News Update Times

OICCI announces ‘Pakistan Climate Conference 2022’ to support positive climate actions in Pakistan

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir)  The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI), the collective voice of top foreign investors in Pakistan, revealed its plan to organize the ‘Pakistan Climate Conference 2022’ on 16 March 2022 in Karachi.

While announcing the date and unveiling the logo of the Conference, Mr. Ghias Khan, President OICCI, mentioned “The Pakistan Climate Conference will build on learnings from COP 26 to identify and implement efforts needed to promote positive climate actions and reduce climate change impact in Pakistan. The event will bring together global climate experts, policy makers and corporate decision-makers to share learnings and best practices to help Pakistan develop necessary policy and climate interventions.”

The Pakistan Climate Conference aims to start dialog on several critical areas to support Pakistan’s achievement of the Nationally Determined Commitments (NDC) made at COP26. This commitment aims to cut 50% of projected emissions and achieve 60% renewable energy by 2030. In addition, Pakistan has set the vision to work on clean transport, with 30% electric vehicles by 2030 and trusting and investing in nature.

Pakistan has a long way to go to demonstrate progress against its ambitious Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs). The Pakistan Climate Conference aims to start dialogue on several critical areas that can help with policy direction and provide the best practices needed for the country to speed up its climate positive journey.

Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser to PM on Commerce and Investment stated, “Climate change has an economic impact as well. I am confident that the Pakistan Climate Conference will lay the foundation for an action plan that will help Pakistan meet its global climate commitments and ensure the sustainability of its economy.”

Mr. Amir Paracha, Vice President, OICCI, highlighted, “The Pakistan Climate Conference is being organized in a hybrid format, with speakers and participants joining physically and virtually. The Conference will provide best practices and a roadmap on areas such as reducing emissions and renewable energy, reducing waste, ensuring fair usage of water and better monitoring of positive climate actions.”

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) Samrah Enterprises, the leading distribution company representing many international brands in Pakistan, has lived up to its name and has brought top American brands to Pakistan, in facilitation with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). A simple yet impressive ceremony, held at Greenvalley Diplomatic Enclave Islamabad, was graced by Mr. Christopher Rittgers, USDA Agricultural Counselor, US Embassy Islamabad, Mr. John Coronado, Commercial Counselor U.S. Mission to Pakistan, Mr. Rashid Yaqoob Raja, Agricultural Marketing Specialist, U.S. Embassy Islamabad, along with Mrs Samrah Munsub, Founder Samrah Enterprises, and Munsub Abrar, Director Naheed Supermarket.

The new brands introduced at the ceremony, including the famous food brands Midamar Halal meat, Freshly, and Mission Foods, in The addition to Andalou Naturals in the Health & Beauty segment.

Expressing her joy, Samrah Munsub, the Founder and Director Samrah Enterprises, said “House of Samrah is known for introducing quality products, from all over the world, and today we are here to introduce top brands from the United States of America, which also includes our entry to the beauty segment, in addition to the Food products” Referring to the Andalou Naturals a wide range of organic beauty products. “We are thankful to the USDA for facilitating the whole process and making this launch possible”.

Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Rashid Yaqoob Raja, representing USDA, U.S. Embassy Islamabad said, “We came together with Samrah Enterprises to bring the top American brands to Pakistan. It will be available through E-commerce, as well as in selected stores throughout the country”.

The America Pakistan Business Development Forum, led by Syed Nasser Wajahat Co-Founder Global Secretary General AMPAK BDF, and Muhammad Aman Pir, President Diplomatic and political affairs AMPAK BDF, also attended the ceremony to extend their support to the launch of American products.

The attendees were presented with mouthwatering Wraps by Mission Foods, quality meat products of Midamar Halal Foods, and Freshly products, loved and praised by all.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) as part of its climate focus and building upon its ambition to create a greener and more sustainable environment, Telenor Pakistan celebrated the World Wetlands Day 2022 by conducting a clean-up drive at the Islamabad Kinara Park. The symbolic activity was organized in collaboration with the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board and the World Wild Fund for Nature Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan), to create awareness on the protection of wetlands. The event was attended by volunteers and senior leadership from Telenor Pakistan.

