Pakistan Economy - News & Updates - Archive

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KARACHI (May 26 2006): European Aviation Safety Agency (Easa) has extended the Part-145 Maintenance Organisation Approval (MOA) of PIA Engineering & Maintenance till the year 2008. Additionally, Easa has also approved extension in the scope of approval, which now covers Boeing 777-200 and Boeing 737-400 aircraft for heavy maintenance jobs.

The re-approval audit for Part-145 Maintenance Organisation Approval of PIA Engineering & Maintenance was conducted in February 2006. The Easa Part-145 Approval was initially granted in 2004 after successfully going through two initial approval audits. To-date, the Engineering & Maintenance Department of national flag carrier has successfully been able to maintain the approval by clearing three surveillance and one re-approval audit over intervals of six months each. All these audits are conducted by GSAC France (French Aviation Authority) on Easa 's behalf.

Chairman & CEO PIA, Tariq Kirmani commended the efforts shown by Senior Management and the Internal Quality Audit Team who have played the most significant role in maintenance of the approval along with the hard work put in by employees in every cadre.

 

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ISLAMABAD (May 26 2006): The government will launch Rs 500 billion plan to revamp road infrastructure and to expand motorways within next 10-year from next fiscal year.

In order to improve the performance of the authority and timely completion of projects, the government has also decided to restructure the National Highway Authority (NHA). Federal Communication Minister Shamim Siddiqui said this while speaking at a news conference here on Thursday at Press Information Department.

"A 10-year plan worth Rs 400 to Rs 500 billion is being launched to expand country's road network and to bring it at par with the international standards," he added. In this regard, Siddiqui said the government would allocate nearly Rs 35 billion to Rs 40 billion in the upcoming budget for the improvement of road infrastructure.

He said the authorities would especially focus on highways that connect Bhasha dam. In this connection, he said a 350-kilometer long road from Hassanabdal to Sazin would be upgraded.

Shamim continued that in the next phase, highway from Sazin to Raykot and then up to Khunjerab, linking China would be upgraded.

Siddiqui said that Chinese government was providing soft loan of dollars 350 million to Pakistan for the rehabilitation of Karakoram highway that would pave the way for Chinese exports through Gwadar Port.

Speaking about the Indus highway, the minister said 1,400-kilometer long highway from Karachi to Peshawar would be completely upgraded. He said the network of motorway would be further extended, as the authorities were negotiating with a Malaysian firm to construct motorway from Faisalabad to Khanewal (M-4).

He hoped the construction work would be started next year at a cost of Rs 22 billion and it would be completed in four years.

The minister told reporters that, similarly, negotiations were going on for awarding construction work of motorway from Khanewal to Rajanpur (M-5) and Rajanpur to Rattodero (M-6) to a Malaysian firm as well. M-7 will connect Rattodero to Karachi, completing a network of motorways in the country. Siddiqui was of the view that road network was also imperative for Gwadar port that would be launched in December this year.

"We have international pressure to complete our road network that should be at par with the international standards," he added.

Speaking on the steps being taken to end the overloading practices, the minister said they had decided to hand over all weigh stations to Motorway Police in that connection. "The government faces a loss of Rs 6 billion annually for road maintenance," he regretted.

Shamim Siddiqui informed newsmen that they had decided to restructure the National Highway Authority (NHA) in order to improve its performance.

He said the restructuring and revamping of NHA was being made on the directives of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, as the government would hire engineers from international markets.

 

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LAHORE (May 26 2006): Energy consumption in Pakistan is likely to touch the mark of 150 million tons oil equivalent (MTOE) by the year 2020, while the net supply from indigenous sources would be 103 MTOE. Currently, the total supply of energy from all sources is about 34 MTOE against a total consumption of 32 MTOE.

According to the latest report of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), there is need for concerted efforts to increase the supply of energy from diversified sources, particularly, from the most neglected source, i e coal.

