May 20 - June 02, 2002

ICI PAKISTAN'S SODA ASH PLANT MODERNISATION & EXPANSION PROJECTS IN KHEWRA, INAUGURATED

Mr Shaukat Aziz, Minister for Finance, Planning & Economic Affairs, unveils the inaugural plaque of Modernisation & Expansion Projects of ICI Pakistan's Soda Ash Plant in Khewra. Mr Waseem Haqqie, Chairman Board of Investment, Mr Munnawar Hamid, Chairman ICI Pakistan Limited, Mr Azhar A Malik, Chief Executive ICI Pakistan Limited and Mr Pervaiz A Khan, General Manager ICI Pakistan Soda Ash Business are also seen in the picture. The installed facilities at the Modernisation & Expansion Projects include installation of DCS Control System, 5.2 MW co-generation installation and debottlenecking of various units, at a total cost of Rs 525 million.

COLLABORATION BETWEEN AUDITOR GENERAL'S OFFICE AND ICMAP

A meeting was held in Islamabad on today, between the officials of Auditor General of Pakistan and the Institute of Cost & Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP) to discuss the areas of collaboration between the two organizations. A working Group was formed in the meeting which will finalise the areas of collaboration including preparation of Terms of Reference (TOR) for conducting cost audit by the practicing Cost and Management Accountants in the public sector organizations.

The Auditor General of Pakistan appreciated the proposal of ICMAP for subjecting the public sector organizations to Cost Audit with the objective of reducing cost, improving effeciencies and curtailing wastages, so as to make these organizations financially viable.

The meeting was attended by Manzoor Hussain, Auditor General of Pakistan, Sheikh Naseer -ul-Haq, Deputy Auditor General and Mr. Liaqat Chowdhry, Director General (Audit). The delegation of ICMAP comprised of Badruddin Fakhri, President, Muhammad Rafi, Vice President, Mutee-ur-Rehman Mirza, Honorary Secretary and Abdus Sattar, Honorary Treasurer.

INTEL LAUNCHES EDUCATION INITIATIVE

Intel Pakistan announced the launch in Pakistan of the Intel® Teach to the Future program. Since 2000, the program has helped more than 388,000 teachers worldwide to integrate technology more effectively into their classrooms to enhance student learning. The goal is to provide free training to 500,000 teachers in 24 countries. The program is presented with support from Microsoft Corporation.

Christian Morales, Vice President and General Manager, Intel Asia Pacific, and Dr. Ata-ur-Rehman, Federal Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology, signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the program and gave a keynote address to special guests from the education field during the program's formal launch in Islamabad.

The program is designed to help teachers and students become well versed in Internet and computer technology by making education entertaining and effective.

UBE CONDUCTS TREASURY AUDIT TRAINING WORKSHOP

United Bank Limited held a specialized six days training workshop on the Audit of Treasury Functions, the purpose of which was to upgrade the treasury auditing skills of the people working in this important division of the bank. Auditors from all over the country participated in the workshop.

"Treasury operations are a vitally important components of contemporary banking that also involve the factors of risk", said M. Ejazuddin, Audit Chief UBL, and the brain behind the training. "Given the risk factor, audit of the treasury functions is imperative however, since treasury is a relatively new concept in Pakistan, the auditors are not very adept at this technique, hence the need to upgrade the treasury auditing skills."

The program developer and treasury auditing expert Abbas Merchant, who has an in-depth experience in this field with various national and foreign banks said that the need for training in this area cannot be over emphasized. The banks need to be extra vigilant in this field because of the inherent risks involved. He said that after the successful completion of his course, he expects the participants to set new trends in effective control of the treasury operations of the bank.

The training program on Audit of Treasury Functions is the first of its kind in Pakistan. It is an important milestone in training activities and is expected to have a positive impact on auditing skills.

Earlier, Jauhar Naqvi, Head of Training, UBL welcomed the participants and thanked M. Ejazuddin, Audit Chief for his continuous support for training and development of the staff.

