LIFEBUOY ANNOUNCED AS OFFICIAL HYGIENE PARTNER FOR CARFIRST

 

CarFirst, Pakistan’s most trusted used car trading platform announced Lifebuoy, the world’s number one germ protection soap brand,  as their official ‘Hygiene Partner’. Lifebuoy's global and national dedication to hand hygiene reinforced CarFirst’s commitment to partner with the brand as their official hygiene partner. The brand partnered with CarFirst to actively carry out Lifebuoy’s commitment to promoting hand hygiene habits. As part of the partnership, the brand will provide hand hygiene products to CarFirst at their customer-facing operations.

Commenting on this partnership Anam Toseef, Head of Corporate Communications CarFirst, said "The health and wellbeing of our employees, customers, and members of our community is our utmost priority, and this collaboration aims to provide our community access to reliable hand hygiene. During the ongoing COVID Pandemic, we valued Lifebuoy's public service messaging, where they encouraged and appealed to the Pakistani public to wash their hands with soap, regardless of the brand. Everyone should take the necessary precautions and responsibly safeguard themselves and those around them. Thus, post lockdown, at CarFirst’s first public press event, we handed out safety kits to all our attendees that included face coverings and Lifebuoy hand hygiene products. At our Multan Operations launch, along with our CarFirst's CEO, Raja Murad Khan, MNA Makhdoom Zain Qureshi, and members of the press joined our commitment to promote hand hygiene and maintain appropriate social distancing for the general health and well-being of our community."

Commenting on this partnership, Asima Haq, Director Beauty & Personal Care Unilever, said “Lifebuoy has always been a brand that has looked to support people to have better personal hygiene. Following the success of our partnership with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), we are very excited to be partnering with CarFirst, who are truly the drivers of change in the used car industry. Lifebuoy is on a long-standing mission to inspire better hygiene practices, at home and at work. We’re looking forward to working closely with CarFirst to promote better hygiene practices in Pakistan.”

CarFirst is geared towards simplifying the lives of its customers and continuously driving Pakistan's used car industry forward through innovation, and playing a role as Pakistan’s most trusted used car trading platform. CarFirst is proud to be the driver of change by bringing forth transparency, regulation, instant payment, secure transfers, and hassle-free trading across Pakistan. CarFirst is Pakistan's most trusted used car trading platform that revolutionized the way used cars are traded in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Faisalabad, and Hyderabad. CarFirst has solved the problems of the used car market by bringing in regulation, transparency, instant payment, secure transfers, and hassle-free trading. The fastest way to sell a car has now arrived in Multan, with potential sellers now able to sell their car in 45 minutes.

Global Economic Conditions Survey shows recovery in confidence in Q3 but also a ‘weak and precarious’ global economy

A global survey of senior accountants reveals an improvement in optimism in Q3 after a torrid first half of the year which saw confidence at record lows. Activity measures, such as orders, capital spending and employment, also improved in the latest survey but only modestly - they remain at low levels consistent with the global economy operating well below the pre-COVID-19 level into 2021.

 

Specific COVID-19 related questions also show increasing expectations from respondents that significant economic recovery will be pushed well into 2021.

 

But GECS Q3 comes with stark warning signs as results point to the weak and precarious state of the global economy in the latter part of 2020.

 

Commenting on the findings, Michael Taylor, ACCA’s chief economist says: ‘Despite the jump in confidence, the overall message from the GECS is still one of weakness with the global economy on course this year for its largest peace time contraction since the 1930s.’

 

The report Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) that also includes responses from Pakistan, jointly published by ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and IMA^® (Institute of Management Accountants) reveals:

 

·       Global confidence jumped to a three-and-a-half year high, although this reflects the change in confidence compared with June when many economies were in varying degrees of lockdown.

·       There was a slight reduction in concerns that customers and suppliers may go out of business, but they remain at extremely high levels

·       The orders indices in North America and Western Europe recovered by the largest margin in Q3. Lifting of lockdowns in these regions, especially from July onwards has lifted their economies and the orders balance reflects this and points to continued recovery. There is little variation across regions, with South Asia a relatively weak outlier.

·       For access to finance the pattern is the same in the latest survey as in June 2020. More generous government support and guarantees mean that firms in North America and Western Europe have better access to finance than those in Emerging Markets.

·       Expectations of substantial economic recovery have shifted decisively towards later in 2021 over the last three months. Over 60 per cent of respondents in Western Europe are now of this view, and more than 50 per cent in Asia-Pacific and North America too. South Asia has the highest percentage not expecting recovery until 2021 Q1 or after.

