Day: October 24, 2019

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Hekou District, Dongying City, Shandong Province, Boosts Investment Promotion and Talent Introduction

DONGYING, China, Oct. 24, 2019 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/– On October 10, 2019, Hekou District People’s Government and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Academician Gao Deli Team held the signing ceremony for an agreement on science and technology cooperation. The two sides will establish a research and development center for unconventional oil and gas engineering equipment and technology in Hekou, Dongying City, Shandong Province. This will further speed up the enterprise-university-research integration, and promote the healthy development of the petroleum and petrochemical equipment industry in this district.

This is just one example of Hekou’s achievements in boosting investment promotion and talent introduction. Hekou has launched innovative measures to promote investment and introduce talents, adding new growth drivers to quality economic development.

Clarifying the plan for industries. To promote investment and introduce talents, Hekou has formulated the work plan of “1+2+9” (1 general goal, 2 major tasks and 9 specific jobs) and the working system of “3+5+N” (modern finance, transport logistics, innovation and creativeness, HQ operation, comprehensive consumption; tourism and leisure, culture and entertainment, health and elderly care; etc.), focusing on Shandong’s top 10 enterprises, Dongying’s “5+2+2” and Hekou’s “3+3+3” industry system. Stressing industrial complementarity and integration, Hekou promotes investment across the whole industry chain and the value chain.

Appointing dedicated personnel to special tasks and working according to plans, Hekou has built investment promotion centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, and the investment promotion group for five leading industries consisting of dedicated personnel specializing in investment promotion.

Optimizing services for projects. Hekou has formulated the Administrative Measures of Hekou District for Boosting the Investment Promotion, decided schedules for each project, and offered project services covering a wide scope of work including the planning and demonstration, the examination and approval, the policy implementation.

SOURCE: Hekou District People’s Government

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SSGC crackdowns on hefty defaulting government owned entities

Karachi, October 24, 2019 (PPI-OT): SSGC has launched crackdown on hefty defaulting government owned entities. In Karachi, the Company disconnected gas supplies of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Sindh Government Hospital North Nazimabad, Trauma Centre of Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital and other defaulting entities.

SSGC’s Spokesperson informed that Abbasi Shaheed Hospital was continuously defaulting its current as well as past gas bills and the previous arrears had reached to significant level. On the last disconnection by SSGC, , the managements of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital submitted an undertaking in which they assured that the hospital will ensure to pay the current monthly bill along with one million rupees on monthly basis from its outstanding amount. After this undertaking the gas supply of the hospital was restored by SSGC.

SSGC’s Spokesperson also said that in contrary to this undertaking, the hospital management did not pay the amount which they had agreed; rather they used to make payments after 3-4 months according to their own comfort to offset the current bill amount, whereas the outstanding amount kept on increasing.

According to SSGC’s spokesperson, timely disconnection notices were served to the hospital management and many official meetings were also convened in this regards but there was no serious response seen from the hospital management to settle the outstanding dues. As a last resort, the gas supply of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital had to be disconnected as the arrears had amounted to alarming level.

The outstanding amounts of Sindh Government Hospital North Nazimabad and Trauma Centre of Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital also other hospitals also rose to considerable levels as due to which their gas supplies were also disconnected by SSGC. SSGC spokesperson reiterated that Company will continue to crackdown all government and private owned defaulting companies by disconnecting their gas supplies.

For more information, contact:
Chief Manager (Media Relations)
Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC)
Corporate Communication Department (Media Relations)
ST-4/B, Block 14, Sir Shah Suleman Road,
Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi
Tel: +92-21-99021773, +92-21-99021000
Fax: +92-21-99231662
Cell: +92-322-2225159
Email: inayatullah@ssgc.com.pk, info@ssgc.com.pk
Web: www.ssgc.com.pk

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CPHGC and GE announce successful completion of 1,320 MW power plant in Balochistan

Hub, October 24, 2019 (PPI-OT): In the presence of the Honourable Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Mr. Imran Khan and his Excellency Mr. Yao Jing, Ambassador to Pakistan of the People’s Republic of China, and various dignitaries, the Commercial Operations Date (COD) of the 1,320 MW China Power Hub Generation Company (Pvt.) Limited (CPHGC) Power Plant was celebrated.

Under an agreement signed in 2016, GE supplied the project’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors Northwest Electric Power Design Institute Co. Ltd. (NWEPDI) and Tianjin Electric Power Construction Company (TEPC) with two units each of supercritical steam turbines, generators and boilers for the project. Based in Hub, Balochistan, the Power Plant will help to strengthen Pakistan’s power sector.