At the end of the session Abdul Ghafoor Chief HRD who was also the chief guest, distributed the certificates to the participants and expressed hope that the training would prove to be beneficial for both the trainees as well as the bank.

INAUGRATION OF KFC SIALKOT BRANCH

Another golden day in the history of KFC Pakistan. KFC launched its latest restaurant in Sialkot. A city famous for great poets and sports goods has now added to its list the largest KFC outlet in Asia. The inauguration ceremony was honoured by Maj. Gen. Mohammed Sabir (GOC 15 Div) as the chief guest. The memorable occasion was witnessed by offcers from the armed forces, District Nazim, Tehsil Nazim and Nazimeen, officials from the district management, the Cantt, Board, President and members of the Chamber of Commerce and a large crowd of prominent businessmen and the citizens of Sialkot. This free standing spacious restaurant with a drive-thru facility, open-air theatre, a special party lounge, a lavish green park, state of the art play area and a great view describes the grandeur of this outlet. Ample parking, breath-taking ambiance, superb hospitality and un-matched security arrangements make this restaurant safe and fun for the Sialkotees.

Colonel Sander's great tasting chicken meals have been heartily welcomed by the people of Sialkot who have been coming for more since the opening. KFC Sialkot is a great example of a well-knit team effort from the KFC family. KFC's quest continues to enter new cities after making its presence in Sialkot being the 6th. Leaders in the fast food industry, KFC has already commissioned work on two new cities of Pakistan. The company is on the road to grow along with Pakistan and is totally committed to play its role in the development of this nation and its economy.

MCB - SSGC SIGNED AN AGRREEMENT FOR A NEW SERVICE TO PAY UTILITY BILLS THROUGH MCB ATMS.

Muslim Commercial Bank and Sui Southern Gas Company signed a Memorandum of understanding (MOU), creating a mutually beneficial alliance for a new service which will enable customers of both the organizations to use MCB ATM's Network in near future to pay their Sui Gas Utility Bills.

Agreement signed on behalf of their respective organizations at Karachi by Mr. Mohammad Aftab Manzoor, President MCB and Mr. Mukhtar Ahmed, Managing Director, Sui Southern Gas Co. Ltd.

SGS TRAINS OIL EXPERTS IN SAFETY PROCEDURES

The need to train oil industry personnel in the latest international procedures, techniques and standards cannot be overemphasized, said Mr Tariq Kirmani, Managing Director, Pakistan State Oil.

He was speaking as the chief guest at the certificate award ceremony of the four-day training course on "Measurement Standards of Petroleum Products and Liquefied Gases and Safety Codes of Practice." The course was organized by Redwood Division of Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) Pakistan.

The course was attended by management and engineering personnel from Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Shell Gas LPG, Caltex, National Refinery, Attock Refinery, BP Pakistan, Pakistan Oil Fields, Pakistan Petroleum, Sui Southern Gas, Orient Petroleum, Kohinoor Energy, Kot Addu Power, International Power, Engro Vopak Terminal, Overseas Trading Corporation, ESBI Contracting, Engro Esahi Polymer & Chemicals, and Fuji Oil Terminal and Distribution Co.

Mr. Brad Cerny, fellow member of the Institute of Petroleum and director of Redwood International Training Services, UK, conducted the training course.

The training covered the latest international procedures, techniques and standards involving measurement of petroleum products and liquefied gases, terminal and jetty operations in accordance with the International Safety Guide for Oil Terminal and Tankers (ISGOTT) and Health & Safety at Work and Emergency Planning.

SGS Redwood derives its name from Sir Boverton Redwood, a l9th century petroleum technologist who pioneered petroleum inspection and measurement techniques, and whose business was subsequently integrated into the SGS group.

Established in Pakistan in 1952, SGS Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd comprises a dynamic team of over 140 specialists supported by state-of-the-art testing laboratories and advanced computer technology.

SEMINAR ON MULTIMEDIA HELD AT MEHRAN UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY, JAMSHORO

A one-day Seminar on Multimedia Its Applications and Career Prospects was organized at the Auditorium of the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) Jamshoro on Wednesday.

