype that the financial and tax matters are to be led by men in their families. Our alliance with Karandaaz Pakistan is directed towards the execution of strategies to support women empowerment through focused targeting, and facilitation.”

Waqas ul Hasan, CEO Karandaaz Pakistan said, “Karandaaz is pleased to join hands with Befiler, the pioneer of the digital tax filing platform in Pakistan focusing on introducing women to the use of technology for the tax filing process. Through the Digital Experiments Program, Karandaaz is supporting businesses to research on and understand the gaps in the market with respect to uptake and usage of digital financial services. The objective of the program is to support digital financial service providers test out different hypotheses on a real consumer base and compare results of different versions to identify the sweet spot for successful interventions. We hope that the experiment by Befiler will help in determining possibilities for increasing tax filing among women leading to further self-sufficiency and empowerment. We are grateful to our sponsors UK’s FCDO and BMGF whose funding is helping us support such initiatives that make digitalization a common norm, providing footmarks for future ideas.”

The economy of Pakistan is undergoing a change in terms of increased women owned businesses and the need for women-specific tax training products is becoming imperative. The digital experiment of Befiler will start by creating user samples and as part of the first phase of the experiment, Befiler will roll out a new app interface to specifically engage women through in-app content and communication. In the second phase efficiency of incentive versus fear based communication will be tested. Through this experiment, Befiler looks forward to set a new way ahead for women to be addressed as a target group for tax and financial products.

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Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Zong 4G, Pakistan’s digital leader, has launched the ‘Multan Dhamaal Offer’ to better serve its clients in underserved areas. The offer exemplifies Zong’s proactive customer-centric attitude, which has helped it become Pakistan’s leading network.

Residents of Multan will be able to get 5 GB of Internet, 1,000 On-Net Minutes, 30 Off-Net Minutes, and 1,000 SMS for just PKR 80 per week through the Multan Dhamaal Offer.

Zong subscribers in Multan can take advantage of the deal by dialing *9900# or visiting a Zong franchise near them. The My Zong App can also be used to subscribe to the offer. Users on other networks can change their numbers to Zong by calling the helpdesk at 0314-3334455 or visiting a store or Zong franchise near them.

Zong’s official spokesperson stated, “We have led the market in introducing products and services that are based on the ever-evolving customer needs. It is our customers’ trust in us that has propelled us to the forefront of digital change in the country.”

“We proactively work for the digital enablement of Pakistanis across the country, shaping and supporting their digital lifestyles,” the spokesperson added.

Zong has also offered unique offers for Bahawalpur, Nowshera, Attock, Kamra, Hazro, and Bannu, in addition to the Multan Dhamaal Offer. In addition, the company has introduced a slew of incredible international roaming deals, allowing thousands of Pakistanis to stay in touch with their loved ones when travelling overseas.

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Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)

To check sale of unregistered, unapproved and counterfeit seed, the Federal Seed Certification & Research Department (FSC&RD) has notified amendments in the Seed (Business Regulations) Rules 2016, asking the seed companies to establish a tracking system to enable growers to verify whether the seed in bag or a container that grower has acquired is of approved variety and duly certified.

For that purpose, the FSC&RD may issue binding directions or orders to any of the seed producing or importing companies to install, construct, establish or maintain such facilities or to follow such procedures for packing or lablelling as may be required by the FSC&RD, in its direction, to establish such a tracking system.

Welcoming this condition raised by the newly-notified amendment rules, stakeholders said it will effectively stop the sale of counterfeit seed sale. However, they said that the tracking system should be developed after industry consultation.

The demand was raised in a presentation to journalists at the seminar on “modern tools for sustainable agriculture” arranged recently by the CropLife Pakistan. Speakers urged the government to consult the seed industry and other stakeholders to make these rules more effective, developing a convincing seed tracking process and ensure local seed production to boost Pakistan’s agriculture.

Tallal Hakeem, member seed committee of the CropLife, while speaking on the amendments said stakeholders should also be consulted on amendment, which requires establishment and implementation of tracking system including a digital printing facility located in his premises but linked with a central database maintained by FSC&RD to enable traceability and verification of seed produced or offered to the farmers through a unique algorithmic label or a scratchable card, which could be affixed on or put inside each seed bag or container.

He further said amendments required that every importing company shall produce at least 10 percent of seed of its imported varieties locally per year reaching a target of 50 percent by fifth year.

He said this is binding on import only companies too against the import only principle. In his opinion all hybrid/varieties cannot be produced locally, germplasm security is a major challenge in this regard.

“Stakeholders think that local cost of production of seeds will be more than international due to economy of scales while setting up of infrastructure in this regard requires time and cost,” Tallal added.

He appreciated the mechanism introduced by the government i.e., signing of a performance contract with the FSC&RD, which lists down the performance obligations of the seed business company including the requirement of submission of a performance bond by the applicant and provides that the forfeiture of performance bond due to default on the part of seed business company shall result in immediate cancellation of registration.

He said it will help control the mushroom growth of seed companies and only genuine companies will remain in the field. However, he demanded that representatives of the seed companies should also be taken Seed Business Registration Committee on board.

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