News sources have revealed that Pakistan will start joint-production of a light weight fighter aircraft with China in the first quarter of 2007. The JF-17 (also here) aircraft is based on the Russian MIG-21. It was designed and prototyped in China at an estimated cost of US$150 million, half of which has been funded by Pakistan. According to the agreement, full production should start at PAC Kamra in 2007 upon initial delivery of 8 aircrafts from China. The project will not only help in upgrading Pakistan’s aging aircraft fleet, but more importantly ‘it will help train the nation’s engineers and mechanics in the art of aircraft making’.
Pakistan to start fighter aircraft production in 2007
May 11th, 2005PTCL offers free connections under ‘Bilkul Muft scheme’
May 9th, 2005PTCL’s ‘Bilkul Muft scheme’:
Under this scheme people would get new telephone connection by making a call at PTCL UAN number 111900900 if technically feasible the PTCL representative will visit the subscribers’ residence and after filing of new telephone connection form, the connection would be provided at subscriber’s residence.
Anyone called that number?
Additionally, they have also reduced the phone tariffs to Rs 3.50 per minute between any two cities in Pakistan. Last month they posted a profits of RS 21 billion. In parallel, PTCL plans to privatize 26% of their operations and is one of the heavy-weight tickers keeping the market bullish. Quite agressive.
Is the PTCL copper-wire infrastucture running through the city really worth that much? Maybe it’s the backbone that holds all this promise or maybe they are simply trying to set themselves up for high bids from foreign investors.
Internet through power lines?
May 8th, 2005Business Recorder is running a story about a private company in Islamabad that wants to introduce broadband over powerlines. According to the article, DZD Communication’s (no link available) CEO said that operations could start as early as the next three months and that connections would initially be given to multi-story buildings, though negotiations with WAPDA have yet to be wrapped up.
Pakistan moving toward e-procurement with Korea’s assistance
May 5th, 2005As part of the e-government vision, the government of Pakistan is seeking Korea’s assistance with e-procurement. Currently a feasibility study is proposed for 3 months. The key upside to e-procurement is transparency, competitiveness and managerial efficiency. The World Bank has an interesting report on Korea’s e-procurement model (PDF Format. HTML format here) . From the report: staffing requirements fell from 1058 to 935, procurements increased by one-third to $17.1bn. The e-procurement system managed $20bn in goods and services between Sep 2002 and Sep 2003 with the participation of 25,000 public agencies and 87,000 companies. The four factors from Korea’s experience: strong leadership, nationwide e-government reforms, information and communications infrastructure and comprehensive process reengineering. The toughest of those for Pakistan might be process reengineering. Korea began it’s e-government reforms under President Dae Jung Kim (1998-2002).
This is somewhat contradictory to our previous story: Pakistan ranked second last among ‘e-ready’ nations.
FIA cracks down on piracy
May 5th, 2005Looks like someone [image] in the government took notice of the US Trade Representative’s recent IP infringement report (we covered it a few days ago). According to The Daily Times the Federal Investigative Agency seized over 80,000 pirated CDs, DVDs and audiocassettes during 6 separate raids in Karachi. 10 arrests were also made during the raids. This time the FIA means business: instead of going after smaller shops who sell to the end consumers, they went after factories
involved in producing pirated media. It’s interesting to see what a little motivation can do.
Pakistani girl sets record for youngest MCP at age nine
May 3rd, 2005Arfa Karim Randhwa of Multan, Faisalabad, Pakistan has been accredited as the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) at age 9. The requirements for MCP are by no means trivial. No details on which exam she wrote but Desktop Support Technician seems like one of the easier routes to MCP with 4 courses requiring installation, management and troubleshooting knowledge of the windows environment (hardware, filesystem, networking etc) and applications (office, outlook, etc). She studied through Applied Technologies (APTECH) (whose website is a disgrace) in a single summer vacation. She comes from a rural, agricultural background with her father working for United Nations in Congo and her mother acting as the landlady in his absence. She also won a national singing competition. Not an astonishing story, but it does set an excellent precedent for Pakistani youth — a little encouragement goes a long way. Pakistan could use a lot more intellectual capital. What can be done to promote the youth and build intellectual capital?