The Seminar was organised by the Directorate of Industrial Liaison, MUET, in collaboration with the Arena Multimedia World Wide.

In his welcome speech Dr. Dost Ali Khuwaja, Dean, Architecture and City and Regional Planning and Chief Guest of the occasion, highlighted the importance of Multimedia applications.

Dr. B.S. Chaudhry, Chairman, Electronics, Telecommunication and director, Industrial Liaison, said, that multimedia had diversified applications in tele-medicine, video confirming, video-on demand, virtual, digital Libraries and istance learning .

Behroz Jalil, Country Manager Arena Multimedia, Pakistan said that Multimedla applications were being utilized in web animation, games development, post production, graphics, virtual reality etc and their worth was in billions of dollars.

The web industry will be worth $60 billion by the year 2007 and will have ten million jobs available worldwide.

The animation industry has 30 per cent growth per year and the industry is worth $30 billion at present which will reach $70 billion by the year 2005.

The games development industry is worth $6 billion, which will reach $15 billion by the year 2004.

Post-production is an industry worth $35 billion while there is a lot of growth happening world-wide in the field of graphics and virtual reality.

Irfan Qureshi, chief executive of the Arena Multimedia, Hyderabad said that Pakistani youth had a lot of potential and added that there was a need to have digital and online libraries for the growth of IT education in Pakistan.

The Seminar was attended by more than 600 students and faculty members.

"CASH PLUS" MCB CASH MANAGEMENT PRODUCT

In line with the needs and requirements of its Corporate Customers, Muslim Commereial Bank Limited has signed another agreement with Agfa Geveart Pakistan Ltd. on May 20, 2002, in respect of its produet namely CASHplus, facilitating collection of funds through its branch network across the country.

The CASHplus product launched recently has further strenghen the bank's corporate relationship and ensure that MCB's network of branches are utilized to deliver cost effective and efficient collection of funds with accurate and timely MIS.

Mr. Muhammad Shoaib Qureshi, Head of Corporate & Islamic Banking Group, MCB and Mr. A. Majid Carim, Chief Executive, Agfa Geveart Pakistan Ltd have signed the agreement in the presence of Mr. Mohammad Aftab Manzoor, President MCB. Also present on the occasion were Mr. Zafar ul Islam, Director Finance, Agfa and Mr. Mudassar Anjum Sheikh, General Manager - Corporate South of MCB.

MERGER OF MUTUAL FUNDS

The Honorable High Court of Sindh has sanctioned the merger of Security Stock Fund Limited (SSF) with BSJS Balanced Fund Limited (BBF).

The management of SSF, a closed end mutual fund with a paid up capital of Rupees one hundred million was acquired by ABAMCO Limited, investment advisor of BBF on October 18, 2001 . On merger the shareholders of SSF will be entitled to nine shares of BBF for every ten shares of SSF. In accordance with the listing regulation of stock exchanges, the book closure date for shareholders of SSF will be shortly announced, after which date BBF will exchange its shares with the shares of SSF.

BBF, a closed-end mutual fund was offered to public on January 14, 1996 with a paid capital of Rupees one hundred fifty million. Confidence Mutual Fund whose management was acquired by ABAMCO on September 13, 2000 was merged with BBF and the paid up capital of BBF was raised to Rupees two hundred and fifty million. With the merger with SSF, the paid up capital of BBF will be raised to Rupees three hundred forty million. ABAMCO will be the investment adviser of the merged company.

BBF has emerged, as the second biggest closed end mutual fund in the private sector in terms of the paid-up capital and biggest in terms of the value of net assets. It will rank fifth in terms of paid-up capital in the entire closed-end sector and second after ICP SEMF in terms of the value of net assets. BBF has been assigned AA (f) rating by PACRA. The merger will bring economy of scale and the shareholders can hope to get better returns from BBF.

ABAMCO, the Investment Adviser of BBF is also managing Unit Trust of Pakistan an open-ended mutual fund, which has been assigned AA (f) rating by PACRA. ABAMCO has recently announced its plan for launching of an open-ended Income Fund.