July 08 - 14, 2002

INBOX FACILITATES ONLINE RUPEE TRANSACTIONS

Inbox Business Technologies Private Limited announced its upgraded website which facilitates online rupee transactions at a media gathering held at a local hotel. The website which will be officially launched on Monday July 8, 2002 offers customers the opportunity to customize PCs and order online.

"The recent revamping of our website was done for the sole purpose of supporting online rupee transactions and customizing their PCs. Now customers can not only configure their machines according to their requirements but also order the machine online. This is truly e-commerce the customer does not have to leave the house to buy the machine but can in fact purchase our products and accessories online," said Ghias Khan, CEO, Inbox Business Technologies.

It has been 18 months since Inbox was established and since then the company has progressed and evolved on several fronts. Inbox was the first Intel Premier Provider in Pakistan in addition to being the first computer company to assemble local branded laptops. In June 2001 The company was also awarded a Marketing Award by Intel Corporation. This year, Inbox received an award from Intel that recognized the company for selling the highest number of servers in Pakistan. They have also recently acquired ISO 9001-2000 certification to ensure the overall service and product quality of the organization.

Inbox has followed a focused strategy of tapping into the local corporate scene and has to date over 300 clients. Through this website, Inbox will now focus on the home segment by offering easy purchase mechanics at affordable rates.

SECRETARY PETROLEUM COMMENDS PSO'S 9-MONTH PERFORMANCE

Abdullah Yousuf, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, has appreciated Pakistan State Oil's performance during the period ended March 31, 2002.

He was speaking to the company's top management during a recent visit to its headquarters at PSO House. The secretary was given a presentation on the company's nine-month performance.

The secretary observed that the company has not only improved its financial health with increased profitability, but was also pressing ahead with all its major investment plans.

He emphasized the continuation of the current pro-active stance the company has adopted to face the challenges of deregulation, and said he wanted PSO's New Vision Retail Development Programme further expedited beyond its already ambitious targets.

The Managing Director of PSO, Mr. Tariq Kirmani, informed the secretary that — despite stiff competition and negative effects of-post-September 11 scenario — implementation of modern management practices, coupled with empowerment and accountability at all levels, had improved company's productivity and profitability.

The MD informed the secretary of the status of the corporate objectives for the 2001-02 financial year and highlighted the progress made in the implementation of key projects.

SYED MASOUD ALI NAQVI, RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT, MAP

Syed Masoud Ali Naqvi, Senior Partner, Taseer Hadi Khalid & Company (Member firm of KPMG) was re-elected unopposed as President of Management Association of Pakistan (MAP) for the year 2002-2003.

He was elected to this position for the second consecutive year in its 36th Annual General Meeting held on 28th June, 2002 at a local hotel here.

Mr. Naqvi, chartered accountant by profession, is fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and has been President of ICAP for the year 1994-95 and 1995-96. He has a long association with MAP and was elected as a member of MAP's Executive Committee in 1998-99 and has held the positions of its Honorary Secretary in 1999-2000 and Vice President in 2000-2001.

Other office bearers who were also elected unopposed at the Annual General Meeting are: Javed Iqbal, former Chairman and Managing Director of Philips Electrical Industries of Pakistan (Vice President); Sohail Wajahat Siddiqui, Managing Director, Siemens Engineering Company Limited (Honorary Secretary); Iftikhar H. Shirazi, Group Director Finance & Investments, Atlas Group of Companies (Honorary Treasurer); Razi Ansari, Managing Director, Pfizer Laboratories Pakistan Limited; Sikandar M. Khan, Chairman, Millat Tractors Limited and Shafique Ahmad Siddiqui, Additional General Manager, Adamjee Engineering Limited were elected as Members of the Executive Committee.

Later, the Executive Committee in a meeting held the same evening co-opted four more members including Moin M. Fudda, Country Chief, Commercial Union Assurance Company plc., Zaffar A. Khan, President, Engro Chemical Pakistan Limited; Khalid Rafi, Senior Partner, A. F. Ferguson & Co. and Rob Zoon, Director Commercial, Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited.

31ST BRANCH OF PICIC COMMERCIAL BANK LIMITED

PICIC Commercial Bank completed its first phase of expansion plan 2002 by opening its third branch in NWFP. Under this plan the bank will open remaining 11 branches before October 31, 2002 which will increase its existing branch network to 42 branches nation wide. Chairman PICIC Commercial Bank Mr. Muhammad Ali Khoja gave the welcome address and informed the gathering about the remarkable endeavours put in by PICIC and PICIC Commercial Bank in difficult economic scenario to attain the present position. On the occasion Lt. Gen (Retd) Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, (M). SBT addressed the gathering and praised the achievements of new management which has completed its first year of operations with flying colors. PICIC Commercial Bank came under the umbrella of PICIC — country's oldest and most financially sound DFI on 26th February 2001. Since then a lot of structural and operational improvements have been made by the new management to keep the bank in the stream of profitability and growth. With this new strategy in place the bank achieved agility to respond quickly to challenging client demands and fulfilling stockholders expectations. The bank has also taken in principle approval from SBP to establish its branches in Afghanistan and has signed an MOU for an exchange company in Dubai. With these achievements soon PICIC Commercial Bank will enter in the stream of international banking.