 

‘The nature and prolonged duration of the COVID-19 shock means that it is likely to result in permanent changes to the structure and potential growth rates of economies,” said Raef Lawson, Ph.D., CMA, CPA, IMA vice president of research and policy.

 

 

 

‘Higher private sector savings may be one outcome: households and companies limit consumption and investment respectively as they remain cautious in the face of extreme uncertainty. This suggests that the public sector may have to run significant fiscal deficits for some time in order to support overall demand. For now, at least mounting public sector debt can be sustained since interest rates are exceptionally low.’        

 

Looking ahead to 2021, Michael Taylor concludes: ‘The Q3 recovery has been driven mainly by the consumer, where the rebound in retail sales has been especially strong. But our view is that the consumer will lose momentum in coming months and into 2021.Increasing, COVID infections in some countries and continued social distancing measures everywhere will undermine consumer confidence and spending. In addition, fiscal support is being scaled back in many cases, contributing to a rise in unemployment. World GDP is not likely to regain its pre-crisis level until at least the second half of 2022.

 

‘The nature and duration of the COVID-19 economic shock is such that it is likely to result in permanent changes to the structure of economies and to the trend rate of economic growth. Households and companies may well increase their savings rates, hampering private sector demand. This means that the public sector may have to run significant fiscal deficits for the foreseeable future in order to support overall demand.’

 

GECS Q3 2020 can be found online here.

HUAWEI Y9a - An Impressive All-Rounder with Long Battery Life

 

As smartphones are constantly evolving, consumers are taking more factors into consideration when choosing a smartphone. In addition to powerful performance and a captivating design, consumers are also looking for a great camera to capture memories in high clarity. Among a wide variety of products, smartphones offer more comprehensive functions, which are naturally more attractive to consumers, and the HUAWEI Y9a certainly offers consumers a wide range of functions. Let’s get our hands on it and find out how it works.

4200mAh battery and 40W HUAWEI SuperCharge

The HUAWEI Y9a is packed with a 4200 mAh battery and supports 40W HUAWEI SuperCharge. The smartphone charges to 70% in 30 minutes and to 100% battery in an hour, which is awesome!

 

MediaTek Helio G80 processor for a smooth gaming experience

The HUAWEI Y9a is equipped with a bunch of hardware tailored for powerful gaming performance. Let’s take NBA 2K19 as an example. During an hour of continuous gameplay, there is no noticeable frame rate loss and the game ran smoothly with no lags or latency, even when switched between different scenes. The phone didn’t heat up much either, which shows that it has pretty good cooling performance. After playing for an hour, the phone still felt cool and it only used 9% of battery, reaching a good balance between power consumption and performance.

 

Efficient and hassle-free multitasking

Generally, the most annoying thing of using a smartphone is that some apps may be “killed” in the background when the user has to leave the task on hand to answer a call or reply a message, for example. The game or video they were just playing might be forced to shut down and need re-loading the next time you want to play. So what’s really impressive in HUAWEI Y9a is that when playing NBA 2K19 on the phone, even after switching from the game app to open YouTube and Google Maps, the game didn’t need re-loading and was exactly the way it was left. It ran super smoothly.

The EMUI 10.1 improves gameplay experience for users as well. Thanks to the Game Assistant, users can open WeChat or other apps in the middle of the game, so they can reply to messages without quitting. It also includes anti-mistouching and do not disturb features to ensure an uninterrupted experience, ideal for mobile game lovers.

 

Flagship-inspired design for a distinct look

It has a 6.63-inch TFT LCD (IPS) display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 (FHD+). Using a pop-up camera design, the screen panel remains complete with no notches or holes to be seen, and ensures an impressively high screen-to-body ratio of 92%. The back panel is made of 3D curved glass with an iconic Halo ring designed into it, which was used on the HUAWEI Mate 30 Series. It is also inspired by the concept of stage lighting - when you hold it in different lights, you’ll see three beams of light reflected from the bottom.

 

Its front camera only pops up when you need it, and is designed to be very fast and flexible. The front camera is a 16MP lens fitted with an f/2.2 aperture, great for capturing selfies in everyday life.

