Huawei signs MoU with Top ICT System Integrators of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, APR 14: As a commitment to shared success and better profitability with partners, Huawei signed MoU’s with Pakistan’s top system integrators including Wateen Solutions, New Horizon Computer, Computer Marketing Company and IBL-Unisys, during the Huawei Middle East IT Day in Dubai.

Top ICT system integrators in Pakistan join hands with Huawei to deliver ICT technology solutions to corporate and commercial market of Pakistan, enabling both large enterprises and SMB to avail latest technology products and solutions on a fast track digital transformation journey.

Huawei shows it’s commitment to grow together with local partners, extending its products and services to commercial sector.

While the world is facing huge global supply chain challenges, Huawei continues to serve enterprise customers with standard delivery time of 8 weeks or even as fast as 1 week with its unique advantages of Huawei’s own chipset, automated manufacturing Centers, and global supply Centers.

Wateen Solutions Pvt Ltd CEO, Mr. Adil Rasheed stated at the signing,

“As Pakistan’s leading ICT company, Wateen offers an array of services especially catering to the SME sector. We believe Wateen will offer a great value by delivering Huawei E2E stable products and solutions to this particular sector of the market.”

New Horizon COO, Mr. QaiserSarwar stated, "Huawei used to focus a lot on named accounts and big size clients. It is a very strategic move for Huawei to go into the commercial sector with a very collaborative approach. New Horizon used to have largest sales force in the country to fulfill the market of commercial sector customers. Now with Huawei’s new strategy, we are very excited again to avail the strength of both Huawei and New Horizon for better serving this market segment and build a more safety and reliablenetwork for our customers.”

Mr. Mark Meng, CEO of Huawei Pakistan, stated on the occasion, “In the era of intelligence, the key to a mutually beneficial ecosystem is to enable everyone to use their own strengths to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Huawei will continue to evolve its ecosystem policies to expand the partner ecosystem, help partners achieve their goals, and provide better support for partners. We will dedicate our efforts to the development, cultivation, support, incentives, and compliance of our partners. Ultimately, we will streamline partner management to build an open, cooperative, and mutually beneficial ecosystem, and strive to become the preferred supplier for digital transformation.

To survive, a company must be able to compete in the market. To thrive, however, cooperation is also needed, which is perfectly encapsulated by the old adage: if you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.

Huawei is the chief IT and Telecom equipment supplier in Pakistan. Huawei has established secure end-to-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive advantages in telecom and enterprise networks, devices, and cloud computing.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Iqra University gets highest rating in the field of Business, Management Studies

 

ISLAMABAD, APR 14: Iqra University (IU) Karachi has been ranked as one of the world’s top universities in the latest edition of the prestigious QS World University Subject Rankings. 

Iqra University has received the highest rating in the field of Business and Management Studies.

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), an international higher education think tank, has released the twelfth edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject: an independent comparative analysis of the performance of 15,200 university programs across 51 academic disciplines, offered at 88 locations across the world. QS World University Rankings is one of the most reliable ranking systems of higher education institutions in the world.  

The comprehensive ranking criteria used by QS include the following:

 

1. Academic reputation

2. Employer reputation

3. Citations per paper

4. H-Index

Only 8 universities from Pakistan have been included in the QS Subject rankings 2022 for Business and Management Studies. The QS ranked Pakistani universities include Iqra University Karachi, Lahore University of Management Sciences, National University of Science and Technology, Institute of Business Administration, COMSATS University Isalambad, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, The University of Lahore and University of the Punjab. 

Iqra University Karachi is the only private sector university in the province of Sindh to be ranked in the QS Subject rankings 2022. 

It has superseded the majority of leading public sector universities from Pakistan to be included in the QS rankings. 

IU has also outperformed several reputed foreign universities from Japan, the United States, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates in the QS Subject rankings 2022.

Iqra University has yet again proven its excellence in research and innovation in the country. IU has obtained one of the highest scores on the research related QS criteria by scoring 77.1 points in Citations per Paper and 71.2 points in H-Index QS criteria, superseding LUMS, IBA and other prominent business schools in the country. 

