Drip Irrigation promises massive potential to save water

Lahore, February 04, 2019 (PPI-OT): Nestle Waters Senior Vice President and Head of Technical, Peter Hagmann, inaugurated a site near Sheikhupura under Nestle Pakistan’s Agricultural Efficiency Project. The project has the potential to help save 54 million litres of water annually. It is part of the company’s ‘Caring for Water’ initiative which undertakes collective approach to help address the water issue.

The water saving will be made possible by the installation of drip irrigation as opposed to flood irrigation which is the traditional way of irrigating fields in Pakistan. All over the world, around 70% of water is used in agriculture sector. In Pakistan, that percentage stands at 90%, with 50% wastage due to poor irrigation methods. In order to save water in agriculture and improve productivity, Nestle Pakistan has fostered partnerships with the government and farmers to promote drip irrigation.

The installation has been carried out by Nestle Pakistan in collaboration with the Government of Punjab, covering 40% and 60% of the farmer’s cost respectively. The Agricultural Efficiency Project was initiated in the year 2017 and has so far covered 109 acres of land in 2018 with an estimated 280 million litres of water saved.

At the inauguration ceremony, Peter Hagmann said, “Businesses in Pakistan need to realize the essence of being water conscious not only because of their survival but for the overall wellbeing of global ecosystems and economies. Nestle Pakistan realizes the significance of taking a collective approach and working beyond the factory gates. With partners such as farmers, government, communities, academia and civil society, Nestle Pakistan is taking collective actions to promote responsible use of water.”

Khurram Zia, Country Business Manager, Nestle Waters, while sharing his views said, “The Agricultural Efficiency Project has massive potential of saving water by taking a step out of conventional farming. Water is a shared resource requiring every stakeholder’s ownership and participation to help tackle the issue. Nestle’s vision towards water efficiency is aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6 and 12: clean water and sanitation, responsible consumption and production. Therefore, the company is devoted towards helping address the issue by encouraging all the stakeholders to be mindful of the utilization of water resources.”

For more information, contact:
Corporate Media Relations Manager
Nestle Pakistan
308 Upper Mall, P. O. Box 874, Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-35988119, +92-42-111-Nestle (637853)
Cell: +92-342-6662999
Email: aatekahahmad.mirkhan@PK.nestle.com
Website: www.nestle.pk

PTCL sponsors Nepal-Pakistan Blind Women’s Cricket Series

Islamabad, February 04, 2019 (PPI-OT): Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) is sponsoring the Nepal-Pakistan Blind Women’s Cricket Series, which is being played in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore. The matches are contested between the women’s cricket teams of Nepal and Pakistan.

This is the first ever fixture on the international calendar for Pakistan’s Blind Women cricket team. This is also the second series ever to be played worldwide in the domain of Blind Women’s International Cricket, as the first series was played between England and West Indies in 2018.

Speaking on the occasion, Moqeemul Haque, Chief Commercial Officer, PTCL, said, “I am very proud to be part of the 4th T20 match between Nepal and Pakistan Women’s Cricket teams. This is our small contribution to support gender diversity and inclusion, whereby allowing people with extraordinary abilities and passion to be part of the communities. We believe that this is a positive step giving the message of hope so that we may build a healthy and inclusive society.”

The Nepal Women Blind Cricket Team is touring Pakistan to play five T20 matches in the country from Jan 26th to Feb 4th. PTCL aspires to provide people, who have extraordinary talent and have visual challenges, with all the possible opportunities. Being a sport and a platform, cricket can bring a positive change in the social, physical and personal behaviour that leads to social inclusion.

For more information, contact:
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL)
F-8 Exchange, Nazim-Ud-Din Road F-8/1,
Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel: +92-51-111-20-20-20
Fax: +92-51-111-21-21-21
Email: shahzad.khalil@ptcl.net.pk
Website: www.ptcl.com.pk

Shazia Syed elected President of OICCI – the largest business Chamber in Pakistan based on economic contribution

Karachi, February 04, 2019 (PPI-OT): Chief Executive Officer, Unilever Pakistan Limited has taken over as the President of the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) for the 2019 term. This was announced at the 159th Annual General Meeting of the OICCI held at the Chamber on Thursday, January 31, 2019. Mr. Shahzad G. Dada, CEO Standard Chartered Bank of Pakistan, was elected unopposed as the Vice President.