World Wetlands Day is celebrated each year inFebruary to raise awareness about wetlands and their conservation. This is the first year that World Wetlands Day was observed as a United Nations International Day, following its adoption by the General Assembly last year, in a resolution co-sponsored by 75 member states. Almost 90% of the wetlands on our planet have been severely damaged and are degrading three times faster than forests. Wetlands remain a fundamentally important part of natural ecosystems, contributing to biodiversity, climate mitigation and adaptation, freshwater availability and world economies. To achieve net-zero emissions these ecosystems need to be protected and restoration efforts scaled up. Telenor Pakistan believes that raising awareness about wetlands is an important element of environment sustainability and needs awareness and action towards conservation and restoration.

Present on the occasion, Telenor Pakistan’s Chief Executive Officer Irfan Wahab Khan commented, “As part of Telenor’s 2030 climate agenda, we’re committed to not only minimising our impact on the environment, but also inspiring others, individuals and organisations alike, to join the cause. The phenomena of global warming is not new to any of us, but taking action requires all of us to step in and play our part. Healthy wetlands ecosystems provide livelihoods for one billion people globally and by proactively working towards the protection and restoration of wetlands, we can safeguard societies relying on the services and livelihood that these waterways provide. The Decade for Ecosystem Restoration calls for a united front on reducing global warming by 1.5 degrees, and I hope observation of days dedicated to environment restoration and conservation may prove to be the catalyst we all need to better manage, conserve and restore natural ecosystems.”

Also present at the clean-up drive,Rab Nawaz, Senior Director Biodiversity and Conservation, WWF-Pakistancommented, “Through conservation and restoration, we can not only improve the livelihoods of the people that rely on wetlands, but also preserve wetland ecosystem services, which include nature-based solutions to climate change mitigation. Serving as rich carbon sinks, coastal and inland wetlands have the potential to reduce the annual increase of CO2 in the atmosphere.”

The International Trade Administration estimates that close to 50 million tons of solid waste are generated every year in Pakistan, making urban waste management a major challenge. It is also common practice throughout the country to burn and dump harmful waste openly, which ends up in natural water bodies and threatens local biodiversity.

Hysab Kytab’s Personal Financial Management (PFM) solution enables hyper-personalization of banks’ engagement with their customers through integrating smart money management tool in the digital banking experience.

Temenos Exchange will provide Hysab Kytab a platform to scale via offering pre-integrated solution to 3000+ Temenos customers.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) Hysab Kytab, a leading provider of financial management solutions today announced that Hysab Kytab’s White Labelled PFM solution is now available on Temenos Exchange, the open marketplace for fintech solutions.

The Hysab Kytab PFM’s out of the box integration with Temenos Infinity is aimed at offering banks the ablity to understand their customers financial dreams and identify non-intrusive cross-selling/up-selling opportunities for new revenue streams through hyper-personalization. With Hysab Kytab as an integral part of Temenos Infinity solution, banks’ customers will be able to  gain 360-degree view of their finances putting them in the driving seats of their financial wellbeing by helping them make informed financial decisions.

Temenos Exchange brings open innovation to market faster, and at scale. The marketplace offers pre-integrated and approved fintech solutions that can be easily deployed on top of Temenos open platform, enabling banks to accelerate the creation of new financial services, while reducing the costs of development.

Temenos Exchange acts as an accelerator for fintechs and software developers, helping them develop, validate and monetize new banking solutions. Joining Temenos Exchange means Hysab Kytab can write once and sell its solution across a vast banking audience of more than 3,000 clients in 150 countries. Collectively, this community serves the banking needs of 1.2 billion people worldwide.