Pakistan on infringement of intellectual property rights watchlist
May 1st, 2005Not suprisingly, the Daily Times reports that Pakistan has been left on the US Trade Union’s 2005 intellectual priority rights watchlist. According to the USTR’s ‘Special 301’ report Pakistan has made progress during the past year by proposing legislation to form the long awaited Pakistan Intellectual Property Organization (PIPRO), which is designed to centralize enforcement but has been disappointed by lack of legal action against counterfeiters:
An example of Pakistan’s ineffective IPR enforcement occurred in 2004, when four optical disc plants closed voluntarily, but reopened when it became apparent that the Government of Pakistan did not intend to impose any penalties for continued activities related to piracy.
Is protecting foreign granted IP in Pakistan a good thing? Should Pakistan limit itself to curbing piracy (both foreign and local) but stay away from the more restrictive measures (DMCA, software patents) that the US wants the world to adopt?
(* It must be noted that US IP losses stemming from China, Russia and Brazil outweight the rest of the world)
Pakistan’s first locally built car: REVO
April 29th, 2005Adam Motors has come up with it’s own car: REVO (abbreviation for Revolution, I believe). The price range competes directly with Suzuki Mehran (although time will tell). Base models start at Rs.269,000 and CNG models start at Rs.299,000 (making it ~50K cheaper than the Mehran). Forbes reports that 141,000 cars will come off the production line this year. The engine for the car is built by China’s Wuling Engineering Company. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz suggested that the cars should be fitted with CNG to be environmental friendly. What about investing in the public transportation system instead? How will the current roads and traffic support the increasing automotive population? Safety doesn’t seem to be a big concern either. Given that foreign cars are already assembled locally, the only indigenous aspect of this car is the design (that probably got substantial assistance from foreign entities). Sadly, this looks like 1 step forward and 2 steps back.
IT in Karachi
April 28th, 2005Anthony Mitchell, columnist for E-Commerce Times has a great round-up of IT in Karachi is his article Searching for IT in Karachi. He highlights the economic growth factor and potential in Pakistani markets. He also reports on quite a few established firms working with high profiles companies like Amazon and Walmart and some receiving work by way of India and South Africa. This is an arena where commercial and government entities need to work together to build a coherent, stable IT infrastructure to tap foreign markets and local talent. In a related story, local company ZRG International will provide call center solutions for Maersk Pakistan. ZRG provides call center solutions built upon Open Standards-Based technology from Intel’s Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) technology.
Pakistan to launch its own communication and surveillance satellite
April 27th, 2005Pakistan will launch it’s own indigenous communications and surveillance satellite reports TheNews. This comes after Badr-1 Amateur Radio Satellite launched in 1990 which crashed and burned after 146 days, and Badr-2 launched in 2001 (2-3 year lifespan) for data imaging, charged battery experiment, data storage and forwarding, and radiation disometer (for measuring radiation). Like it’s predecessors, the new satellite will be manufactured indigenously. Pakistan Science and Engineering Foundation (Paksef) has an overview of the first two satellites. AARL has a fascinating history of the satellites. In 2002, Pakistan acquired Hughes Global Systems Satellite (HGS3) from the US for a 5 year lease at US$4.5m and dubbed it Paksat-1, Pakistan’s first commercial satellite. Paksat-1 was launched on Dec 29, to meet the Apr 2003 launch window opportunity. It had 30 C-band and 10 Ku band transponders resulting in more bandwidth (tv channels and faster/cheaper internet). Paksat-1 passed through the recommendation of President Pervez Musharraf as did the newly proposed indigenous satellite estimated to complete by 2008. The website for Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission in Pakistan (SUPARCO) is lacking on any information. Details on the telecommunications and surveillance capabilities of the new satellite would be welcome.