Not ignoring its economic responsibility towards the country, PICIC Commercial Bank has extended credit to small & medium enterprises and deserving farmers/growers, so as to enable them to achieve self-sufficiency. Another unique feature of the bank is to extend Talimi Loans to the students of various universities and institutes which is receiving overwhelming response. By virtue of this product PICIC Commercial Bank is meeting its social responsibility of improving quality education which is the need of hour.

NEW P&G OFFICE INAUGURATED

The opening of the new Procter & Gamble Office Pakistan was held recently. Governor of Sindh, Mian Mohammad Soomro inaugurated the new premises. Also present on the occasion were heads of various multinationals and leading local organizations

In the new office the essence of Pakistan through various architectural designs, the walls, the flooring have been blended with modern technological aspects as well with video conferencing, DECT phones, high speed internet access. Additionally the office depicts people of P&G Pakistan, creative, logical decision makers & very competitive. The new office also shows P&G's commitment to Pakistan.

"The philosophy behind the new office premises is to blend the cultural traditions of Pakistan with the state of the art technology so that we can truly emphasize our objective of operating in Pakistan as a Global Local Company", said Hanspeter Heissen, General Manager Procter & Gamble Pakistan.

He also briefed on various social developments and educational programs that P&G has initiated in Pakistan in an attempt to improve the lives of consumers.

He emphasized on the fact that P&G Pakistan is totally committed to the development of the country and its people through different programs like Safeguard School Program, Always School/College Program, Pampers Hospital Program and Ariel "Help the Needy" etc.

In his speech, Governor of Sindh, Mian Mohammed Soomro appreciated the fact that P&G has taken the step of immersing deeply in the cultural traditions of the country and thereby truly providing a testimony of the fact that while the company is global it operates according to the dynamics of local market.

HSBC PROMOTES TRADE SERVICES

HSBC has launched a new marketing campaign across the Asia-Pacific region promoting trade services.

The campaign, beginning 17 June, will appear in major international weeklies and dailies, including Newsweek, Businessweek, The Economist, The Far Eastern Economic Review, The Asian Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times. Alan Wilkinson, Head of Trade Services Asia-Pacific said: "The new campaign makes a clear and powerful statement about what HSBC Trade Services stands for. Our advertising campaign will show that anyone who banks with HSBC Trade Services can benefit from our local insights and global expertise."

The campaign promotes trade services at The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited through a series of real examples of how the bank helped customers grow and develop their business.

Peter Waterhouse, Chief-Executive Officer of HSBC in Pakistan said: "HSBC strongly believes in working closely with our customers in order to provide tailor made solutions to their needs. This is particularly important where the financing of international trade is concerned. Our customers want real solutions to meet the challenges they face. With our international reach and strong local knowledge we can help them exploit opportunities and become partners in their long-term growth."

PACRA MAINTAINS THE RATINGS OF SONERI BANK LIMITED

The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA) has maintained the long-term rating of 'AA-' (Double AA minus) and a short-term rating of 'A1+' (Single A One plus) for Soneri Bank Limited (SBL). These ratings denote a very low expectation of credit risk emanating from the very strong capacity for timely payment of financial commitments. The ratings are applicable to the senior unsecured creditors of the bank.

LITERACY RATE

Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani, NWFP Minister for Education and Information said sustained endeavours must be made to raise the literacy rate particularly in the less developed regions of the countries. Talking about literacy rate in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) he said it was abysmally low. "You would be shocked to learn that the literacy rate in FATA was as low as 2 per cent, he said". The minister further said the government of NWFP is making sincere and sustained efforts to raise the literacy level in FATA by providing the children of that area access to education. In this connection he said it is planning to establish welfare schools with private sector collaboration. He lauded the decision of Preston to extend full support to NWFP Government's endeavours in this direction. Its commitment to establish the first such school by the name of "Preston Welfare School" in Khyber Agency, with its own resources, is a proof of this fact. This significant contribution being made by Preston will truly help reduce the yawning disparity that currently persists vis-a-vis education, between the fortunate and the less fortunate in the province of NWFP in particular. Minister Gilani said this while addressing a large gathering of students, parents, faculty and management of the Preston Institute of Management, Science and Technology (PIMSAT), at an award distribution ceremony held at the Institute's campus in Islamabad.

The NWFP Education Minister said that the present government is giving top priority to education. He said that real development in the country would be impossible, without developing the precious human resource and involving the vast majority of the educated human resource in the development process. Mr. Gilani said education is a highly capital-intensive social sector component. The Government alone cannot meet the demand for resources by this vital sector, and that exactly is the reason why it has adopted a policy of encouraging the private sector to contribute towards its promotion and development.

The Minister eulogized the contribution made by Preston Institute of Management, Science and Technology in the field of higher education in the country. Preston's nineteen long years of dedicated and untiring efforts to provide top quality education to its students' merits recognition by the government and every segment of the society, he said. He congratulated the students who received commendation certificates and shields for their outstanding performance in their respective examinations, and expressed the hope that they would continue to work hard to attain even better positions and earn laurels for their institution and their country.