Traditionally, oil has been the largest source of energy, but its share in total consumption has declined from 42 percent of the total consumption in 1960 to 32 percent in 2005.

The share of electricity has also declined significantly in the total fuel consumption in the economy. In this scenarios natural gas has emerged as the most popular source of energy, almost doubling its consumption share during this period.

The report said the pattern of energy consumption has changed over time in favour of natural gas, primarily due to its enhanced availability and the upward changes in the relative price of other fuel sources, especially oil.

 

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Friday May 26, 2006

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has received only US $ 614 million so far out of the total amount above US $ 6 billion pledged by the international community during the donor conference held in Islamabad last year for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of earthquake victims ," minister state for economic affairs Hina Rabbani Khar informed to the media men here on Thursday.
Minister said; However, Pakistan has not accepted the amount pledged to the tune of US $ 375 million by the IMF during the donor conference and considered only the pledged amount by the international community in term of soft loan.

She said that the government had negotiated with the international community and the donor institutions on the pledged amount to US 2.8 billion so far and will accept the pledged amount that would be in term of soft loan.

"Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has given as many as US $ 80 million and World Bank to the tune of US $ 50 million in term of grant for the earthquake victims," she added.

She further said that Pakistan’s economy had geared up for the last few years and this is why the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank were ready to give the loan as these banks meant for giving the loan in line with the economic performance.

"However, it is likely that the Gross Domestic products (GDP) of Pakistan will fall by 58 percent due to the earthquake in Oct 8, 2005 in Pakistan," she added.

She said that loan of international community on Pakistan had also fallen during the current year as it stood at US$ 37.6 billion in 1990 and now it stands at US $ 35.2 billion.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference, she said that meeting of high level panel on UN system-wide coherence in areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment had concluded presenting recommendations to make effective the UN system.

She further said that six countries including Pakistan, China, India had participated in the meeting , one from government and one from donors.

Minister of State for Environment Malik Amin Aslam said that the government was giving the top priority for the provision of clean drinking water to the masses throughout the country.

"As many as 150 filtration plants for the provision of clean drinking water to the masses have been made operational in the first phase whereas an overall 6000 filtration plants will be installed," minister added.

Minister further said in the current high level panel dialogue , it was focused also how to implement the global agreement regarding the environment.

Robert Greenhill Canadian president of Canadian International Development Agency, Ruth Jacoby Sweden director general for development cooperation, Josette S. Shiner USA under secretary for Economic, business and agricultural affairs were also present on the occasion.

 

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Move aimed at enhancing quality of human resource in IT industry

KARACHI: The National Information Communication and Technology Research and Development Fund of the Ministry of IT and Telecom on Thursday took up three projects worth over Rs1 billion and recommended them for a peer review for the purpose of final approval.

The projects aimed at enhancing the quality of human resource in the IT industry and bridging the gap between the industry and academia, are likely to be launched within the next couple of weeks, said a ministry statement.

Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, Federal Minister for IT and Telecom, who chaired the meeting said the three projects were aimed at establishing career placement centres in 25 universities of the country besides launching internship as well as apprenticeship programmes to add value to the human resource needed in the IT industry.

He said the working papers of the projects had been sent for the peer review which would take a couple of weeks before they could be launched in a formal fashion. “These are very important projects and the purpose behind them is to attract and develop capacity of talented IT graduates and enhance career opportunities in the IT and telecom disciplines,” he said.

Giving details of the projects, Leghari said the ministry had planned to launch an outreach scholarship programme worth over Rs250 million to pick up talented college students from remote and backward areas and then train them in the boot camps before their admission to four tier-one universities of the country.

“Up to 200 students who are admitted to IT and telecom disciplines by these universities, would be offered fully funded scholarships to complete their degrees in a congenial and competitive academic atmosphere,” the statement quoted minister as saying.