The quad camera on HUAWEI Y9a includes a 64MP main camera (f/1.8 aperture), an 8MP 120° Ultra-Wide Angle Lens (f/2.4 aperture), a 2MP Depth Lens (f/2.4 aperture) and a 2MP Macro Lens (f/2.4 aperture). This combination can meet consumers’ needs for shooting in various scenarios. The image quality is excellent.

On the side of HUAWEI Y9a there is the volume button and power button that is integrated with fingerprint sensing. Both the actual sensing speed and accuracy is very high. On the top of the phone there is a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Download various apps through AppGallery and Petal Search

Besides for hardware configuration, consumers might be concerned about software accessibility on Huawei smartphones. This is not a worry with AppGallery; users can download most popular apps including Lazada, PUBG Mobile and other popular mobile games.

 

You can also use Petal Search, which is listed on AppGallery and can be added to the homescreen as a widget, to quickly search and download the apps you want, easy and straightforward.

 

Overall, this MediaTek Helio G80-based smartphone really stands out in terms of design, gaming performance, photography, battery life and more. What’s more, it is pleasing to the eye and comfortable to hold.  Retailing at an amazing price of PKR 43,999/- only.

4200mAh battery and 40W HUAWEI SuperCharge

The HUAWEI Y9a is packed with a 4200 mAh battery and supports 40W HUAWEI SuperCharge. The smartphone charges to 70% in 30 minutes and to 100% battery in an hour, which is awesome!

 

MediaTek Helio G80 processor for a smooth gaming experience

 

The HUAWEI Y9a is equipped with a bunch of hardware tailored for powerful gaming performance. Let’s take NBA 2K19 as an example. During an hour of continuous gameplay, there is no noticeable frame rate loss and the game ran smoothly with no lags or latency, even when switched between different scenes. The phone didn’t heat up much either, which shows that it has pretty good cooling performance. After playing for an hour, the phone still felt cool and it only used 9% of battery, reaching a good balance between power consumption and performance.

 

Efficient and hassle-free multitasking

Generally, the most annoying thing of using a smartphone is that some apps may be “killed” in the background when the user has to leave the task on hand to answer a call or reply a message, for example. The game or video they were just playing might be forced to shut down and need re-loading the next time you want to play. So what’s really impressive in HUAWEI Y9a is that when playing NBA 2K19 on the phone, even after switching from the game app to open YouTube and Google Maps, the game didn’t need re-loading and was exactly the way it was left. It ran super smoothly.

The EMUI 10.1 improves gameplay experience for users as well. Thanks to the Game Assistant, users can open WeChat or other apps in the middle of the game, so they can reply to messages without quitting. It also includes anti-mistouching and do not disturb features to ensure an uninterrupted experience, ideal for mobile game lovers.

 

Flagship-inspired design for a distinct look

 

It has a 6.63-inch TFT LCD (IPS) display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 (FHD+). Using a pop-up camera design, the screen panel remains complete with no notches or holes to be seen, and ensures an impressively high screen-to-body ratio of 92%. The back panel is made of 3D curved glass with an iconic Halo ring designed into it, which was used on the HUAWEI Mate 30 Series. It is also inspired by the concept of stage lighting - when you hold it in different lights, you’ll see three beams of light reflected from the bottom.

Its front camera only pops up when you need it, and is designed to be very fast and flexible. The front camera is a 16MP lens fitted with an f/2.2 aperture, great for capturing selfies in everyday life.

The quad camera on HUAWEI Y9a includes a 64MP main camera (f/1.8 aperture), an 8MP 120° Ultra-Wide Angle Lens (f/2.4 aperture), a 2MP Depth Lens (f/2.4 aperture) and a 2MP Macro Lens (f/2.4 aperture). This combination can meet consumers’ needs for shooting in various scenarios. The image quality is excellent.

On the side of HUAWEI Y9a there is the volume button and power button that is integrated with fingerprint sensing. Both the actual sensing speed and accuracy is very high. On the top of the phone there is a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Download various apps through AppGallery and Petal Search

 

Besides for hardware configuration, consumers might be concerned about software accessibility on Huawei smartphones. This is not a worry with AppGallery; users can download most popular apps including Lazada, PUBG Mobile and other popular mobile games.

 

You can also use Petal Search, which is listed on AppGallery and can be added to the homescreen as a widget, to quickly search and download the apps you want, easy and straightforward.

 

Overall, this MediaTek Helio G80-based smartphone really stands out in terms of design, gaming performance, photography, battery life and more. What’s more, it is pleasing to the eye and comfortable to hold.  Retailing at an amazing price of PKR 43,999/- only.