Profile AMER NAZIR

Profile Amer Nazir Column For The Record Information Technology Internet marketing Science & Technology Radiation and food preservation

By AMANULLAH BASHAR
Jan 29 - Feb 04, 2001

Amer Nazir is the Chief Executive of e-tech Group of companies which includes Hi-Tech Business Machines (Pvt.) Ltd. established in 1986, Hilinks Pak (Pvt.) Ltd. established in 1999 and Hinet Pak (Pvt.) Ltd. established in 2000.

Having a wide marketing, finance and management experience spreading over 16 years to his credit, Amer Nazir has the distinction of introducing IBM office machines, as the first IBM reseller in Pakistan. He is also responsible for expanding the Compaq network, 3COM, Acer and Hi-tech Systems in the country. The inception of the first international portal of Pakistan, Hilinks.com also goes to his credit.

PAGE: Having a cutting-edge the information technology has made an overwhelming impact over the world economy. How it is going to contribute to the economic development in Pakistan?

Amer Nazir: The IT proliferation is not going to confine within IT industry alone, in effect it is going to effect in a diversified way. For example the telephone industry is one of the example. Pakistan has a 20 million minutes market, which naturally offers an attractive scenario for the international investors. The PTCL is on privatization board while the deadline for its privatization is also ensuing fast. Hopefully once the telecommunication sector is placed into private hands it would tremendously support the growth of IT industry as well.

PAGE: It is the talk of the town that the IT has the potentiality to bring economic revolution in Pakistan, being an expert what would you suggest to catch up the pace of progress the world around?

Amer: The present government taking steps in the right direction within the given circumstances and the available resources. Yet the time is too short to get along, attention should also be given to invite foreign companies already excelled in this field. The number of quality institutes producing graduates is too short, special attention is needed for establishment of institutes, which can impart quality education at an affordable price to harvest a rich crop, he suggested. Amer also gave the following brief about the companies contributing its share for economic growth of the country.

Hinet: Highlighting the salient features of the group of companies he heads, Amer told Pakistan & Gulf Economist that Hinet, part of e-tech Group is fully prepared to launch its internet operations using state of the art fiber optics telecommunication links and a 2MB Bandwidth, which places Hinet technologically ahead of various ISPs operating in the country. Hinet plans to facilitate the home and business users by providing fast, reliable and secure connection.

Having state-of-the-art infrastructure, Hinet also aims to maintain 1:10 port to users ratio, which is at par with international standards. This will ensure fastest and most reliable Internet accessibility to the local users.

Hinet has a management involved in launching Pakistan's first Portal Hilinks.com, which provides real time access to local activities and events to Non Resident Pakistanis. Another company of e-tech Group is Hi Tech Business Machines which is an Acer distributor and has offered complete hardware/ Machines and has offered complete hardware/software solutions for the last 16 years. E-tech Group values research, hard work and commitment, which can be witnessed by its rapid growth and current position in IT industry of Pakistan. He said that the trio of Hinet, Hilinks and Hi-tech provides complete synergy to the end users for any IT solution from a single platform.

Hilinks (Pvt.) Ltd.: An outstanding e-tech Group Company, is the pioneer in constantly evolving IT industry of Pakistan. Previously, the primary method by which individual investors were able to obtain information and trade on the stock market was by physically going to the stockbrokers or calling on the telephones. Non-resident Pakistanis neither had access to the current trends in the stocks market in the country hence without real-time decision-making information nor have the opportunity to book orders and view audit trials except through their agents on telephones.

Amer said with a sense of pride that Hilinks has introduced on-line stock trading, market watch and client statement system that will enable Pakistanis in every corner of the globe to access real-time, zero delay company quotes, indexes, as well as to place on-line orders and manage their portfolios, inventories and profit and loss statements through hilinks.com. This unprecedented giant step in the direction of convenience and accessibility is being made possible with alliances in the form of Abbasi & Co., a prestigious stock exchange member and the renowned information agency Reuters.

Amer expressed the hope that as a result of this endeavour Pakistan Stock Exchange market capitalization will inevitably increase along with an elevated investor base both locally and internationally. There would be a clear-cut unmatched transparency in the process of stock brokerage and investors will have access to timely, valid and concise data along with a perceptible decrease in paper work.