He said the ministry had also developed an internship programme for the country’s IT industry at an estimated cost of over Rs450 million to offer internship to 10,000 IT graduates who would be offered 6-month-long internship each at a leading IT company for which they would be paid Rs6,000 monthly stipend.

He said the internship project was being launched in the backdrop of an acute shortage of high-end IT professionals within the IT industry which needed 8,000 such professionals for the next year alone.

“We hope the internship programme would generate jobs, help companies get required trained human resource besides leading to an overall upgradation of the IT and telecom disciplines in the higher-education institutions,” he said.

The minister said the third major project which had been taken up by the research and development fund was the IT industry apprenticeship programme which would be launched at an estimated cost of over Rs220 million to subsidise IT companies to recruit graduates possessing the basic skills and knowledge to provide IT-enabled services. He said the IT companies roped in through this project would be offered Rs15,000 a month subsidy per person for a period of one year and in all about 1,000 jobs would be generated through this programme.

“The companies would have the complete freedom and discretion to hire any person through this programme, but they will have to provide a training programme with course details and content, including minimum training for 400 content hours,” he said.

Meanwhile, addressing the launching ceremony of the first Regional Cisco Networking Academy Programme for Women in Pakistan, Leghari called for companies to act as socially responsible corporate players to create a knowledge-based economy and society.

He said Pakistan being a 150-milion country had the potential to emerge as an interesting place for international companies looking for businesses. He said the policies of the government shaped by the vision of the president had already brought about a turnaround in various sectors with telecommunication being a prime example.

“The growth in the telecom sector has been phenomenal which is corroborated by the fact that two years ago we had merely 2.8 million mobile phone subscribers who have gone beyond 30 million now which reflects on the strength of the policies introduced in the sector,” he said.

He said the amount of job creation in the telecom sector had also been between 100,000-150,000 and this had been possible despite the fact that the industry was not being able to find enough human resource available in the country.

“It is an established fact that the human resource we possess is not enabling the industry to grow at the rate it can, given its huge potential,” he said.

He said the government was spending heavily on areas such as e-government and broadband internet. He said the ministry had planned to use the Universal Service Fund (USF) to provide 1.5 million broadband connections within the next two years.

He said e-government was yet another area in which the government had invested heavily in an attempt to introduce a paper-less economy.

 

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KARACHI: The infrastructure development programme of Karachi Textile City project is likely to kick-start within couple of weeks over a 700-acre piece of land out of 1,250 acres that had been agreed to be provided near Port Qasim.

However, the Ministry of Ports & Shipping is yet to hand over possession of some 550 acres near Port Qasim for the said project.

“The project may be redesigned in order to avoid further delay, as possession of remaining piece of land is the only bottleneck in initiating the project timely,” Chief Executive Officer of Karachi Textile City Zaheer Hussain told The News.

He said that topographical survey of 1,250 acres of land, demarcated for the project, has been completed, land-utilisation plan has been approved and utilities-requirement plan has been finalised.

He said that under the land-utilisation plan, 807 acres (or 65 per cent of the total area) have been earmarked for industries, 47 acres (4 per cent) for amenities, 70 acres (5 per cent) for utilities, and 326 acres (26 per cent) for roads.

“The layout plan visualises 279 industrial plots of land of different sizes upon completion of the project,” he said and added that there would be 86 plots of land of 5.2 to 7.5 acres each, 117 of 2 acres each, 28 of one acre each and 48 of half-an-acre each. These plots of land would be sold to investors to set up textile-related industries.

Moreover, he said that Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad, at a meeting had confirmed that Karachi Water & Sewerage Board would provide 20 million gallons a day of water to the Textile City from the K-III project via a 23 km 48-inch diameter pipeline from Fore-Bay.

He apprised that pipeline’s construction cost is estimated at Rs700 million, and this amount would be provided by federal and provincial governments.

In addition he said that Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has agreed to supply 150 million cubic feet (MMCFD) of gas a day to the Textile City - 125 MMCFD for process heat and 25 MMCFD for power generation. SSGC has also agreed to supply 15 MMCFD of gas to the Textile City project during the construction phase.

