Knee, the South Korean Superstar, arrived in Pakistan on Nov 28th to practice for the Tekken World Tour Finals 2019. Knee appreciated Pakistani talent and expressed his desire to visit again. During his stay, the Tekken Legend got to enjoy Pakistan’s hospitality and practised during the 3 day sessions in which knee played 41 sets against the strong local talent and ended up winning 38 of them.
Arwa Afridi of Pakistan Railways, with Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited’s support, has won 2 gold medals at the 2nd World Alpagut Championship. The martial arts tournament was held in Baku, Azerbaijan with 600 participants from 24 different countries of different categories. 9 fighters participated from Pakistan, including 2 female and 7 male athletes. Pakistan stood 4th in the overall ranking table.
Leveraging TPL Maps, Trakker and a strong drive for tech innovation, Rider has launched the first of its kind LIVE order tracking in Pakistan. In May, TPL Logistics launched Rider, a last mile delivery service focused on e-commerce and online sellers. The technology allows for smarter, faster and more accurate deliveries that address a multitude of COD related challenges.
Poland has shown interest in enhancing bilateral trade with Pakistan. According to Poland Ambassador to Pakistan Piotr A Opalinski, Pakistan and Poland have good potential to trade many goods with each other as bilateral trade volume between Poland and Pakistan had increased to over half a billion euros. The envoy said Poland was located in central Europe and could become a hub for Pakistan’s exports to the European Union.
Direct flights between Azerbaijan and Pakistan to start next year, strengthening bilateral trade and economic relations as well as people-to-people contacts between the two countries. Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Pakistan Ali Alizada said that investors in Azerbaijan are keen to invest in potential sectors of Pakistan, adding that Azerbaijan attached immense importance to improvement in trade, economic and cultural relations with Pakistan.
Pakistan’s IT companies continued to strengthen their niche in software consultancy services as they attracted over $100 million in receipts in first four months of the current financial year 2019-20. It showed growth of 14.7 percent as compared to same period last year. The overall growth in this field was seen due to the improvement in demand and acceptance of Pakistani companies.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2019, Pakistan has been ranked at a poor 116th place out of 140 countries in the freedom of press rankings. While the European countries are expectedly included in the top 10, countries like Jamaica, Costa Rica, and New Zealand are also rated highly. China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and Iran are all listed at the bottom.
Pakistan and the World Bank have signed five loan agreements of $787 million for development projects, majorly directed to uplifting Karachi. The World Bank will provide $652m for three development projects in Karachi to support urban mobility, urban management and service delivery, improve water and sewerage services, tourism and power sectors. Highest amount of $382m was inked for Karachi Mobility (Yellow Line) Project.
Pakistan has offered Qatar to provide security for the FIFA World Cup scheduled to be held by the Gulf state in 2022. President Arif Alvi made the offer and highlighted that there was a lot of scope in the field of defense exports and joint production ventures. According to him Pakistan’s armed forces had a vast experience in the field of security and professionalism, and could provide security for the Football World Cup 2022.
President Arif Alvi has offered to provide security for next FIFA World Cup 2022 being held in Qatar. In a meeting with Commander of Qatar Emiri Guard, Maj-Gen Hazzaa Bin Khalil, President Alvi stressed that Pakistan’s professional armed force has vast experience in domain of security. He also added that the two countries have great potential to include defence export and joint production ventures.