The other elected members of the OICCI Managing Committee for 2019 are as follows:

1. MR. NADEEM LODHI

General Manager / Chief Executive Officer

CITIBANK N.A.

2. MR. SARIM SHEIKH

President / Chief Executive Officer

GE INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS COMPANY INC.

3. MR. IRFAN SIDDIQUI

President/ Chief Executive Officer

MEEZAN BANK LIMITED

4. MS. FREDA YAHAN DUPLAN

Managing Director

NESTLE PAKISTAN LIMITED

5. DR. IMRAN RASHEED

Chief Executive Officer

NOVARTIS PHARMA PAKISTAN LIMITED

6. MR. SAMI AHMED

Chief Executive Officer

PROCTER and GAMBLE PAKISTAN (PRIVATE) LIMITED

7. MR. HAROON RASHID

Managing Director

SHELL PAKISTAN LIMITED

8. MR. HELMUT VON STRUVE

Managing Director

SIEMENS (PAKISTAN) ENGINEERING COMPANY LTD

The Incoming OICCI President Shazia Syed in her message to the members said that she has a deep conviction that Pakistan offers considerable growth potential for existing foreign investors and opportunities for new investors. She lauded the role of OICCI for promoting Pakistan to potential foreign investors during the Chamber’s regular interaction with foreign business and governmental delegations and senior diplomats based in and outside Pakistan. Shazia also appreciated the Chamber’s focused and continuing advocacy efforts for streamlining the taxation system, giving practical policy input for increasing the efficiency of energy plants, recent initiative on women empowerment under the banner of ‘OICCI Women: Empowering for a better tomorrow’, improving the security environment, especially in Karachi, and its role in taking the Intellectual Property Rights regime in Pakistan to a higher level.

Shazia Syed is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of Unilever Pakistan Limited. She joined the Board on 1st November 2015. Prior to this, Shazia was Chairperson, Unilever Sri Lanka Limited. She has held various senior management positions across most categories at Unilever Pakistan and other markets, including Unilever Vietnam as Business Unit Leader for Personal Care. She joined Unilever as a management trainee and completed her 28th year in the organization last year.

Shazia is also the Chief Executive Officer of Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited, Director at the Pakistan Business Council, Member of the Advisory Council at the British Asian Trust and Advisory Board of the Male Champions of Change-Pakistan, Trustee at The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Foundation Pakistan and Member at the Board of Governors of the National Management Foundation. Shazia is an active advocate of diversity in the workplace and believes that enabling and facilitating working women from all backgrounds across all sectors should be every leader’s top priority.

About the OICCI: Established in 1860, the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) serves as a platform to promote foreign investment, thereby playing a major role in the growth of commerce and industry in the country. The OICCI is the collective voice of close to 200 members, representing nearly all the largest foreign investors in Pakistan, who come from 35 different countries and operate in 14 different sectors of trade and industry. In its comprehensive function as a facilitator to foreign investors, OICCI plays a vital role on several fronts and the Chamber is frequently called upon to assist the government in policy formulation in the financial, commercial and industrial sectors, particularly where it impacts foreign investment. 56 OICCI member companies are listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange. Nearly 50 Members are associates of the Global Fortune 500 companies.

OICCI members contribute, annually, over one third of the revenue collections in the country by the federal and provincial revenue authorities and invested over US$ 2.7 billion in 2017 in new capital expenditure. The CSR initiatives by its members benefit over 80 million underprivileged sections of society.

For more information, contact:
Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI)
Chamber of Commerce Building, Talpur Road, P.O. Box 4833,
Karachi – 74000, Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-32410814-5
Fax: +92-21-32427315
Email: info@oicci.org
Website: http://oicci.org/

Present government should focus special attention on inviting investments in Petroleum refining

Lahore, February 04, 2019 (PPI-OT): Present government should focus special attention on inviting investments in Petroleum refining and Petrochemicals industries so as to cut import bill and enhance exports by towing the industrially developed countries like China, Japan, Germany and USA, who have utilized the petro-chemical industry as the core building block of their economies. It has been observed by a US-based Chemical Industry Expert Syed S. Hasnain in his recent study conducted for Pakistan Chemical Manufacturers Association to assess needs of the chemical industry in Pakistan. The report finds that petroleum products and petrochemicals over last 25-30 years have continued to play a vital role in building a stronger and prosperous economies across the globe, being engine of economic growth for industrialization and rapid urbanization.

