Source of the news: https://www.pta.gov.pk/en/media-center/single-media/ambassador-of-turkmenistan-calls-on-chairman-pta-240920
Islamabad (September 23, 2020): The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Turkmenistan to Pakistan, His Excellency, Mr. Atadjan Movlamov called on Chairman PTA, Maj General Amir Azeem Bajwa (R) at PTA Headquarters, Islamabad.
The Ambassador and Chairman PTA discussed matters of mutual interest including the proposed fiber optic link between Turkmenistan and Pakistan with reference to Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. Chairman PTA emphasized Pakistan’s geostrategic location which has made it a principal gateway to the Central Asian Republics for digital connectivity.
The Ambassador and Chairman PTA agreed to have enhanced cooperation in digital connectivity initiatives, and to continue discussions on topics of mutual interest and benefit.
Source of the news: https://www.techjuice.pk/3g-and-4g-users-have-increased-by-2-million-from-july-to-august-2020/
The number of 3G and 4G users in Pakistan has reached 84.81 million by end of August 2020, as compared to 82.76 million at the end of July, registering an increase of 2.05 million or 2.48%, said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
The overall number of mobile phone users in Pakistan also registered an increase of 0.95 million users, as total mobile phone users at the end of August were 168.97 million as compared to 168.04 million at July end. Monthly Next Generation Mobile Service (NGMS) penetration increased from 39.25 percent in July to 40.95 percent in August 2020.
As far as individual mobile network providers are concerned, Jazz’s total count for 3G users stood at 10.247 million by the end of August down from 10.480 million by the end of July, showing a decrease of 0.233 million. However, Jazz 4G user numbers jumped from 19.982 million by the end of July 2020 to 21.068 million by the end of August 2020.
Zong’s 3G subscribers also decreased from 6.314 million by July 2020 to 6.118 million in August while its 4G users jumped from 18.131 million from July 2020 to 18.777 million by August.
The number of 3G users of Telenor decreased from 6.790 million in July to 6.665 million by August. The number of 4G users jumped from 11.583 million in July 2020 to 12.250 million by August.
Ufone’s 3G users decreased from 5.258 million by the end of July to 5.148 million by the end of August. The number of 4G users of Ufone increased from 4.221 million by the end of July 2020 to 4.534 million by the end of August.
Teledensity for cellular mobile increased from 79.21 percent from July to 79.65 in August. The broadband subscribers increased from 83.17 million to 84.82 million.
PTA received 8,961 complaints from telecom consumers against different telecom operators including (cellular operators, PTCL, LDIs, WLL operators, and ISPs) as of August 2020. PTA said that it was able to get 8,807 complaints resolved i.e. 98 percent.
According to PTA data, Jazz leads the chart with 2,949 complaints and Zong at the second position as the most complained telecom operator with 2,373.
Cellular mobile subscribers constitute a major part of the overall telecom subscriber base, therefore, the higher number of complaints belong to this segment. The total number of complaints against CMOs by August stood at 8,086.
In terms of the segregation of complaints on operator basis, 36.47 percent of the total CMO related complaints were about Jazz.
Zong stood second with 2,373 complaints i.e. 29.34 percent of total complaints. Telenor, which has the second-largest number of consumers, was third with 1554 i.e. 19.21 percent complaints were received against it.
Ufone had 1,172 complaints against its various services which make up 14.49 percent of the total CMO related complaints.
PTA also received 186 complaints against basic telephony and 176 of them were addressed during August 2020. Further 676 complaints were received against ISPs out of which 615 were addressed.
First layer of indigenous coal has successfully been unearthed in Thar Coal Block II.
According to Sindh Engro Coal Mining, the coal was unearthed today at a depth of 140 meters below the surface, which is a great success.
It said the successful extraction of the first coal seam not only proves that Thar’s indigenous coal is exploitable but can produce thousands of megawatts of cheap electricity for many decades.
The entire coal production will be supplied to Engro Powergen Thar Limited which is putting up a 660 megawatt of power plant which is likely to start power generation this year.
Source of the News: http://www.radio.gov.pk/10-06-2018/first-layer-of-indigenous-coal-successfully-unearthed-in-thar-coal-block-ii
KARACHI: Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan have clocked two-year highs during the first ten months (July-April) of the outgoing financial year 2017-18.
Despite tensions between the two neighbour countries, State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) latest report reveals Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan touched $1.282 billion in July-April FY18, reported Dawn.
The figure of Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan was higher than the $959 million figure recorded in corresponding period of last year.
In FY15, exports to Afghanistan were recorded at $1.699 billion which decreased to $1.230 billion in FY16 and reducing to $1.165 billion in FY17.
Pakistan mostly exports food products like rice, meat, wheat flour to Afghanistan but up around 50 percent of flour mills closed down because of low exports.
Historically Pakistani textile products held sway in Kabul, however, the recent perforation of Indian and Chinese products has seen the latter upending the former from its traditional market of unfinished and finished textile products.
According to a Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) report, rampant smuggling to Afghanistan would mean the size of export could be twice more of what the official data reveals.
Pakistan is a major exporter of pharmaceutical products to Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and to some African countries as well.