Mr. Zhao Yonggang, CEO, CPHGC said, “We are proud to deliver this project with agile execution and completed this work in cooperation with GE on schedule and on budget. We are excited that this landmark project will play a significant role in helping Pakistan to deliver on its energy mix ambitions and help to tackle the electricity shortfall that is hindering Pakistan’s progress”.

Construction of the CPHGC Power Plant, two units of 660 MW each and a dedicated jetty, at Hub began in March 2017 in the Lasbella District of Balochistan. The CPHGC Power Plant, under a joint venture of China Power International Holding Limited (CPIH) with Pakistan’s Hub Power Company (HUBCO), is now commercially operational. It is one of the infrastructure ventures supported under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a large development megaproject that aims to connect Gwadar Port in southern Pakistan to Xinjiang, China’s north-western autonomous region, through transportation and energy networks. The project will help Pakistan diversify its energy mix, allowing a significant reduction in the cost of electricity generation in Pakistan, providing electricity to 4 million households in Pakistan

Speaking at the occasion, Massimo Gallizioli, CEO of GE Steam Power in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, said, “The successful completion of CPHGC power plant underlines the strong collaboration among GE and its partners. Together we brought the world’s best to power Pakistan – local project management with Chinese engineering expertise and GE power generation technologies that were developed by advanced research and development teams based in Europe and China.”

For more than 100 years GE has been a leader in efficient steam power technology, driving the industry from supercritical to ultra-supercritical (USC) technologies. In Pakistan, GE has supported the development of energy infrastructure for more than 50 years and today, GE-built technologies can generate the equivalent power needed to supply up to 30 percent of the country’s electricity.

For more information, contact:
GE Media Relations Manager
General Electric Pakistan (GE Pakistan)
Middle East, North Africa, Turkey
Tel: +97-144296318
Email: caroline.wehbeh@ge.com
Website: www.ge.com/pk

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FoodPanda is Now Available in Quetta

Karachi, October 24, 2019 (PPI-OT): Foodpanda, the on-demand international food delivery service, has expanded to the city of Sajji lovers, Quetta, offering its app-ordering food services in the already growing market in Pakistan. With this, foodpanda has opened up a world of exciting flavours to the residents of Quetta. On Tuesday evening, people from the restaurant industry, the media, food, lifestyle bloggers and top customers of foodpanda came together to celebrate foodpanda’s official launch in Quetta, with the city adorned with its distinctive pink color hoardings.

The residents of Quetta will now be able to order a variety of food from over 200 restaurant partners right to their homes, offices and outdoor hotspots, increasing convenience for users and providing restaurant partners with a new avenue to reach customers.

With the vision to deliver good food to people every day, Quetta, the provincial hub of Balochistan, will enjoy the renowned service standards offered by foodpanda, following many other cities of Pakistan like Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, Sialkot, Gujranwala, etc.

Aiming to deliver the best food the city has to offer to their customers no matter the craving or price range, foodpanda knows that it is not merely about eating a meal but savouring that very first bite of food with great discounts.

“We are very excited to expand our service to Quetta and deliver good food right to our customers’ doorstep, especially with our continuous up-gradation in our app and website. This is the perfect city for us to continue doing what we do the best and we look forward to partnering with more restaurants on Foodpanda,” said Nauman Sikandar Mirza, CEO, Foodpanda Pakistan.

Gracing the occasion, distinguished chief guest, Minister for Population Welfare and Food department, Government of Baluchistan, Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran said,

It’s quite heartening to see that foodpanda has chosen to expand to our province, which shows the growing status of our city as the hub of food business in the province.

While the honorable chief guest, Quetta Commissioner, Usman Ali expressed,

Linking with the famous app-ordering foodservice means that the citizen of Quetta now meet with the profile of being e-consumers, due to which services like foodpanda have started to do business here. I hope that this is first of many such services coming to Quetta.

For more information, contact:
PR Manager
FoodPanda Pakistan
(A global venture by Rocket Internet GmbH)
6th Floor, Executive Towers,
Dolmen City, Clifton Block-4,
Karachi, Pakistan
Cell: +92-333-3801187
Tel: +92-21-35297835-7
Email: info@foodpanda.pk

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SMEDA set up Help Desks in 26 business cities across the countries for extending handholding support to loan applicants of Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Program

Lahore, October 24, 2019 (PPI-OT): The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) has set up Help Desks in 26 business cities across the countries for extending handholding support to loan applicants of Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Program. Mr. Fuad Hashim Rabbani, Acting Chief Executive Officer of SMEDA, in a statement issued here today informed that SMEDA had been tasked with an advisory role in implementation of the PM Scheme. He told that the Help Desks had been opened at four provincial offices of SMEDA and 22 regional business centers at districts level, which are mostly situated at the Chambers of Commerce and Industry buildings for convenience of the people.