Earlier, welcoming the chief guest, the Executive Vice President of Preston Mr. Abdul Hamid said the Institute was truly honoured by the presence of the NWFP Minister for Education and Information, Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani at the award giving ceremony of the Institute. He profoundly thanked the minister for making it convenient to grace the occasion in spite of his heavy official preoccupations. At the end, the minister was presented a Memento of the Institute by Mr. Abdul Hamid, Preston's Executive Vice President as a token of thanks and appreciation.

APTMA APPRECIATES LOCAL SALE OF COTTON BY TCP

Mr. Nadeem Maqbool, Chairman APTMA has thanked Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood, Federal Commerce Minister for directing the Trading Corporation of Pakistan to offer 50,000 bs of raw cotton to the domestic textile industry. He appreciated this as a timely move aimed at providing good quality cotton to the industry with nearly two months before the new season.

Mr. Nadeem Maqbool stated that the country's cotton consumption had increased due to increased spindle capacity installed over the past two years and Pakistan now needed more cotton than the crop of 10.3 million bales. He urged the Commerce Ministry not to sell the cotton held by TCP to our international competitors at low prices as the industry was willing to pay better prices. He said that the TCP should offer the entire stocks held by them so that the industry could be assured of cotton supplies. Although we welcome the first step in releasing 50,000 bales, the second tender should be announced immediately.

He referred to the 02 July tender and said that the level of participation very clearly indicated that the cotton was needed by the industry. The prices offered also indicate that the industry was paying a better price than the foreign buyers. The local mills had offered a price of Rs. 1950/for Grade III which was almost equal to the price offered by foreign buyers for Grade I clean cotton offered in the last export tender. APTMA has always advocated that the cotton purchased by TCP should be offered to the highest bidder as nothing could be gained by exporting it at low prices.

The Chairman APTMA criticized the stand of PCGA in opposing the sale of cotton by TCP to the local mills. The stocks with ginners had come down substantially and still the ginners were insisting for the Government to bail them out due to incorrect business positions taken by them. The stock of cotton available with the ginners was of very low quality and would be purchased by lower quality manufacturers and open end mills till the end of the season. He urged the PCGA to desist from exerting unfair and unjust pressures on the Government.

COMPANY PROFILE
COMPUTER MARKETING CO.

CMC was established in 1984 with branches in four major cities of Pakistan, Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Faisalabad with its Head Office also located in Lahore.

At CMC, we focus on bringing state of the art Computing Technologies to our customers according to the highest international standards. The professionals at CMC with their collective efforts, apply their best ideas, abilities, knowledge and experience, along with excellence in service and support, to provide customers fully integrated cost effective "IT Solutions". We are committed to a continuing leadership role in the technological advancement and development of Pakistan's IT industry to enable it to move ahead and meet the challenges of the New Global Enterprises in today's dynamic world.

CMC also offers high-level expertise in high-tech equipment such as Compaq, APC, Printronix and Centralion.

Compaq: We at CMC are marketing the entire Compaq PC and PC server range, starting from pocket PC, commercial desktop and portable products, consumer PCs up to fault-tolerant business-critical solutions, and communications products. Compaq is one of the top four leading brands of the world and holds the major share in the local market.

APC: Considering the power conditions CMC is well equipped in supplying the power protection systems from the world's # 1 brand APC. These uninterrupted Power Systems are built for any business environment, starting from 400VA the range goes up to 480KVA. CMC is playing a key role in minimizing the downtime of mission-critical applications running on the high-end server machines through its excellent support services and most reliable APC products.

Printronix: Being authorized distributor for this high-end shuttle matrix printer entire range, CMC holds 95% + of the market share in of line printers. The 500LPM printer is the product of choice for majority of the financial sector and many large corporate in Pakistan and now with the addition of the World's Fastest Printer 2000LPM CMC has become the only choice for those who are dependant on overwhelming printing needs.

AOpen: As a parallel effort towards providing quality components and solutions CMC introduced world class component-solutions from AOpen. AOpen continues as the company of choice for PC components and peripherals. AOpen are an established market leader, from motherboards to monitors, to multimedia add-on cards, and more. AOpen offer the most extensive PC product line in the industry. With AOpen products you are guaranteed the latest in technology development at competitive prices. And because AOpen controls design and manufacturing, from the drawing board to the finished product, the quality of that product is ensured. In fact, every one of ten worldwide manufacturing plants meets the strictest ISO-9001standards

With more than twenty-two years of R&D, manufacturing experience, and over 700 patents in PC technology, AOpen provides a complete solution of PC components. From bare system, motherboards, CD-ROM/CDRW/DVD drives, key board/mouse, RAM, Casings and monitors to multimedia, add-on cards, and communication solutions, AOpen products offer the ultimate in performance and compatibility, un-matched by any other PC manufacturer in the world. Above all, to ensure highest standards of quality, every AOpen product is manufactured and tested in ISO-9000-certified facilities, complying with the world's most rigid manufacturing standards.

Let use find a solution for you. We won't just offer products we have in hand. We will find the right products for your corporate needs.