The report is confident that Pakistan can also bring industrial revolution by focusing attention on development of Chemical manufacturing industry. Despite its importance, Pakistan regretfully has inadequate refining capacity which are in poor health posing safety hazards. Besides, the country lacks any naphtha cracker for producing petrochemicals thus rely entirely on imports for meeting domestic demand. Pakistan’s import bill on petroleum products and petrochemicals runs into $12-14 billion annually as about 75% of country’s demand is met through imports. This is the largest component in Pakistan’s import bill that would continue to rise in coming years due to the demand growth and likely outage of some refining capacity amid safety issues.

After Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Saudi Arabia in October, official announcements in various sections of Pakistan media were made that Saudi Arabia has agreed in principle to make a multi-billion dollar investment to build a refinery complex at Gwadar. Since then, no tangible progress has been made in this direction nor there seems to be any clarity from the Government on developing the project framework. This situation has created some sort of uncertainty and confusion not only for the foreign investor but also for the domestic players who may be eager to capitalize on opportunities from this mega project, the report added.

Meanwhile, Secretary General and Chief Operating Officer of PCMA Iqbal Kidwai has informed that despite project importance and Government’s drive to curb imports, implicit campaign against investments in refineries were made recently arguing that such huge investments are not only detrimental to the country’s limited resources but are also not economically viable. Some of the elements have given opinion to the government that refining business has poor profitability, does not create large employments and hardly saves foreign exchange. As a result, the country should continue importing high quality petroleum products including petrochemicals rather than manufacturing them locally.

Kidwai said, these concerns against refinery investments may have been raised by certain elements who could have vested interest in seeing continuation of imports into Pakistan. Accordingly, it was suggested that investments and resources should be diverted to other industries simply because oil refineries are not great investments to be strived for. Kidwai clarified that such contention is naïve and incorrect not only from the economic standpoint but also from the strategic viewpoint.

He asserted convincingly with counter-argument that building a large and modern refinery complex is in Pakistan’s own interest as it would provide a solid industrial base and necessary infrastructure that will trigger economic activity and help in developing other allied industries and small businesses, like they were developed in China, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam where huge investments in refining and petrochemicals supported these countries in attaining prosperity and impressive economic growth.

For more information, contact:
Pakistan Chemical Manufacturers Association (PCMA)
407-Eden Heights, Jail Road, Gulberg, Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-35786867
E-mail: bds@pcma.org.pk
Website: www.pcma.org.pk

BYKEA On-board Jazz as its Business Solutions Partner

Islamabad, February 04, 2019 (PPI-OT): Jazz, Pakistan’s leading digital communications company, has signed a business agreement with ride-hailing service BYKEA. In choosing Jazz, BYKEA will now get streamlined operations for enhanced digital connectivity and efficiency.

Jazz will be providing internet connectivity to BYKEA riders, as well as the ride-hailing app’s offices throughout the country. Apart from this, Jazz will also be providing financial solutions to BYKEA in the form of an Internet Payment Gateway for the app, rider payment collection at all JazzCash agents and enablement of incentives on digital disbursements for their partners through their mobile-wallets.

BYKEA has also opted for Jazz’s Mobile Business Line solution, whereby a master number will be operational for the company. All employees will be assigned mobile extension numbers that BYKEA customers can reach without having to dial personal mobile numbers. This solution also offers automated calling times per operating hours so employees receive calls on their mobile extensions. They will have a smart operator where a telephone operator can manually forward calls to desired mobile extensions and a professionally recorded voice menu to guide the caller to relevant extensions and to share other pertinent information relevant to BYKEA.

Jazz will also be offering its Campaign Management Tool for Bulk SMS services allowing BYKEA easy to use, efficient, measurable, and cost-effective ways of broadcasting brand messages to target audiences.

“Our B2B solutions allow customers to create a digital hub – a central place where devices, software, applications, and connectivity come together to deliver platform agnostic, user-centered and relevant services,” said Faisal Sattar, VP Business Services Division – Jazz.

“We are looking forward to assisting BYKEA in further improving their operational excellence through our top of the line business solutions,” he further added.

“We’re very excited to partner with Jazz to help enhance for our partners and customers the communication and transaction experience. We believe this partnership will be a harbinger of change in the collaboration between tech startups and the telecom sector in Pakistan,” said Muneed Mayar, CEO – BYKEA.

Over the years, Jazz has established itself as a dominant business-to-business (B2B) converged solutions provider in the communications and information technology sphere and is trusted by over 25,000 companies. In terms of B2B reach, Jazz is an industry leader given its nationwide presence; dedicated round-the-clock support and responsive sales services.

