Karachi,: Coca-Cola and WWF Pakistan’s partnership on improving sub-watershed management and creating environmental awareness in Ayubia National Park has delivered exceptional results in its first year. The main aim of the project is to initiate environmental conservation activities and create awareness about protecting our natural habitat.

Expressing his views about the project Rizwan U. Khan, Country Manager, Pakistan & Afghanistan, The Coca-Cola Export Corporation said that Coca-Cola is supporting this long-term project that deserves special mention. “Pakistan is a water-stressed country, a situation which is going to worsen in the coming years. Coca-Cola strives to create sustainable partnerships and therefore have partnered with WWF Pakistan for this unique project to improve sub-watershed management and environmental awareness in Ayubia National Park and surrounding villages”.

The project has progressed by improving the availability of water to the communities through watershed management. Approximately 15,000 tube plants have already been raised for forest nurseries. To stop soil erosion, the project has built check dams and treated several hectares of landslides. More than 15.25 hectares have been covered by plantation of indigenous species of trees and more than 775 fruit trees have been planted. A clean drinking water filtration plant for the local community is also fully operational.

Ali Hassan Habib, Director General, WWF-Pakistan said, “It has been 16 months since Coca-Cola and WWF-Pakistan embarked on this journey to conserve the environment. A rigorous amount of work has been performed to protect the resources of this particular area while developing habits to conserve nature. However, there is still is a long way to go and I hope more people will join us in this environmental cause”.

In the second phase, the project will construct 70 rain water harvesting structures, provide more solar powered ovens to reduce dependency on fuel wood and plant further 10,000 trees in the area.

Lahore: – Shan Foods is a leading food products company in Pakistan, exporting massive volumes of high quality spices, pickles, desserts and Aged-Basmati Rice to Europe, USA, Middle East and other quality conscious markets. Recently, Shan foods organized a promotional drive in which Cooking Competitions were held in several renowned Girls Colleges throughout Lahore.

This campaign focused on promoting the recently launched Shan Oriental-Recipe Range.
Shan Foods managerial staff visited various colleges around town to promote the Oriental Recipe products among young college girls. At these colleges, they organized live cooking demos, arranged with a theme of cooking competitions, where the participants were given opportunities to cook and decorate dishes using the Oriental Recipes. The participants were judged by a highly experienced chef, invited from the College of Tourism & Hotel Management (COTHM), Lahore. At the end of each competition, the winners were presented with souvenirs from Shan Foods.

Mr. Dawar Ali Khan, Brand Manager at Shan Foods, present during the event said, “The Oriental recipes launched by Shan are rapidly gaining popularity among the Pakistani consumers, with their authentic taste and high quality. This campaign was not only aimed at developing cooking skills but also to educate that Shan Foods looks for perfection at all aspects of production to provide ultimate food experience to its consumers. Over the past 3 decades, the “JUST PERFECT” quality of Shan Food products and our Research Approach have received great appreciation from consumers in over 56 countries around the globe”.

During the entire campaign, the Jang group gave media coverage to these exciting activities. Shan’s Oriental Recipes received great admiration from thousands of participants, while the competent judge expressed his positive remarks about the taste and health, and convenience benefits of Shan’s Oriental Recipes. Shan foods’ commitment to create “JUST PERFECT” authentic tastes in Pakistani dishes and Oriental foods was appreciated by the college students.

KARACHI: The exporters of textile sector should introduce more and more branding in the value added products for export in the international market. Federal Advisor on Textile, Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig at a launching ceremony of value added product said on Thursday, “There is a strong need to have branded products to increase our exports and market share in the international market”.

ISLAMABAD: MCB Mobile, a mobile payments service launched by MCB in July 2009, crossed a billion rupees in payments with over half million transactions in a short span of time. Qasif Shahid, Head of Remote Banking at MCB said, “In today’s dynamic environment where time equates money, MCB Mobile provides immense transactional convenience. Our customers enjoy the comforts of making payments, re-charging mobile phone balance, paying utility bills and managing their banking relationships in a quick, easy and secure manner not just for themselves but for their loved ones as well.”