The Acting CEO of SMEDA said that the prospective applicants may visit SMEDA help desks during office hours from Mondays through Fridays to have information of the said scheme. Since, the scheme is meant for small and medium business, the applicants can check the information pack exclusively prepared by SMEDA for the scheme, which includes Business Plan Template, Financial Calculator, FAQs, Business Guides and Training Documentaries, he said adding that SMEDA is supporting Kamyab Jawan Scheme also through its regular activities such as training, capacity building and other handholding initiatives.

It is notable that Prime Minister’s ‘Kamyab Jawan – Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme’, for young entrepreneurs between the age group of 21 – 45 years, is designed to provide subsidized financing through the National Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Punjab and Bank of Khyber under the guidance and supervision of the State Bank of Pakistan. The loans will be disbursed to SME beneficiaries across Pakistan, covering; Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The Program aims to provide 25% of the loans to women entrepreneurs.

Loans provided through Kamyab Jawan Program are segregated in two tiers: Tier 1 loans fall in the range of Rs. 100,000 to Rs. 500,000, with Debt: Equity 90:10 and 6% markup to borrower, and, Tier 2 loans are from Rs. 500,000 to Rs. 5,000,000, with Debt: Equity 80:20 and 8% markup to borrower. Both loans are for a period of upto 8 years with a grace period of 1 year.

For more information, contact:
DGM (Admin. and PR)
Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA)
4th Floor, Building No.3, Aiwan-e-Iqbal Complex,
Egerton Road, Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-111-111-456
Fax: +92-42-36304926-7
Email: aligohar@smeda.org.pk, helpdesk@smeda.org.pk
Website: www.smeda.org.pk

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PACRA Maintains Stability Rating of Lakson Money Market Fund

Lahore, October 24, 2019 (PPI-OT): The rating reflects the fund’s very strong credit quality, robust liquidity and low exposure to interest rate volatility. At end-Jun’19, 99% of fund’s assets were placed with banks rated ‘AAA’ (~57%) and ‘AA+’ (~25%). The fund’s duration and weighted average maturity stands at 1 day as at end-Jun’19. On monthly average basis, the duration remained within the assigned parameters. The unit holding pattern of the fund is highly concentrated with top ten investors representing 89% of the fund’s assets.

Going forward, the rating remains dependent on maintaining strong credit profile and low duration. The assets of the fund must maintain minimum credit rating of ‘AA’ and above, while the duration should not exceed 45 days. Material changes in the fund’s asset allocation strategy, impacting its credit quality and/or exposure to interest rate risk, would affect the rating.

For more information, contact:
Analyst
The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency Limited (PACRA)
Awami Complex, FB1, Usman Block New Garden Town,
Lahore – Pakistan
Tel: +9242 586 9504 -6
Fax: +9242 583 0425
Email: hammad.rashid@pacra.com
Web: www.pacra.com

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Foree Gets PCI DSS Certification

Karachi, October 24, 2019 (PPI-OT): Foree announced today that it is now PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) Certified. With this, Foree becomes one of the first startups in Pakistan to get PCI DSS certified. Foree will enable every bank account, wallet, e-money account and card to be connected to an interoperable payment platform. Users will be able to pay anyone, any business however large or small, any institution be it public or private from their existing bank accounts, wallets, e-money accounts and cards.

Mehdi Hussain, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Foree, said, “Keeping our customers and users safe and delighted is our number one priority at Foree. We dedicate extensive resources to ensure all the user data and information is secure. We’ve built a company culture that reinforces trust at every opportunity.”

PCI DSS is a set of security standards designed to process, store or transmit financial transactional data securely. PCI DSS stipulates adherence to strict data encryption methodologies, network and traffic monitoring services, and defined user access privileges to stored data. Its increasing a benchmark and mandatory standard for all banks, processing centers, financial organizations and merchants working around payments.

CEO of Risk Associates (PCI Qualified Security Assessors) Dr. Aftab Rizvi stated, “Security compliance requirements are continually evolving to address ongoing security issues. Achieving compliance with the PCI DSS demonstrates Foree’s commitment to providing a secure environment for handling sensitive financial transaction data of their customers. Foree’s young and dynamic team showed great enthusiasm and professionalism throughout the certification process. It has been a pleasure working with them; we congratulate Foree on receiving the PCI DSS compliance certificate.”

The Founder and CEO of Foree, Saleem Ropani said, “Attaining PCI DSS certification is Foree’s latest effort towards our vision to deliver prosperity, and we believe this can be done by enabling easy, inter-operable and trusted payments and financial services.”

For more information, contact:
Foree (Pvt.) Limited
Email: contact@foree.co
Website: https://www.foree.co