Whereas Karachi Electric Supply Corporation has also agreed to supply 100 megawatts (MW) of power to the Textile City by June 2007. It has also agreed to supply 5 MW of power to the project during the construction phase.

A public-private joint stock company has already been set up with an initial capital of Rs1.10 billion.

The federal government is sharing Rs500 million, Port Qasim Authority Rs100 million, the Government of Sindh Rs100 million, National Bank of Pakistan Rs50 million, Pak-Kuwait Investment Company Rs50 million, Pak-Oman Investment Company Rs50 million, Saudi-Pak Investment Company Rs50 million, Pakistan Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation Rs50 million, Pak-Libya Holding Company Rs50 million besides Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation Rs100 million, and Export Processing Zone Authority will share Rs100 million, the CEO of Textile City told.

He also told that City District Government Karachi (CDGK) is interested in taking Rs100 million-equity stake in Pakistan Textile City Limited, however, in the presence of Sindh Governments stake in the project CDGK has apologised.

“The 11-member board of the Pakistan Textile City in August 2005 signed an agreement with the National Engineering Service Pakistan (NESPAK) to build Rs10 billion infrastructure in the whole 1,250-acre land project,” he said.

Textile City project near Port Qasim was envisaged in 2004 with 23-kilometre dedicated water pipeline, 24-hour supply of gas, water and electricity and a smooth system of sewerage. The textile industry is Pakistan’s largest industry and accounts for more than 60 per cent of the country’s total exports.

Few months back during a meeting a high official of the ministry of ports and shipping had pleaded for an alternative 3,000-acre piece of land for PQA from Sindh Government regarding expansion of port installations in future.

However, new plea taken by ministry of ports and shipping forced textile ministry to approach Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for intervention and PM clearly asked both the PQA and the federal ministry of ports and shipping not to show any reluctance in transferring the land.

“Development of Textile City would increase the business volume of Port Qasim which is poised to handle flows of imports and exports for many years to come,” he said adding that Bin-Qasim Textile City is expected to generate some 80,000 job opportunities.

He said the Textile City project is the first of its kind in Pakistan, as it would have a desalination plant, a self-power generation plant and all the other modern facilities required for industrial production.

 

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Friday May 26, 2006

RAWALPINDI: President General Pervez Musharraf Thursday reaffirmed his commitment for using Pakistan’s economic turnaround for poverty alleviation and sustainable socio-economic development of the common man.
Addressing a presentation on public sector development programme in Rawalpindi, which was also attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz; the president directed optimal utilization of all resources for visible improvement in the life of common man through initiation of development projects attended the presentation.

The President said we must utilize to sources available to bring a qualitative change in the lives of people and ensure wider distribution of economic benefits. He expressed the hope that the government would touch a growth rate of seven per cent this year.

He was informed that in view of economic growth and inflow of investment the country is expected to materialize one point five million job opportunities each year.

President Musharraf said: "the federal Government would act as a catalyst in facilitating the provinces for generation of more and more job opportunities." He said we must strive for creating additional employment opportunities during the next financial year and added that mega projects, local development schemes and micro finance banks would help create more job opportunities.

He said while mega projects like construction of water reservoirs would produce tremendous business activity and create jobs, we must also encourage self employment in both rural and urban areas to step up socio-economic development at local level. The President directed for speedy progress on provision of safe drinking water, cost-effective energy, better health and education facilities all over the country.

He said improvement in these sectors will reduce poverty and bring people of remote areas into the mainstream of national development. He stressed the importance of equipping the youth with technical skills.

For this purpose, he directed to allocate higher financial resources for technical and vocational sector from the overall budget of education. for improved health facilities, the President said the basic health units and local hospitals must be provided adequate medicine and other facilities.

 

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David Meyer, ZDNet UK,
May 24, 2006


Pakistan plans to roll out the largest mobile WiMax network yet, Motorola announced Tuesday.