KARACHI: Cellular phone subscribers’ base has witnessed a significant contraction by 2.22 percent in January as the result of ongoing correction process in the sector. The Pakistan Telecomm-unication Authority’s (PTA) latest statistics has shown decline of 2.17 million users in the overall sector, which has reduced the teledensity of the country by 1.4 percent to 58.20 percent by the end of January. The number of total subscribers now stands at 95.4 million in the country after reducing from 97.57 million in a month. For the first time, the number of cellular phone connections has witnessed a negative growth in the current fiscal year 2009-10. Since the beginning of the current fiscal year 2009-10, the cellular phone sector has been going on the modest growth track as the competition has saturated the market of telephony service. The cellular phone growth witnessed more than one percent growth only in July 2009 by 1.28 percent. Telecom experts forecast this negative growth to continue in the coming months owing to the correction process of the sector launched in October 2009 by PTA. Since the launch of new SIM Information System-668, a large number of SIMs were found unregistered on Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) and cellular phone operators had to be involved in this campaign to block unwanted or extra SIMs and reissue them to the existing users by rectifying subscribers’ data. Officials of the cellular phone companies said that operators were endeavoring to retain their subscribers by rectifying data of non-users and users in order to avoid losing customers, however, a substantial number of customers did prefer to buy new SIMs or use other SIMs rather than standing in the long queues for rectification of data. muhammad yasir

LAHORE : Warid Telecom (Pvt) Ltd, the country's most trusted and fastest growing cellular operator, announced that its Board of Directors have appointed Muneer Farooqui as company's new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Prior to the appointment he served as Chief Executive Officer of Warid Bangladesh.

He has with him almost 20 years of experience mainly in Telecom Industry of Pakistan and abroad. Commenting on the appointment of the new Chief Executive, Bashir A Tahir, CEO Warid International said "We are pleased to appoint Muneer Farooqui as Warid Telecom's new Chief Executive Officer. He is a talented and seasoned professional and his unparalleled leadership expertise and extensive experience will enable Warid Pakistan to reach new heights. We have some great expansion plans and, on behalf of the Board, I warmly welcome him and wish him great success."

"I am truly delighted to have the opportunity to contribute towards Warid Pakistan's progress. In less than 5 years, Warid family has grown over 18 million customers with a substantial market share of almost 20 percent. Certainly it is tremendous progress and I seriously think that Pakistan's cellular market has a lot of potential.

I believe quality of service and customer care are the two important areas where we can get competitive edge. I am confident and determined that Warid Pakistan is fully positioned to set excellence benchmarks for the market." said Muneer Farooqui, CEO Warid Pakistan. Farooqui started his professional journey in the telecommunication arena in 1993 and served in various capacities till 2004.-

KARACHI: Telenor Pakistan has leveraged Nokia Siemens Networks' off-grid site solution to inaugurate the first of 28 such sites planned across Pakistan. Residents of remote villages in Sindh Pakistan are enjoying their first experience with mobile communications. The previously unconnected hinterland has the distinction of hosting the country's first solar powered GSM network in a Universal Service Fund (USF) assisted area.

Universal Service Fund and Telenor Pakistan entered into the contract to provide basic telephony and data services in un-served areas of Mirpurkhas, Sindh on March 13, 2009. CEO USF Parvez Iftikhar inaugurated the first of 28 planned sites. At the occasion, Iftikhar appreciated Telenor Pakistan's initiative to leverage Nokia Siemens Networks off grid solution to offer telecom services to communication deprived areas.

"We are extremely pleased with the progress thus far and look forward to opportunities that enable mobile connectivity to the unserved and underserved population of the country and that too using a renewable energy solution," he added. A 7-hour drive from the main city of Karachi and at least an hour and a half from the nearest town - Umarkot, the site lies in the deep interior of the Sindh province.

In the absence of a reliable state electricity grid, Nokia Siemens Networks' off-grid site solution harvests solar energy to power the base station sites. "The remoteness of the site posed significant challenges in terms of transportation of staff and materials," added Saad M Waraich, Country Director, Pakistan & Afghanistan, Nokia Siemens Networks. "However, we overcame all obstacles to launch services by the target date.

LAHORE: Orascom Telecom, parent organisation of Pakistan’s leading cellular company, is in talks to acquire a microfinance bank in order to enter the financial business and strengthen its appearance in the country.

The News has learnt that a delegation of Orascom comprising almost seven members including the former CEO Mobilink Zohair Khaliq is currently in Pakistan to look this deal. In this regard the first round of talk between the Orascom people and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) was already held while the company has seriously been looking to acquire the microfinance bank in order to improve the mobile commerce services.

The team of Orascom has been looking into legal matters, regulations and other issues concerned in this regard.

Sources related to this development revealed that any microfinance type bank is always suitable for telecom company for successful service delivery mobile based banking. They mentioned that Telenor Pakistan had already acquired Tameer Microfinance Bank to promote its mobile based banking services and currently providing various financial services through mobile services.

In such scenario the Orascom is also keen to acquire a microfinance bank to focus on mobile based banking, they said adding that previously the Egyptian company had shown interest in Royal Bank of Soctland acquiring deal as well as to enter into the conventional banking.

