News Update Times

Empowerment through Quality Education

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) – Along with the multiple projects to create better livelihood opportunities for the dairy farmers in different districts across Pakistan, Engro Foods Limited (EFL) has also taken up the responsibility of increasing the literacy levels in Pakistan. Over the past seven years, a Government Boys School adopted by Engro Foods in Sahiwal, has had a substantial impact on the quality of education in that region. Besides the other improvements, EFL donated desktops and equipped this school with computers and newer technologies that are now easily accessible for the students.

The Government Boys Primary School, situated in Sahiwal, was sponsored by Engro Foods Limited (EFL) in early 2011. Since then, the level of education provided at the school has improved significantly and consistently. In 2011, this school had a total number of 180 students. Due to the higher quality of this institution, this enrollment figure has grown to 480 students within a short span of only 7 years. This was achieved by making generous investments to improve the academic systems and train the faculty at the institution.

Engro Foods Limited operates with a broader vision of giving back to the community. The Chief Corporate & Regulatory Affairs Director of Engro Foods Limited—Mr. Naveed Saeed spoke about this initiative; “Engro Foods Limited is committed to nurture a more empowered Pakistan and a sustainable economy, where the industries and the people can progress more swiftly. This Literacy-Initiative will empower the youth, by helping them improve their literacy and unleash their potential for economic productivity and social compatibility to lead Pakistan towards a brighter future.”

Since EFL pursues an elaborate policy for nurturing socio-economic development of the communities it serves, over the years, it has successfully completed numerous valuable initiatives to play a vital role in accelerating the socio-economic growth of Pakistan. It believes in uplifting the society, through innovative projects that can help resolve the various issues faced by the society.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) According to the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS), more than 22 million children in Pakistan have never seen the inside of a classroom. This leaves them destined to a cycle of illiteracy, poverty and street life. Careem has decided to become a part of the solution with The Citizen’s Foundation (TCF), one of the largest not-for-profit working for low-cost formal education in Pakistan.

For the entire month of Ramzan, Careem will set up a car type for TCF, where additional Rs20 will be charged to the customer who opts for it and Careem will match the amount of the funds raised. These funds will go towards educating children from less privileged communities and enabling quality education for them.

“Careem has been a really supportive partner in TCF’s journey of making education more accessible for Pakistan’s children. With Careem’s reach in the masses, it’s a great idea to introduce this car type and bring greater awareness among people about TCF’s work. The small donation for Rs. 20 has made it easy for many more people to contribute their bit to education. TCF is reaching out to more than 200,000 less privileged children by taking schools to them in the heart of urban slums and rural communities. We are running almost 1500 purpose built schools across Pakistan. We are happy to partner with Careem and look forward to our continued collaboration for a better Pakistan,” said CEO & President of TCF Syed Asaad Ayub Ahmad.

Generosity and inclusion are among Careem’s core values. Careem partnered with TCF because of the transparent nature of the organization and faith in their core values of integrity, ownership and continuous improvement. Careem does not only wish to revolutionize the technology sector in Pakistan, it also aims to help serve the community through socially-conscious initiatives. Given that education is a pressing issue in Pakistan, it is crucial that everyone plays their part to help the cause of education.

“Careem, perhaps more than any other organization, knows that change begins with a dream. We dream of a day when the children of our country get the education they deserve. Unless we are able to address this critical situation, the country will not be able to move forward. Because education is the only answer to the tough questions we are facing today as a society. Last year we were able to raise almost PKR 2 million, this year we want to go much further. Given how generous Pakistanis are, I am hopeful that we will achieve that. We look forward to people donating generously and becoming a part of the positive social change.” said Managing Director, Careem, Junaid Iqbal.

A similar partnership between TCF and Careem last year helped raise funds last Ramzan to support education, which helped in putting more children in school and be a greater part of TCF’s education movement. Careem is committed to being more than just a service, and promises to build a better Pakistan by enabling education for all.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)  JazzCash, one of the leading mobile financial services players in Pakistan, has introduced a completely revamped Mobile App and has introduced Online Banking for its customers as well.

The Mobile App interface has been revamped based on global best practices for mobile banking, along with introducing new features aiming to provide a seamless user interface to the customers.  