For more information, contact:
Manager – Corporate Communications
Mobilink
42, Kulsum Plaza, Blue Area,
Islamabad, Pakistan
Phone +92-51-2273984, 0301 822 9546
Email: hussain.talib@mobilink.net
UAN +92-51-111300300

Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan Yearbook launch event in Karachi this week

Karachi, February 04, 2019 (PPI-OT): Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan (MUFAP) will hold its 2018 Yearbook launch in Karachi this week. MUFAP is the trade association representing Pakistan’s asset management industry which comprises of 19 Asset Management Companies managing 275 Funds (in conventional and Shariah compliant range) with total assets under management (AUMs) of PKR 579bn at end 2018.

MUFAP’s role is to deal with regulatory and government authorities to address obstacles in growth of the mutual fund industry, to ensure transparency and high ethical conduct and growth of the mutual fund industry through creating public awareness and education about mutual funds and pension schemes.

MUFAP’s Yearbook is an annual publication which contains industry data and statistics along with significant developments in the industry. The first publication was published in 2010 and over the years, the yearbook has significantly enhanced its quality and information and has established itself as a reliable source of information about the industry statistics and developments in the mutual fund and private pension industries.

Pakistan’s mutual fund industry has taken a giant leap forward over the last decade with the rising number of asset management companies, and size and number of funds. Moreover, the sector represents a strong presence of well-known financial groups, who bring professional expertise, risk management, large distribution networks and innovative product offerings putting the industry at par with its regional peers.

Investor confidence remains high on the back of superior profitability delivered in an environment of fairness and transparency, through an effective regulatory framework. The future holds tremendous potential and MUFAP remains committed to its mission of raising the professional standards of the industry, improving public awareness and advancing the interests of all the stakeholders.

For more information, contact:
Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan (MUFAP)
207-209, 2nd Floor, Kassam Court, Block – 5, Clifton, Karachi, Pakistan
Office: +92-21-35293103, +92-21-35293136, +92-21-35293137
Fax: +92-21-35293104
Email: info@mufap.com.pk
Website: http://www.mufap.com.pk

Zameen’s Parent Group EMPG raises $100 Million in Series D Funding Round

Lahore, February 04, 2019 (PPI-OT): Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG), the parent company of Zameen.com and reputed property portals in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia regions, has announced that it has successfully closed a round of investment amounting to $100 million, the largest funding round in the group’s history. EMPG’s round was led by KCK Group while eight other investors, including Exor Seeds, participated in the round.

KCK Group is an investment fund which focuses on diverse sectors including life sciences, energy and industrial technologies. Exor Seeds is affiliated with Exor, the holding company controlled by the Agnelli family. Exor is one of Europe’s leading diversified holding companies with a net asset value of over $24 billion, and a portfolio including distinguished names such as Ferrari, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Juventus FC and The Economist.

In addition to Zameen.com in Pakistan, EMPG owns and operates Bayut.com in UAE, Bproperty.com in Bangladesh, and Morocco’s Mubawab. To date, EMPG has raised a total of $160 million, making it one of the highest funded tech companies in the region. The group is present in 40 cities across the UAE, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco, Spain and Romania, with over 2,000 employees.

As EMPG’s Pakistan’s arm, Zameen.com has firmly established itself as the country’s leading real estate brand, present across 30 cities and employing upwards of 1,500 people in technology, sales, marketing and various other functions. It is also the largest home-grown tech start-up in the country.

Zeeshan Ali Khan, CEO of Zameen.com and Co-founder of EMPG, said, Zameen.com has grown from a nascent start-up to the leading property tech player in Pakistan. Along the way, we have created unmatched systems, products and technology solutions to propel the country’s real estate market, gaining global recognition. We remain committed to developing this image of Pakistan as a beacon of opportunity.

Group CEO Imran Ali Khan said the funds raised by EMPG would be used for acquisition and investment opportunities, technology development, and to further strengthen all portals’ position as top players in their respective markets. “Pakistan is an integral part of our overall business. We view the country as a growth engine in the region and will aggressively invest in Pakistan in the coming years.”

For more information, contact:
Senior Manager Communications and PR
Zameen.com
42-A, Block XX,
Khayaban-e-Iqbal, Phase III,
DHA, Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: (+92) 42 3835 4444
Cell: +92 (0) 336 450 8982
Email: shaista@zameen.com