They mentioned that in future financial regime the mobile banking would be the greatest tool of banking.

In mobile banking the conventional banking tools were not used like cheques and other instruments so the customer-base of mobile companies gets some basic facilities through mobile banking. They said the telecom companies have strong infrastructure in rural areas and by using this infrastructure.

They said globally the conventional banks avoid reaching themselves to rural areas due to high operational costs so the mobile companies have huge opportunities to avail this market for m-commerce, and Africa and Nigeria have huge success stories about it as over $10 billion transaction were made through mobile banking there.

Lahore:– Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has laid out a confident vision for continued growth and expansion in the region at the Samsung Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Forum held in Vienna. Samsung reinforced its leadership in markets such as home entertainment and mobile phones. Before a high-powered audience of media, dealers and partners, Samsung showcased a complete suite of its full 2010 product lineup, including the new award-winning solution of full 3D HD entertainment products.
Samsung also unveiled exciting new products in emerging categories like home appliances, digital imaging, PCs and printers. Last year, the company posted record revenues of nearly $118 billion and a full-year operating profit of close to $9.4 billion. Samsung also reaffirmed its commitment to its new green (Environmental) initiatives.
The Country Manager, Samsung Pakistan, Mr. Steve Han said, “In 2010 we must continue with innovation and design to meet the needs of our consumers. We are putting the environment first, through sustainable practices and programs.”
In April, Samsung will be the first to deliver a range of Full HD 3D televisions (LED, LCD and plasma), and AV products like 3D Blu-ray, 3D home theater systems, 3D glasses and 3D content. These feature Internet@TV, with Video-on-Demand access to Samsung Apps. It will introduce four high-end digital cameras and ultra compact camcorders in 2010 - the EX1, the WB 2000, the HMX-U20 and 8 new NX10 lenses offering Full-HD video and built-in USB connection.
Among other noteworthy innovations in Samsung Home appliances are the RL55/ 52 series refrigerator, with an intelligent LCD display conveying family messages. The side-by-side H series fridge with the first ever “push type” handle. The Omni-Pro microwave, with unique multi-sensor technology, the Samsung washing machine protects delicate fabrics and saves energy, while the Samsung Mont Blanc AC uses Virus Doctor (SPI technology) to reduce harmful bacteria. The Navibot robot cleaner offers a superior camera-based navigation system, “Visionary Mapping.”
Ranked number one in the full touch mobile phone segment, Samsung’s extraordinary phones are driven by upto 1 GHz processors. The “Wave” cellphone has the world’s first “Super AMOLED” display, a “TouchWiz 3.0” interface and is powered by Samsung Bada, (a new open mobile development platform). The Monte is a dazzling feature phone with GPS. Samsung Apps, was also launched on mobile phones last year, will expand to several MENA markets in 2010.
In the I.T. arena Samsung created the LED Pico Projector and the slim PX2370 monitor. The first large format display 650TS is an interactive whiteboard with a touch screen and easy-sharing. The Samsung E60 and E100 are revolutionary E-books. The P580 and R580 notebooks and N210 and NB30 netbooks offer great performance & longer battery life. The P580 notebook comes packed with Intel’s Calpella Platform, a 16:9 LED Backlit LCD and an nVidia processor, while the R580 multimedia notebook features an “invisible” touch pad that blends into the palm rest. Samsung printers offer One-touch functionality.

Lahore: March 9, 2010:- Mobilink offers its subscribers amazing value added services at their finger tips. Keeping this tradition, Mobilink brings yet another exciting new service, ‘Jazz TV Guide’, for all the TV lovers out there. Jazz TV Guide offers amazing convenience and utility to Mobilink customers as the subscribers can access program schedules and receive alerts of their favorite TV channel right on their mobile phones.

Subscribers can choose from 20 most popular TV channels and can also browse category-wise schedules. The five categories to browse from are; Drama, Movies, Music, News, and Sports. Mobilink customers can either subscribe to a TV channel’s monthly schedule or they can set program alerts for all their favorite shows. The SMS alerts are sent exactly an hour before the favorite show begins, so with Jazz TV Guide SMS alerts, customers will never miss show on TV again!

Service Mechanics:
Customers can send “tv” to 717 and receive the following menu options:

1. Channel schedule
2. Category-wise schedule
3. Channel schedule subscription
4. Program alert subscription

Customers can make their desired menu selection and reply with the relevant menu ID.

Please note: Schedules are dependent upon TV channel feeds.

For more details about Jazz TV Guide, log on to www.mobilinkworld.com and make your TV viewing experience a lot more enjoyable.