Mar 11 - 17, 2002

TEREDATA SELECTED ONE OF THE "TOP 12 COMPANIES TO WATCH"

Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), has been selected as one of the "Top 12 Companies to Watch" for business intelligence by Intelligent Enterprise magazine, a CMP Media publication. The recognition was based on significant contributions to the development of enterprise data warehousing.

"IT and business leaders will increasingly rely on these 12 companies in 2002 to enable their businesses to be smarter, faster, and more profitable," said Justin Kestelyn, editor-in-chief of IntelligentEnterprise. "Recognized for significant contribution to the development of intelligent enterprises, each of the 12 companies have proven their excellence in gathering, analyzing, sharing and acting upon data-driven intelligence. "

The Teradata® data warehouse has been designed to power the next generation of global active data warehouses providing businesses with a single, integrated view of their business," said Stephen Brobst, chief technology officer for Teradata. "Active data warehousing with Teradata offers knowledge not only to top management, but instantly puts the company's intelligence in the hands of front-line employees, empowering them to make better decisions — faster and cheaper — than their competition."

HIGH- POWERED ADB DELEGATION VISITS KHUSHHALI BANK

An ADB delegation comprising of its board directors visited Khushhalibank's newly established office at Dhok Mangtal, Rawalpindi. The visiting members included Executive Directors Xiaoyu Zhao, Uwe Henrich, Jeung Hyon Yoon, and Khawaja Zaheer Ahmed and Alternate Executive Directors John Austin and Maarten Verway.

Khushhalibank's President Ghalib Nishtar apprised the visitors with operational progress and effectiveness of the ADB-funded bank. In his welcome address, Nishtar appreciated ADB's continued support to Pakistan's poor, which had led to the creation of KHB. He said that the core strategy being pursued in strengthening the bank was showing promising results and would yield effective systems to ensure institutional stability, dynamic policy framework and most importantly quality client servicing. At the event, the delegation members interacted with some of the bank's customers who also received their loan checks. It may be recalled that ADB's President Mr Tadao Chino had visited the bank four months ago and this was the first high-powered delegation scheduled since his visit. ADB's agreement to provide nearly US$ 1 billion dollars in loans to Pakistan this year for various projects is a clear indication of the bank's growing support.

PJBF INITIATIVE

Pakistan is all set to receive grants and technical assistance from Japan, and for that the PAKISTAN JAPAN BUSINESS FORUM has prepared a comprehensive program to channelize these in a transparent, pragmatic, and effective manner in order to revitalize the industrial base of Pakistan. This proposal was offered by a seven-member PJBF delegation in separate meet,ngs in Islamabad to Federal Minister for Finance, Shaukat Aziz, Federal Minister for Commerce; Industries, and Production, Abdul Razak Dawood, Federal Minister for Agriculture, Khair Muhammad Junejo, Chairman Board of Investment, Wasim Haqqie, and various Federal Secretaries. The proposal was fully supported in principle by all concerned Ministers who pledged to ensure that it became a reality.

The PJBF delegation, consisting of Senior Vice President, Masami Mizukami, Secretary General, Majyd Aziz, Director General of JETRO, Osamu Mizui, Advisor to BOI, Ken Tamaki, Feroz Khan, Motoo Yoshioka, and Jun Oishi, stated that the Forum is targating two of the four key sectors identified by President General Pervez Musharraf in his speech to the nation in December 1999. They said that PJBF has developed programs to upgrade the agriculture sector and the small and medium enterprises.

NCR ANNOUNCES NATIONAL IT EXCELLENCE AWARDS WINNERS

The much-awaited NCR IT Excellence Awards were held in Islamabad to recognize outstanding IT professionals in eight different categories related to information technology. The grand event was attended by leading dignitaries and prominent personalities from government, media and the corporate world. Federal Minister of Finance Shaukat Aziz was the chief guest on the occasion.

The period for consideration for nomination for the awards was June 2000 to July 2001. The nominations were judged on predefined criteria for each category according to the requirements of the industry. The categories have been selected to cover the entire spectrum of the IT sector, which included Software development, Networking, IT educationalist, IT Research and development, IT Pioneer, IT Develoment and lT Youth, thus enabling the specialized effort in each category to stand out and be recognized. A panel of judges selected for their expertise, experience and acumen assessed the nominees for different categories of IT Awards. The NCR IT Excellence Awards 2001 process was verified by A.F.Ferguson & Co. Chartered Accountants, member firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

This year's IT Pioneer Award winner went to Mr. Mohammad Afcal, who has been actively involved as a member of the IT Commission Work Group on development of Human Resources in the field of IT and has worked with the Government in Policy regulatory issues and planning as an Executive Council Member and President of Computer Society of Pakistan, Islamabad Chapter. Mr. Afzal is currently the CEO of Habib Rafiq Technologies (Pvt) Limited.

"This award is the evidence of the commitment and dedication, which Habib Rafiq Group has shown in the development and nourishment of IT sector in Pakistan" said, CEO, Habib Rafiq Technologies (Pvt.) Liinited, Mr. Mohammad Afzal. He added, "IT Excellence awards are tools to motivate outstanding individual to perform an exceptional job for Pakistan. They will also serve as encouragement for others to perform well in future."