Page 49 - SAMENA Trends - November-December 2021

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Ericsson Mulls Investing in Pakistan

Telecom firm Ericsson has shown interest opportunities for engineers in the country. with the vision of digital Pakistan.” Ekow
to enhance investment in Pakistan by “Ericsson is committed to expansion and Nelson, head of global customer unit at
deploying advanced networks as well as diversification to bring investment and Ericsson Middle East & Africa, said this
scaling up its nearshore center to create job the best technology to Pakistan in line in a meeting with IT and telecom ministry
of Pakistan. The meeting held to discuss
digitalization, skill development, and
training for engineers in the country. "The
successful meeting with the ministry is
promising and we are looking forward to
the future of technological advancement
in the country." Speaking on the occasion,
federal minister for IT and telecom, Syed
Amin ul Haque said 'strong' measures were
underway for connectivity in urban and
rural areas of the country. He was of the
opinion that Pakistan is a mega-market
of technology and there is great potential
in the youth. Meanwhile, secretary IT
and telecom discussed regulatory and
financial business models and policies for
ease of conducting business. The member
telecom briefed about the investment
areas of technological advancement and
the telecoms’ ecosystem in the country.

UAE Trade Connect Crosses AED10 billion Milestone

Etisalat Digital’s blockchain arm UAE mark represents a landmark achievement and Artificial Intelligence. Launched
Trade Connect (UTC) has crossed the for this nationwide platform that is aligned commercially on 19th April 2021, the
milestone of handling invoices worth with the UAE government’s vision to bring platform was co-created by Etisalat Digital
AED10 billion within its first eight months futuristic technologies such as blockchain along with seven leading UAE banks and
of operation. This amount represents and is set to be another enabler for initially ideated by First Abu Dhabi Bank.
the value of invoices presented by economic growth.” UTC is a first of its kind Several other banks are currently piloting
member banks into the UTC system for nationwide trade finance platform built on the platform and have expressed an
fraud analysis and duplicate financing advanced technologies, namely blockchain interest in joining the consortium in 2022.
checks The consortium banks include
Commercial Bank of Dubai, Commercial
Bank International, EmiratesNBD, First Abu
Dhabi Bank, Mashreq Bank, National Bank
of Fujairah, and National Bank of Ras Al
Khaimah. The Central Bank of UAE is an
observing member of the UTC Steering
Committee. Zul Javaid, CEO of UAE Trade
Connect, commented: “UTC is recognized
as one of the most successful blockchain-
led use cases that actually solves real-
world problems. We are pleased to
announce that in just a few months since
UTC’s launch, our consortium banks have
performed their invoice-level due diligence
in real time. Crossing the AED10 billion

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