Pakistan and its Image Problem: Eric Schmidt: ProPakistani

Pakistan and its Image Problem: Eric Schmidt
Use Facebook on Phones for Free With Mobilink Jazz, Jazba
Nokia, At Last, Gets its Pakistan Specific Website
Branchless Banking Transactions Hit Rs. 85 Billion Mark During Jan-March 2012

Pakistan and its Image Problem: Eric Schmidt

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 10:19 PM PDT

Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, who recently visited Pakistan has expressed his thoughts about Pakistan – based on facts he learned during his two day visit to Pakistan last week.

Without mentioning much about what he achieved or wanted to achieve from this visit, Eric wrote a note on his Google Plus page narrating the potentials and problems of Pakistan.

As mentioned above, Eric decided not to reveal any of the details about his meetings with top leadership of Pakistan during this stealth visit, neither Google has issued an official statement so far – something that Pakistani media has been demanding since he departed.

Eric's Below note about Pakistan is very constructive and well observed – I would say – which could win him a lot only if Eric was a Journalist/reporter. As an executive chairman of Google, an internet evangelist and top preacher of open web, we had different expectations from him. But that's okay – what he wrote is worthy as well.

Read below what Eric had to say about Pakistan on Google Plus page:

Pakistan, a Muslim country, has spent about half of its independent life under military governments. Today, Pakistani leadership celebrates the ruling coalitions success in almost finishing the first five year term in history (previous leaders indicted by the courts, assassinated by extremists or brushed aside by the generals.)

In meetings last week with the senior General, Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, they made the case for a new and updated image of Pakistan: one of the largest democracies in the world, with a vibrant and open press, an upcoming demographic dividend of hardworking young people, and a highly educated elite leadership of the country. Islamabad and Lahore, where we visited, were relatively safe and certainly safer than Afghanistan. It was clear to us that Pakistan has an image problem.

Pakistan also has a power problem, as in electric power. Power is now off two hours out of three all day and all night. Estimates are that the country has enough generation capacity (hydro and oil based) to handle all the load, but corruption, power stealing, poor payment rates and the classic mistake of underpricing power compared to its real generation cost means that industrial production is threatened. Everyone of means has a UPS, and the air-conditioning seldom works on a 45 Celcius day. Our meetings often were literally in the dark, a common enough occurrence that people did not even remark about it.

Pakistanis are on their way to full mobile penetration with more than 110 million users, and all effective political communication programs now rely on SMS. 3G licenses are underway and the start of a real software industry can be seen.
Against this backdrop, another side of Pakistan emerges. The consensus is that the military drives the foreign policy of the country with unforeseen consequences.

Alleged use of extremist groups to fight in Kashmir enables a criminal element to flourish, and the hosting of the Taliban in the autonomous regions (called FATA) to the north and west in the mountains turned an ungoverned area into a very dangerous area. The Army Generals explained the difference between fundamentalism (which they support) and extremism (which they fight), and the political leadership explained that the extremism now comes from "seminaries" where youth are indoctrinated, housed and fed in the rural areas where there are no opportunities at all.

Until recently a strong US ally, Pakistan is now on very good terms with China, and has improving relations with India (with whom they have had three wars.) The development of a nuclear stalemate between India and Pakistan seems to have forced them to pursue accommodation and trade is now increasing rapidly. The press are generally hyper-critical of the United States policies in the region and take the view that the India-US relationship is driving much of our countries behavior.

The drone strikes are universally condemned as a violation of sovereignty and their constitution and are subject to much negotiation between the two countries. The bin Laden raid is viewed with strikingly different perspectives in the two countries.
The son of the chief of the Supreme Court is under investigation for corruption, and the media in turmoil after the appearance of staged interviews.

In return, the Supreme Court has ruled that the Prime Minister is unable to govern after he was sentenced to a 30 second (yes, that's right) detention for failing to investigate a corruption case against the President. The Prime Minister, so proud of the stability of the political system in his comments a week ago, is now the former-Prime Minister. The lack of trust within the society weakens both the real and perceived effectiveness of the government on security, corruption and good government matters.

We met a number of impressive Pakistanis, none more so than Masarrat Misbah of Smile Again. Every year, hundreds of young rural women have acid thrown on their faces by men as punishment for some dishonor, including being raped by the men who pour acid on her. This horrific crime, which often leads to death or blindness, requires painful rehabilitation and rebuilding of the woman's life.

Masarrat Misbah's home in Lahore provides a temporary safe house. The perpetrators, most often direct family members, are seldom prosecuted and almost never convicted of anything. I will never forget the faces of these shy, young women so grievously injured in such an evil way.