The inclusion of IU in the latest QS rankings is a testament to the university’s commitment to offering world class education to its students from across Pakistan. 

Having secured the top ranking by HEC, CIEC and QS, IU will continue to set new benchmarks in the higher education sector of Pakistan in future.

----------------------------------------

Zong Introduces Amazing New International Roaming Bundle For UAE

 

 

ISLAMABAD, APR 13: Zong 4G, Pakistan's top cellular and digital services provider, has now released a new UAE International Roaming (IR) package for its prepaid customers, in order to meet their changing connectivity needs. 

The UAE IR Bundle costs Rs 1,999+Tax and includes 120 minutes, 120 SMSs, and 2GB of data with a seven-day validity period. The offer can be enabled by dialling *4255# or going to https://www.zong.com.pk/onlineshop/ir-bundles on the Zong website. Customers will also be able to have seamless and unrestricted access to Whatsapp and its services in UAE as well. 

The UAE IR Bundle can also be subscribed through the My Zong App. 

Pakistanis travel to the United Arab Emirates frequently for both business and recreational purposes. With Zong's UAE package, Pakistanis will be able to stay in touch with their family and friends back home without having to change SIM cards. 

"The UAE Prepaid International Roaming Bundle is a continuation of our efforts to offer Zong a full communications solution that keeps consumers connected even while travelling internationally," said Zong’s official spokesperson.

“We stay committed to serving our customers with innovative and convenient services and solutions across Pakistan and even beyond its borders through are hundreds of International telecom partners. With many Pakistanis traveling frequently to UAE, this bundle will make communication during travel more convenient. We will continue enhancing our roaming portfolio through more innovative products and services for our customers,” the spokesperson added.

Zong is one of Pakistan's top mobile connectivity providers, and it is spearheading the country's digital transformation with several first-of-their-kind initiatives. 

Zong is credited with pioneering 4G in Pakistan and running the first successful 5G test in the country, in addition to its ongoing network transformation initiatives to provide users with best-in-class services. 

Prior to the UAE prepaid package, Zong has introduced dozens of prepaid and postpaid roaming plans in Turkey, China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Europe, and many other countries.

--------------------------------------

UET Taxila partnered with Huawei to cultivate ICT talent

ISLAMABAD, APR 13: The disruption caused by the pandemic was the ultimate test case for Pakistan's digital ambitions. As the country went into lockdown last year, Pakistan is turned to smartphones, tablets and laptops to work, play, study and stay connected. 

For all intents and purposes, the country's digital ecosystem passed with flying colours, underlining Pakistan Vision 2025 and the Digital policy of Pakistan, which envisions a $20 billion ICT industry by2025. 

But the digital trends to emerge from the pandemic warrant a reassessment of the ICT talent development pipeline. Like elsewhere in the world, universities in Pakistan must evolve their teaching and operational models to cope with the demands of an increasingly digital world. 

How can our universities rise to this challenge? The first step is acknowledging that classroom education alone is not enough to equip students with an all-rounded skillset that modern organizations require. Students need hands-on experience and deep practical experience to go with theoretical classroom teaching. Such an outcome requires universities to work with the broader ICT ecosystem to leverage the technical strengths that only tech companies can bring. 

Among Pakistan Universities, the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Taxila, was among the first ones to realize the power of partnerships to benefit our students and the broader economy. One of the university's strongest collaborations is with Huawei, whose partnership covers not only upgrading its computer training curriculum but also building a campus of the future.

UET Taxila hosts Huawei ICT Academy, a school-enterprise cooperation project created to help forge a deeper talent ecosystem. By strengthening the cooperation mechanism between universities and enterprises, Huawei helps universities cultivate ICT talent that meets industry requirements, providing high-quality talent for industry development. Today, Huawei ICT Training modules are part of the Computer and Telecom Curriculum at UET Taxila. 

An advanced education curriculum should have a delivery environment to match. That is why UET Taxila has prioritized the building of a smart campus. The university's leadership again turned to Huawei to roll out an extensive Smart and Safe Campus Project based on Huawei ICT infrastructure. Thus, the Huawei Smart Classrooms at UET Taxila and partner institution Fatima Jinnah Women University has facilitated live video conference and online lecture broadcast and recording. 