The new Mobile App allows customers of any mobile network to register for their Mobile Account and access all services such as Send Money, Pay Bills, Mobile Load, Payments, Request Money, Invite Friends and QuickPay QR Payments. It also allows customers to manage their Mobile Account or Debit Card securing the customers through their four digit MPIN, Touch or Face ID on a compatible device.  Moreover, customers can now locate nearby JazzCash Agent through a GPS guided map and get to know of all the latest promotions and offers.

In addition to the new App, JazzCash has also announced launch of a comprehensive Online Banking experience for its Mobile Account customers, becoming the first branchless banking player to offer such an interface to the customers. The simplified service allows customers to instantly review their recent transactions and initiate all transactions from a single screen. The Online Banking is secured with beneficiary management allowing customers to securely and safely perform their financial transactions. Existing JazzCash Mobile Account customers can access Online Banking by visiting https://JazzCash.Online.

Speaking about the launch, Aniqa Afzal Sandhu – Chief Digital & Financial Services Officer at Jazz, said, “The new Mobile App and Online Banking is aimed at offering an even better experience to our Mobile Account customers. This is an important milestone to further scale up the use of JazzCash Mobile Account.”

The new version of JazzCash App is now available for Android users on Play Store and will also shortly emerge available for iOS users on App Store as well.

Initial launch of US$600m fund focusing on “One Belt, One Road” countries

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) – eWTP Ecosystem Fund (“the eWTP Fund”), established to enable enterprises that promote innovation and quality consumption, was unveiled in Hong Kong today. The eWTP Fund counts Alibaba Group and Ant Financial among its anchor investors, and Yu Yongfu, a member of Alibaba Partnership, has been appointed founding partner and chairman of the eWTP Fund.

As the initial fund of the eWTP Fund family, a US$600m eWTP Technology & Innovation Fund (‘the fund”) was launched today. The fund’s mission is to drive strategic investments that helps companies accelerate their international expansion and support ideas that drive life-changing technological innovations around the world, including initiatives closely related to the “One Belt, One Road” push.

“The eWTP concept started with Alibaba, but it does not stop with or belong only to Alibaba. We believe that every country, every organization, every enterprise and every individual can become builders and advocates of eWTP. Based on this, Alibaba and Ant Financial, as anchor investors to the eWTP Fund, will support eWTP and the new fund in the areas of logistics, payments and e-commerce. We welcome more partners to join the ecosystem and become part of this dream,” said Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Alibaba Group.

The eWTP Fund will facilitate the continued development of eWTP by providing diversified and targeted support for expansion-minded, entrepreneurial companies in areas such as capital raising, innovation, strategy and management.

Jack Ma added: “China is leading a new round of globalization and, with the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative, more private enterprises are needed to promote and implement eWTP. It is our hope that eWTP becomes a private sector-led initiative that will help advance the ‘One Belt One Road’ vision. As this work is of vital importance to Alibaba, we have appointed Yu Yongfu to the position of founding partner and chairman of the eWTP Fund. I believe that, with Yongfu’s vision and execution, our mission can become a reality.”

While the eWTP Fund will initially focus on making strategic investments in Belt-and-Road beneficiary countries through its eWTP Technology & Innovation Fund, it will gradually broaden its focus and expand the reach of eWTP into new areas.

“The vision of our eWTP Fund is to ‘Redefine Glocal’ by eliminating the barriers to global expansion for local entrepreneurs, and the eWTP Technology & Innovation Fund will be an important tool in driving that outcome. The fund will act as an entrepreneurial guide behind these budding entrepreneurs, attracting innovative companies and talent to be a part of the eWTP ecosystem by offering not only funds but also our prior experience, knowledge and direction in navigating the same path,” said Yu, who is also a member of the Alibaba Partnership.

In working towards this objective, the management team has been delicately prepared in three dimensions. The first dimension touches on investment professionalization, where it will establish an independent investment team to guide decisions from the perspective of the eWTP ecosystem. The team will form an incentive model to ensure strong results and sustainable development of the eWTP Fund.

Secondly, the management team will act as a conduit for open and constructive sharing of experiences from a team of leading minds across entrepreneurship, investment, Chinese market operations and internationalization. This will include Alibaba Group business leaders and founders of several successful startup companies, with future partners coming from diverse backgrounds and working together with like-minded stakeholders to support small and medium-sized enterprises in going global.