Much of what people say and think about Pakistan is absolutely true for most of the FATA provinces (autonomous areas) and for Baluchistan. Pakistan’s image problem results from the fact that people outside the country believe the realities of North and South Waziristan and Quetta are reflective of what the larger country looks like. Islamabad and Lahore are certainly safer than people realize, unless you are a politician (many prominent politicians still suffer assassination attempts and threats inside these cities).

Pakistan’s major security challenge comes from having two many fronts. FATA represents a Haqqani network and Taliban problem, threatening the establishment in Islamabad. Baluchistan is a persistent separatist movement. Afghanistan is a threat because Pashtuns are allowed to go back and forth undocumented. All of this, including India, is simply too much for a government like Pakistan to take on right now.

We ultimately see three Pakistans: 1) The places where the security issues are true (FATA, Baluchistan, parts of SWAT Valley, and Kashmir); 2) the rest of Pakistan for the average citizen, much larger than the first and which is reasonably misunderstood and relatively safe; 3) The politician’s and military’s Pakistan, which whether in FATA or Islamabad, is turbulent, unsafe, and complex.

There is a good case for optimism about Pakistan, simply because of the large emergent middle class (#2). The country, vast, tribal and complicated, can follow the more successful model of India. Connectivity changes the rural experience completely.. illiteracy at 43% can be overcome relatively quickly, and providing information alternatives can dissuade young males from a life of terrorism. The well educated elite can decide to further reform the countries institutions to increase confidence in the government. The war in Afghanistan, destabilizing to Pakistan in many ways, winds down after 2014 and buys time for Pakistan to address its real and continuing internal terrorism threat (more than 30,000 civilian terror deaths in the decade.)

Technology can help in other ways as well. The power problem is mostly a tracking problem (tracing corruption and mis-distribution). The problem of extreme crimes (like acid, or stoning) in poorly policed regions can be mitigated with videos and exposes that shame authorities into prosecution. The corruption problem can be tracked and traced using mobile money and transparent government finances. We met with clever Pakistani entrepreneurs who will build large, new businesses in Pakistan in the next few years and global multinational will locate sales and eventually manufacturing in the country.

The emergent middle class of Pakistan won't settle for a corrupt system with constant terrorism and will push for reforms in a burgeoning democracy. Here's to the new civil society of Pakistan, who will use connectivity, information and the Internet, to drive a peaceful revolution that brings Pakistan up to its true potential.

Use Facebook on Phones for Free With Mobilink Jazz, Jazba

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 10:18 PM PDT

Mobilink today announced the re-launch of Facebook Zero, a light-weight Facebook interface for customers to get in touch with their friends and family on Facebook without any charges.

All Mobilink prepaid customers can use Facebook Zero (0.facebook.com) on their mobile phones without paying anything.

Facebook Zero is a project by Facebook in which it partners with network carriers, around the world, to offer their customers a light weight version of Facebook at no charge.

Customers need to on to 0.facebook.com from their phone browsers (on supported networks, Mobilink in this case) and get connected to the free and fast version of Facebook.

Facebook Zero includes all key features of the standard Facebook mobile site, and allows you to update your status, view your News Feed, Like or Comment on posts, send and reply to messages, or write on your friends’ Wall just as you do on regular Facebook.com.

Mobilink had earlier launched Facebook Zero in 2010, which they re-launched now with enhanced features. Ufone also offered Facebook Zero for limited time.

The following Terms & Conditions apply to the usage of Facebook Zero offer:

This service is available for Mobilink Prepaid subscribers only, including all Jazz & Jazba subscribers.
This service is not available for Blackberry devices.
Facebook Zero can be accessed only via default internet browsers on handsets and above mentioned versions of Opera Mini.
Use jazzconnect.mobilinkworld.com for using Facebook Zero. Subscribers using jazzwap.mobilinkworld.com may get charged.
Facebook Zero URLs should be entered without writing www and https before these.
Facebook Zero should not be accessed via proxy server.
Though viewing photos, videos or external link is just one click away, standard GPRS charges as per package plan will apply.
Subscriber may get charged for any mobile phone applications consuming data in background. This can be controlled by turning off such applications.
This is a limited time offer.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Nokia, At Last, Gets its Pakistan Specific Website

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 10:15 PM PDT

Nokia today announced the launch of a dedicated Nokia Pakistan website with an aim to provide up-to-date information about Nokia business and key activities in the country, said a statement issued by Nokia today.

As pointed out by ProPakistani earlier, Nokia didn't had its Pakistan specific website at a time when every other country had dedicated Nokia websites.

The Nokia Pakistan website follows the template and layout style found in the Nokia Global and other regional Nokia websites. Pakistani consumers can now log onto the Nokia Pakistan website www.nokia.com/pk and find information about products, apps, consumer support, store finder and Nokia contact information relevant to Pakistani consumers.