Motorola is providing the country's Wateen Telecom with an 802.16e-based Motowi4 network. An initial uptake of a million subscribers is expected, with a nationwide rollout to follow.

As a developing country, Pakistan has until now lacked the infrastructure for widespread broadband.

The deployment is a milestone in the spread of WiMax, a superfast wireless technology that has a range of up to 30 miles and can deliver broadband at a theoretical maximum of 75 megabits per second. The 802.16-2004 standard, which is used in fixed WiMax networks, is being skipped in favor of a large-scale introduction of 802.16e, which was only recently agreed upon by the WiMax Forum.

"We made the decision 18 months ago to jump over (802.16-2004) and go straight to 802.16e," Paul Sergeant, Motorola's marketing director for Motowi4, told ZDNet UK on Tuesday. "We've been working on it for a while, which is how we're able to ship so soon after agreement."

"802.16e leads to a much larger market as it addresses mobility needs, but we also felt it could be just as good a solution for fixed broadband," he added.

Some analysts said the Pakistan deal is proof that major players in the industry are throwing their weight behind mobile WiMax in a way they haven't with the fixed version.

"The really interesting thing is that Motorola is really focusing on the mobile version, as are Alcatel and Siemens," Julien Grivolas, a telecom analyst at Ovum, said.

"Mobile WiMax is going to be something for the big players, as opposed to fixed WiMax, where (they) set up OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreements with smaller vendors," Grivolas said.

On Tuesday, Motorola also made its first public demonstration of third-party interoperability of its WiMax products. At the WiMax World Europe Conference in Vienna, it showed off a third-party PCMCIA card that incorporates a mobile WiMax chip from Beceem Communications.

"The market is looking for carrier class (802.16e) solutions that either support mobility from the beginning or can be upgraded," Sergeant said.

 

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ISLAMABAD (May 27 2006): President General Pervez Musharraf on Friday said that the next year Public Sector Development programme (PSDP) will have an unprecedented allocation of Rs 415 billion and indicated subsidies on essential items in the upcoming budget to provide relief to the common man.

Musharraf listed five priorities of the government, which included de-Talebanization of the NWFP, stabilisation in Balochistan, curb on extremism and terrorism from society and sustainable democracy and to give a quantum jump to the country's economy.

The President was addressing the 18th annual APNS meeting at a local hotel here. He also replied to the various issues raised by APNS chief Mir Shakilur Rahman regarding press freedom, access to information and the oft-repeated "national interest" put forwarded by the government to cover up its failures and his doubts about economic achievements regarding lowering of poverty, rise in per capita income which according to APNS chief benefited only 15 percent upper crust of the society.

Reinforcing the government plan of high economic growth, the President dwelt on a record Rs 415 billion Public Sector Development Program (PSDP), which never exceeded Rs 100 billion generally; over six percent growth for the current fiscal and seven percent growth projection for next year.

Stating that he looked with optimism country's economic growth, the President said that he had no doubt that GDP would grow between six to eight percent in the coming years. And eventually eight percent growth would be ensured because of the heavy development programmes for the coming years.

He disclosed that his government has deliberated on all issues under the sun in regard to country's future progress and suitable strategies are in place.

In this connection, he saw great development in agri-based industry and spoke of "white revolution" because of Pakistan's prime position in milk production.

In the same vein he said that with the construction of Gwadar Port a new energy corridor with China, the proposed new gas pipeline would be the ninth wonder of the world as Karakoram Highway turned out to be the eight one.

He reaffirmed that Gwadar would soon become energy-***-trade corridor for the whole region.

Admitting that poverty and inflation were grave issues, he said that there has been considerable decrease in poverty level which he said has now come down to 24.2 percent.

"This is bad enough but it is palpably wrong to state that poverty is on the increase in the country," he contended adding that fruits of development are reaching a large segment of society.