The final dimension will be developing resources to support innovative enterprises and increase access to talent and learning among companies. This will facilitate open sharing and knowledge transfer via business networks and partnerships, to help growing businesses to succeed in the globalization-driven economy, including matching them with appropriate partners and investors.

  Facility adds up to 1,180 MW to the national grid, enough power to meet the electricity needs of up to 2.4 million Pakistani homes

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)  Quaid-e-Azam Thermal Power (Private) Limited (QATPL), Harbin Electric International Company Limited (HEI) and GE Power (NYSE: GE) announced the completion of combined cycle commissioning activities and  the start of full-fledged commercial operations on May 20, 2018, 00:00 hours at the Bhikki Power Plant. The facility is now adding up to 1,180 megawatts (MW) of power to the national grid – the equivalent power needed to supply up to 2.4 million Pakistani homes.

The plant is owned by QATPL, HEI is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the project, responsible for setting up the power plant and all commissioning activities and GE has supplied two advanced HA heavy-duty gas turbines, associated equipment and technical advisory services for the facility.

“We realize that the country’s energy needs are immediate and growing and have left no stone unturned in meeting these needs,” said Mr. Akhtar Hussain, Chief Operating Officer of QATPL. “Bhikki Power Plant is expected to run for up to 30 years and will help to power homes, villages, towns and cities across Pakistan. The selection of GE’s HA gas turbines, which have helped to deliver world record levels of combined cycle efficiency, will help ensure that the power generated at Bhikki is reliable, affordable and leaves a smaller environmental footprint than average, to the benefit of millions of Pakistanis.”

GE’s HA technology has now helped to deliver two world records – one for powering the world’s most efficient combined-cycle power plant, based on achieving 63.08 percent gross efficiency at Chubu Electric Nishi-Nagoya Power Plant Block-1 in Japan and another for helping EDF’s Bouchain Power Plant achieve 62.22 percent net combined cycle efficiency in France. Furthermore, the HA can ramp up or down quickly, while still meeting emissions requirements to help maintain grid stability. It thus offers an excellent flexible complement to renewable sources as Pakistan increases the proportion of solar and wind power in the energy mix, which is intermittent in nature and can fluctuate by time of day and season.  

Mr. Li Chao, Chief Operation Officer of HEI and General Director of 1^st Power Division of HEI added, “The Bhikki Power Plant is a testament to our commitment to power Pakistan and fuel progress. Each stakeholder involved in this project went the extra mile to cooperate, promote and benefit from one another’s expertise to bring power online at an accelerated timeframe.”

Mr. Mohamad Ali, President & CEO of GE’s Gas Power Systems – Projects in the Middle East, Pakistan and India, added: “Uninterrupted, affordable power is a cornerstone of modern societies.  The successful completion of the Bhikki Power Plant will benefit communities, businesses and industries across Pakistan and lead the way in helping to secure the country’s energy future. We are honoured to support the government, our customer and the people of Pakistan in establishing this state-of-the-art facility.”

GE’s HA technology has completed off-grid, full-speed, full-load validation testing at extreme conditions well beyond those encountered while in service at the world’s largest, most thorough gas turbine test stand located at GE’s manufacturing facility in Greenville, South Carolina. The technology is the fastest growing fleet of heavy-duty gas turbines today, with more than 75 units ordered to date by over 25 customers across more than 15 countries, including the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Pakistan, Japan, Bahrain, China, France and others. More than 20 units are already operational, clocking in over 100,000 operating hours.

“We are proud to bring GE’s industry-leading HA technology to Pakistan, which will help the country save billions of rupees over the life-cycle of the Bhikki Power Plant through better fuel utilization and greater economies of scale,” said Mr. Sarim Sheikh, President & CEO of GE Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. “I congratulate the Government of Punjab and all other stakeholders involved in bringing this critical project online.”

GE’s HA technology also equips the Haveli Bahadur Shah (HBS) and Balloki power plants. Together, HBS, Bhikki and Balloki power plants are a significant component of the government’s strategy to enhance access to electricity to over 90 percent of the population and are expected to add a total of up to 3,600 MW to Pakistan’s grid.

GE has supported the development of energy, transportation and healthcare infrastructure in Pakistan for more than 50 years. Today, GE-built technologies can generate the equivalent power needed to supply up to a quarter of the country’s electricity.