Nov 08, 1999

PPWN Organises Fund-Raising Festival

The Pakistan Petroleum Women's Network recently organised a fund raising festival at the Sunset Club.

The chief guest at the occasion, Mr. Iftikhar Alam, MD PSO, while inaugurating the event said, "Women play a key role in the social and economic development of any society, and we must promote the participation of women in all sectors of our economy, whether it be health, education or the petroleum sector".

Mrs. Erum Ali Aziz, president of the PPWN, in her speech, welcomed the chief guest and thanked him for sparing time from his busy schedule.

Mr. Iftikhar Alam also lauded the efforts of the PPWN to promote gender equality in the oil and gas sector. He said that the PSO also believes in gender equality and actively tries to provide good career opportunities for women, because women professionals can make a positive contribution to society. He further assured PPWN of PSO's support to promote women's participation in the petroleum sector.

Later on he toured the festival with the president of the PPWN and visited the food, refreshment and games stalls set up by women entrepreneurs and various women's organisations. The grand finale of the festival included a lucky draw which offered the participants fabulous prizes such as air tickets, carpets and lunch coupons etc.

Caption

Pakistan Petroleum Women Network (PPWN) recently organized a Fund Raising Festival. Mr. Iftikhar Alam, MD, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) is seen inaugurating the Festival.

IBA Online

The Business and Information Technology Students' (BITS) Club's Information Technology Society, after working very hard on IBA's Officid Website, is now coming forth with its newest venture, an online magazine called 'IBA-Online'. The IBA Website (www.iba.edu) has been hailed by people from the industry as well as various visitors to the site as being a sober online representation of a professional institute of IBA's repute, at the same time comprehensively accounting for all aspects of life at IBA.

The magazine will be uploaded by the I st of November, 99. The name 'IBA-Online' gives an insight into the lives of the IBA students, specifically the MIS students. Since being from the Centre of Computer Studies (CCS) at IBA has given them a very techy persona, they are trying to break their projection as just computer geeks, and are putting forth a new image, that is, apart from the fact that IT is very important in this day and age, it also happens to be fun to use.

Shaista Ayesha Farhat, a student of the 4th semester of the MIS program at IBA, is the Editor of 'IBA-Online'. The online magazine was the initiative of the IT Secretary of the BITS Club, Imran Majid, and that idea has now become reality through the continuous hard work of students from the MIS and Computer Science degree programs at IBA.

If you are on the web, don't forget. . . http:/www.iba.edu/ibaonline.

Dewan-Citibank Car Financing

Joint Label Dewan-Citibank Car Financing agreement was signed between Citibank N.A. and Dewan Farooque Motors Limited on October 27, 1999. Under this agreement, both the institutions will join hands to deliver vehicles manufactured by Dewan Farooque Motors under special financing arrangement. This is the first time that a Strategic Alliance of this kind has taken place in Pakistan. This alliance will truly benefit the customer in terms of speedy loan processing, priority car delivery and a more attractive financing rate. Beside these advantages Dewan-Citibank Car Financing customer will also be offered special benefits provided to them exclusively by both the institutions. A financing counter will be present in all Hyundai dealerships to provide assistance to the people interested in this program. Citibank will provide financing on Dewan Farooque Motor's complete range of vehicles.

Citibank N.A. has played a major role in Car Financing Industry in Pakistan and the world over. Citibank Car Financing Program was launched in Pakistan in 1993. Since then it has financed over 10,000 cars, nationwide. Currently Citibank enjoys a New Car Financing Share of over 55% — the largest in Pakistan.

Dewan Farooque Motors is the manufacturer and distributor of Hyundai vehicles in Pakistan. The company has already launched two models, 12 seater 'Grace' vans and locally assembled 1 ton pickup 'Shehzore'. Very shortly, Dewan Farooque will be launching other vehicles including 4x4 and luxury vehicles.

ABN-AMRO Bank Launches Home Finance

ABN-AMRO Bank recently launched "Home Finance", at a theme dinner hosted for the senior management of the country's leading national and multinational companies. The dinner was held at an "under construction" house, where the product was introduced.

ABN AMRO Home Finance is a house loan for individual consumers, which offers the option to either buy or build a house. Borrowing against your home for improvement of your home or lifestyle is also available.

Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Adnan Ghani, the Country Consumer Head, ABN-AMRO Bank, Pakistan, said, "At ABN-AMRO, we believe in maintaining the highest standards in service excellence for our valued clients. We also believe in proactively assessing our customers needs and satisfying those needs. After having introduced a range of successful liability products, we are now focusing on fulfilling our customers' need to own a home, through the introduction of ABN-AMRO Home Finance. Launching of ABN-AMRO Home Finance this point in time, also reinforces our commitment to long-term growth in this country".

In Pakistan since 1948, ABN-AMRO Bank N.V. has shown strong growth in recent years, establishing itself not just as a corporate bank, but as a customer-focused and dynamic consumer bank. It is the only foreign bank to have made long-term commitments in Pakistan which are reflected in the construction and ownership of its bank premises in Karachi and Lahore, and the expansion of its network to a total of five branches. Additionally, it has set up the largest software house in the country, at Lahore.

UBL opens its new branch at Gulistan-e-Jauhar

Zubyr I.Soomro, President United Bank Limited inaugurated a new UBL branch at Gulistan-e-Jauhar. Khalid A Sherwani, Senior Executive Vice President and Aftab A. Bachani, Regional Chief Executive along with the staff of the newly established Branch were also present on the occasion.

The Bank decided to open a branch in Gulistan-e-Jauhar to cater to the growing banking needs of residents of the area. Gulistan-e-Jauhar is that pocket of Karachi where population influx is fast due to the construction of new housing schemes. Keeping in view the scenario, UBL decided to take a step forward to serve the people of the area.

United Bank is always ahead in making its sfervices more beneficial for its customers and is constantly working to evaluate its banking system to make these services available to a large number of people. The opening of the new branch in Gulistan-e-Jauhar is in line with UBL's commitment to provide the best services to its customers.

Swissair announces new winter schedule

Swissair flies its new Airbus A-330 thrice fa week from Karachi to Dubai and Zurich. All flights from Karachi arrive in Zurich early in the morning thereby offering convenient connections to all major European and American destinations. Swissair also offers daily flighfts from Dubai to Zurich.

Habib Bank Limited

Habib Bank Limited (HBL), the state-owned Pakistan bank, is streamlining its operations in the UK to improve the quality of its service to its customers, increase its focus on technology, broaden its product range and to meet the requirement of Financial Services Authority (FSA), which is the regulator for the baks in UK.

The Bank has recently conducted a year-long strategic review which concluded that it can achieve these challenging goals more efficiently and effectively if it focuses on developing central branches in each region in which it is currenly active in the UK.