With this digital foundation in place, we are keen to support Pakistan's vision of building a knowledge-based economy. Putting in place an advanced ICT infrastructure is fundamental to this effort. The government has already implemented the policy framework to roll out 5G in preparation for its eventual launch by April 2023. Countries in our region where 5G has been deployed have already seen significant benefits. In Kuwait, one of the Middle East countries with the earliest and fastest 5G development, carriers have achieved 4% growth in revenue and 13% growth in profitability since rolling out 5G. Beyond connectivity, 5G will support the rise of vertical industries and support Pakistan Vision 2025. Currently, 5G use cases have been deployed in industries such as Digital Oil &Gas and Smart Port with highly encouraging results, and we expect to see 5G enabling more industries in the future. 

But to successfully roll out 5G requires skills to match. Again, industry partnerships with technology providers will be crucial to training our youth on 5G. Huawei is ramping up 5G training in collaboration with universities where the technology is available, offering 5G training certificates and partnering on building innovative real-world projects in 5G.Additionally, Huawei's annual skills development initiatives, such as Seeds for the future, now offer students valuable opportunities to immerse themselves in cutting-edge ICT technologies such as 5G to gather experience through hands-on practice. Consequently, UET Taxila aims to embark on 5G test deployment and research in collaboration with Huawei as the technology is rolled out.

Rapid deployment of advanced technologies, however, comes with risks. This is not specific to Pakistan, but the world faces formidable cybersecurity threats due to the expanded threat landscape brought on by rapid digital transformation. Collaboration is vital in tackling cybercrime. A safer network is a shared obligation, and we are happy to see global technology firms such as Huawei working with educational institutions to train students on cybersecurity mitigation efforts

The Pakistan government shares our vision of collaborating far and wide for shared success. In a recent speech, the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Dr ArifAlvi, commended Huawei Academy's partnership with about 80 different universities in Pakistan to nurture young talent. He noted the large number of students undergoing ICT training, praising global companies' efforts to create an ecosystem for harnessing talent.

----------------------------------------------------

Zong Partners with OPay to Enhance Availability of Mobile Recharge

 

 

Islamabad, APR 11: Zong 4G, Pakistan’s cellular and digital services frontrunner, has joined hands with OP Digital Services Pvt. Ltd (OPay) to integrate the mobile top-up facility in OPay’s point of sale (POS) terminals. 

Through this collaboration, OPay will ensure that customers  have the availability of mobile recharge at more locations such as shopping malls, pharmacies etc. and will help merchants to increase customer engagement on their respective locations. This partnership will help both organizations in moving forward in their mission to provide digital solutions to their customers. 

It is also the first time that a POS service provider will enable merchants to provide mobile top-up services through its physical touch points. This new addition to OPay’s services will also enable merchants to serve their customers with new smart POS solutions which will be offered through the agent network with the objective of creating a positive impact on financial inclusion.

“We’re happy to have partnered with OP Digital Services to help Zong customers recharge their mobile balance more conveniently at more retailers,” shared Zong’s official spokesperson. “The development is also in-line with both organizations’ mission of digital and financial enablement in Pakistan through which merchants will also see increased customer engagement.”

“Partnering with a cellular and digital services giant like Zong will help us reach out to more customers across Pakistan, facilitating them in topping up their mobile balance with more convenience,” shared Qaiser Sheikh, Director Partnerships at OPay Pakistan. “We share the goals of digitalization in Pakistan and that very motto has brought the two organizations closer.”

OPay is a fintech company based out of Beijing with a presence across Africa and Asia and a valuation over US$ 2 billion. It is a one-stop mobile-based platform for payment, transportation, food & grocery delivery, and other important services in everyday life. Millions of users rely on OPay everyday to send and receive money, pay bills among other services.

Zong 4G is the digital partner for the Pakistani youth and is leading Pakistan to a new era of connectivity and opportunities. Being a customer-centric company offering innovative solutions and services, Zong is leaving no stone unturned to address the needs of the digitally savvy generation. With 14,000+ 4G towers and the best data and value added services, Zong 4G proves to be the network of choice for millions of young people.

----------------------------------------------------