‘’It is increasingly becoming important for Fintechs to collaborate with organizations that can extend their reach and improve their technical expertise. I believe this integration with Temenos will enable Hysab Kytab to scale by boosting its current reach in previously untapped markets, including millennials and tech savvy customers. This kind of collaboration will also help fintech industry as a whole to work collectively for the common goal of boosting digital financial inclusion of customers.” said Mohammad Yasir Ilyas, Head of Hysab Kytab.

“Hysab Kytab participation in Temenos Exchange further extends our commitment to the banking community and enables Temenos customers to easily reap the benefits of Hysab Kytab’s PFM solution. We look forward to leveraging the power of the Temenos platform to help us achieve our business goals.”

“This collaboration is aimed at providing the best value for money and helping  banks build a deeper relationship with their customers by understanding and meeting their evolving financial needs,” added Mohammad Yasir Ilyas.

 

Lahore (NUT DESK)

The immensely growing global smartphone brand, TECNO is collaborating with Discover Pakistan to explore the beauty of Pakistan. This collaboration focuses on supporting tourism in Pakistan while using the latest camera phone, Camon 18 premier.

The main objective of this project will be to support tourism and discover the beautiful places of Pakistan. TECNO will digitally sponsor the segment “Madventure” of Discover Pakistan which is based on an adventure exploration tour to any part of the country.

The host will be using TECNO Camon 18 Premier for these adventures using the Gimbal Camera, 60xZoom, and Main 64MP “Clear shot all-round” features of the phone. This will be a guiding tour for TECNO Fans to help them capture moments in a travelogue using the Camon 18 premier.

Kelvin Zeng, CEO of TECNO Mobile Pakistan shared his views,

“Pakistan has a large scope for tourism with such amazing places to visit. This venture with Discover Pakistan will be our small gesture towards promoting the tourism culture in the country and to inspire TECNO users to capture the beautiful landscapes using Camon phone. Features like the Gimbal Technology and the 60x Hyper Zoom of Camon 18 Premier will surely be a boost for your photography and videography experience.”

The destinations for these ventures have yet not been revealed by TECNO but will soon be disclosed on TECNO’s official Facebook page. It is anticipated to be a trip from the North to the South with much thrill and fun.

For more, visit the official social media pages for TECNO Mobile.

 

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Taking its purpose of empowering societies another step into the future, Telenor Pakistan is pleased to have hosted at its 345 campus, a delegation of Blockchain experts from the BSV Blockchain Association. The purpose of the visit was to discuss the possibilities of future collaboration in technologies that can empower every segment of society, through the potential of Blockchain.

The BSV Blockchain Association is a Swiss non-profit organization that promotes the education and adoption of Blockchain in government and enterprise sectors. The delegation was led by Founding President of the BSV Association, Mr. James Nguyen, who expressed the organisation’s interest in funding several Blockchain initiatives in Pakistan, based on creating awareness and training programs for decision makers in government sectors; advisory in formulating the nation’s ‘National Blockchain Strategy’; legal consultancy in formulating the regulatory framework for digital assets; implementation of Blockchain in a government entity; knowledge partnership and bootcamps with academia to produce Blockchain technology specialists.

Commenting on the occasion of the delegation’s visit, Irfan Wahab Khan CEO Telenor Pakistan stated, “In our position as an innovative and technologically driven, global entity, we are pleased to have hosted the esteemed delegation of Blockchain experts at Telenor 345 campus. We grow by learning and it is always promising to collaborate with experts in innovative fields, while building bridges to enable collaboration and fortify the economy. This opportunity and possibilities of Blockchain is bound to have a socioeconomic impact in the years to come, and we look forward to stepping into Digital Pakistan, with high hopes and positive impact.”

While still at an early stage, Blockchain technology holds the potential to enable decentralised and secure storage and transfer of information. Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) are increasingly replacing companies’ traditional modus operandi in almost every sector, ranging from energy, shipping, all the way to media. An example of Blockchain in everyday use can be making micropayments to consume entertainment. Large-scale Blockchain implementation in Pakistan would result in minimum friction, significant increase in consumer trust, and most importantly, empowered, connected people with a shared vision of a prosperous, Digital Pakistan.