Source of the News: https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/06/09/pakistan-exports-to-afghanistan-clock-two-year-highs-touch-1-282-billion/
LAHORE: Japan’s Sojitz Corporation will be investing $136.5 million for assembling Hyundai branded vehicles in Pakistan alongside its domestic partner Nishat Mills.
In a notification sent to the stock exchange on Wednesday, Nishat Mills Limited along with its consortium constituting of Nishat Group and Pakistan’s largest tractor manufacturer Millat Tractors Limited (MTL) with Sojitz corporation would enter the assembly, wholesale and retail business for Korean Hyundai brand vehicles in Pakistan.
The notification said “HNMPL’s total setup cost will be in the JPY 15 billion range. An assembly plant— scheduled for completion in December 2019—is currently under construction in a special economic zone in Faisalabad, Pakistan’s third largest city.
“Sales will be carried out through distributor-owned dealers and franchise dealers, with the goal of reaching 6% market share by 2024,” read the notification.
Pakistan’s automotive market has demonstrated an annual growth rate of over 10%. The country’s automotive market is forecast to expand further thanks to rising numbers of consumers.
In March last year, it was reported Nishat Mills had decided to enter into a shareholder agreement with Sojitz Corporation of Japan (Sojitz) for an acquisition of a 40pc stake in the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary HNMPL. Sojitz was stated to be in an equity sharing agreement with HNMPL via an investment of Rs 40m.
The agreement is subject to the grant of regulatory approvals. Moreover, HNMPL had announced conducting a feasibility analysis of setting up a greenfield project to establish an assembly and sales unit for passenger and 1-ton commercial vehicles in Pakistan.
Also, in 2017 Nishat Mills, a subsidiary of Nishat Group had announced venturing with the South Korean Hyundai to set up an assembly plant in the country.
The agreement was significant in the sense that it marked the return of Hyundai to Pakistan’s automobile industry in addition to being a strong move to break the monopoly of Japanese companies dominating Pakistan’s automobile industry by assembling cars in Pakistan in collaboration with local partners.
Nishat Mills shares were trading at Rs150.81, up Rs0.79 (+0.53 percent). KSE-100 index was trading at 44,215.51 points, up 71.31 points (+0.16 percent) in the first half hour on Thursday.
Source of the News: https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/06/07/japans-sojitz-corp-to-invest-136-9-million-for-assembling-hyundai-vehicles-in-pakistan/
ISLAMABAD: In a major development, US energy giant ExxonMobil has acquired 25% shareholding in offshore drilling in Pakistan.
Earlier, Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and Italian energy firm Eni had 33% stake each in offshore drilling in the country. Now, ExxonMobil has acquired 25% shareholding, reducing the share of all partner companies to 25% each.
An agreement in that regard was signed at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat on Monday among ExxonMobil, Government Holdings Private Limited (GHPL), PPL, Eni and OGDC.
ExxonMobil has vast experience of offshore drilling for the search of hydrocarbons and it will help boost efforts of partner companies for oil and gas exploration in the country.
Offshore drilling has brought a revolution in the US oil and gas market and even shaken the monopoly of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) – a global grouping of major oil producers and exporters.
In its first assessment, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) estimated that Pakistan had massive deposits of 10,159 trillion cubic feet of shale gas and 2.3 trillion barrels of shale oil – figures that were several times higher than those released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
According to the EIA assessment in April 2011, Pakistan had 206 trillion cubic feet of shale gas in the lower Indus Basin, of which 51 trillion cubic feet were recoverable. However, in June 2013, it revised the estimate upwards to 586 trillion cubic feet, of which 105 trillion cubic feet were technically recoverable.
Source: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1721191/2/
Pakistan will establish an indigenous facility for development of satellites in accordance with international space standards under annual development plan for the next year.
The facility, Pakistan Space Centre (PSC), will have capability to carry out manufacturing, testing, system level assembly, integration, launch and operations of various types of satellites.
As per Information and Communication Technology Annual Plan 2018-19, the Pakistan Multi-Mission Satellite will cater to demand of Direct-To-Home, High-Throughput Services (HTS)/Broadband Internet and Strategic SATCOM.
Press TV- Iran says it has transited a major consignment of tangerines from Pakistan to Kazakhstan in an initiative that could open a new corridor for shipment of food items from Southeast Asia to markets as far as Russia.
Iran’s IRNA news agency reported that the consignment that comprised 350 tonnes of tangerines had arrived in the country’s southeastern city of Zahedan by train from Pakistan’s Quetta and was already on its way to the port city of Octave in Kazakhstan. It would be then loaded on ships to be transited to Russia.
In April, the first transit consignment from Quetta was sent to Octave through the same route. It comprised potatoes, mango, tangerine and rice.
Majid Arjoni, the director general for Iran’s Southeast Railway Department, was quoted by media as saying that the country expected to transit as much as one million tonnes of goods through Zahedan-Quetta railway every year. The railway is 650 kilometers long and it takes almost 33 hours for trains to travel between the two cities.
The railway standards between Iran and Pakistan are different in terms of track width and transit consignments will have to be taken through a “Tranship Operation” when they reach the border point between the two countries.