The website has cataloged all the latest mobile phones that are available in Pakistan; giving the potential buyers the ability to compare a set of different mobile phones to help them choose just the right one for themselves.

The website also offers a dedicated tab for a list of latest applications available on Nokia Store and for the user convenience another important feature is the Store finder, which directs a potential consumer to a nearby Nokia retail outlet/care center based in selected location.

The website also provides support for Nokia devices including software updates, product fixes and a discussion forum where consumers can get answers to their queries and general product/OS specific information. The support section of the website also offers contact details where consumers can raise queries or get in touch with the Nokia team for product related information.

"Nokia's localized website for Pakistan will aid us in offering enriched services to our loyal customer base that is increasing in Pakistan every day, so every day we are looking for new and better ways to let them enjoy an enriching mobility experience" said Adeel Hashmi, Head of Communications, Nokia Pakistan & Afghanistan. "Nokia is the leading mobile phone brand in Pakistan – while it is a great position to be at, it also brings in added responsibility to constantly push boundaries. In this context, a Pakistan specific Nokia website doesn't just provide information but brings together solutions that accentuate what we call 'connecting to what matters the most'."

Branchless Banking Transactions Hit Rs. 85 Billion Mark During Jan-March 2012

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 10:00 PM PDT

Branchless Banking has been on the rise, the trend has shown some sluggishness in January-March 2012 quarter but overall turnover remained positive.

During the Quarter ending March 2012, more than 25 million transactions worth Rs. 85 billion (USD 938 million) have been processed through branchless banking channels. Number of transactions and the transacted value has increased by 23% and 7% respectively during the quarter, reported State Bank of Pakistan.

Branchless Banking Transactions remained Rs. 79.4 Billion During Sep-Dec 2011

Growth in agent's network and number of mobile wallets during the quarter was 19% and 14% respectively.

The number of registered m-wallets has reached to 1.03 million at the end of the March 2012, in which the number of active m-wallets is about 53%. Level 1 accounts are almost 86% of total m-wallet accounts while Level 0 accounts (a category which was allowed in June 2011 by SBP) are only 7%.

In addition, 5,573 debit cards have also been provided to mobile account holders, indicating efforts to create value proposition in m-wallets.

Growth rate of m-wallets stood at 14 %, showing some slow-down compared to the last quarter when the growth rate was around 40%. Similar trend is observed in deposits value.

The less-than-expected growth rate in m-wallets is owed to the fact that only 23% of the total active agents (around 24,101) are authorized by banks to open the m-wallet accounts.

The growth expectation in coming quarters is, however, fairly high as the largest brand of the country is in process of technology up-gradation for account opening, forth which it will start registration of customers for Level Zero Account.

Easypaisa and Omni are progressively exploring avenues to increase the attractiveness of m-wallets to the customers and offering them new services such as purchasing air-tickets, receiving salaries/ pensions, utilizing ATM through debit cards, and internet banking. Moreover, few other banks are likely to start their BB operations soon.

BB Transactions Growth Continuous

The growth in number of transactions is mainly due to the increasing volume of bill payments, person to person fund transfers, and airtime top-ups, which accounts for 42%, 32% and 10% respectively.

Similarly, the growth in value of transactions is again owed largely to P2P payments. All other categories have either experienced slightly negative growth or have contributed a small share in total value.

While considering share in total value, all bulk payments constitute almost 50% of the total value of transactions followed by P2P payments (36%) and Bill payment (12%). Growth has been observed in loan repayment transactions as Rs. 312 million were collected through BB agents. Both models (Easypaisa and Omni) are trying to increase their linkages with microfinance providers to allow microfinance borrowers to use BB channels for repayment of loans.

Moreover, volume of salary disbursement has also increased mainly due to Easypaisa's arrangement with government organizations for salary disbursement.

Around Rs.13.8 billion have been transferred on account of G2P payments through the existing agents' based banking. In this current issue, G2P transactions have been separately incorporated in Table 4, which were previously shown as part of the Account to Person transactions.

Upcoming BB Solutions:

The Waseela Microfinance Bank Limited, a subsidiary of M/s Orascom, has commenced its business operations as a nationwide microfinance bank. The bank has opened its first branch in Islamabad and aims to enter into Branchless Banking business to increase the outreach of financial services in Pakistan shortly.

Habib Bank Limited has recently obtained permission from SBP to start pilot branchless banking services. SBP has also allowed Faysal Bank to pilot launch its mobile banking services to its existing customer base.

Two other commercial banks, Meezan Bank and Bank Al-Falah, are also keen for entering into branchless banking services.

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Friday, June 22, 2012