The Millennium Development Goal of Poverty Reduction to 13 percent would be achieved in Pakistan much before 2025, he asserted.

The President disclosed that the government is working out on a strategy to curb the ill effects of inflation and give relief to the common man in the form of reduction in the prices of essential items, giving subsidies on others and capping the prices of certain items.

Speaking of economic gains, the President stated that Foreign Direct Investment in the country would be more than $3 billion as against $1.5 billion last year.

"A lot many investors are coming to Pakistan and discussing avenues of new investment with me," he said. In this connection, he referred to the discovery of one of the biggest copper and gold mine in Balochistan for which entrepreneurs from Chile and Canada are having talks. He also spoke of installation of new textile machinery of over $5.5 billion which will give new impetus to exports. He visualised overall exports of $20 billion for next year.

Speaking about the de-Talebanization of the NWFP, he said a strategy is being worked out under which the role of political agents, backed by constabularies and levies, would be reinvigorated.

Besides, a sum of Rs 10 billion would go for the development in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) of NWFP.

Regarding political stability in Balochistan, he said the credit should go to the governor and the Balochistan government as now it is a win-win situation and the rebellious sections of Bugtis and Marris are being quelled.

"The situation there has changed, it is for any one to see," the President said.

Referring to his government priority to curb extremism and terrorism, President Musharraf said that a multi-pronged strategy is being worked out which includes improvement of seminaries, syllabi of schools and use of loud speakers in mosques.

Speaking about the ticklish issue of what constitutes national interest about which APNS president made veiled remarks, the President said that the press should not play up the failures of the government and try to dispel misperceptions about the country.For instance, he said, that rape cases in Pakistan are brought to lime light giving a bad image to the country. Against this he said that in India the custom of Sati was still rampant in certain states but the media never highlight it.

Similarly, thousands of Indians sleep on the pavements but there is no such thing in Pakistan. Yet the press goes wild about the incident of poverty and joblessness in Pakistan.

Nonetheless, he added "we have to improve the quality of life for the people and give them better facilities" and invited the press to highlight the government's shortcomings in implementing development policies. Referring to the complaints of the lack of access to the information, the President said that he is all for free press and he has always told his information ministers to keep the press abreast of all developments.

He said he has directed the new information minister to arrange regular press briefings of all ministries.

 

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ISLAMABAD (May 27 2006): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has directed the Commerce Ministry to place before the Cabinet the details of trade growth, which has materialised so far as a result of 'Early Harvest Program' (EHPs), Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with different countries, sources told Business Recorder on Friday.

They said that these directions were issued in the May 24 Cabinet meeting during discussions about the proposed EHP with Syria, which the Commerce Ministry said would substantially increase trade between the two countries.

"The Commerce Ministry has been asked to submit a summary, and brief the Cabinet in its next meeting, if any increase in trade had come about as a result of EHPs, PTAs and FTAs," sources added.

Pakistan has entered into EHP with Malaysia, Indonesia and China while negotiations are in progress with several other countries for similar pacts. However, Sri Lanka is the only country, which has signed FTA.

Sources said that it was the second time when Commerce Ministry officials had briefed the Cabinet about the concept of EHP and FTA, saying that FTA required detailed negotiations on a large portfolio of items, whereas EHP incorporated trade items which were non-contentious and are easily agreed upon.

"Early Harvest Program can be concluded on fast track and in a shorter period of time," sources quoted Commerce Ministry officials as saying.

The Ministry was of the view that the proposed EHP would help promote trade with Syria immediately and pave the way for finalisation of FTA.

One of the contentious issues the Cabinet noted was export of mangoes to China, which was part of EHP, but no substantial progress had been made in this regard.

"Due to insufficient returns to growers and various diseases, many orchards in Sindh are being cut down as Minfal is least interested in helping them," sources quoted one of the minister as saying in the meeting.

Minfal Secretary Ismail Qureshi, sources said, was grilled for not devising strategy to export mangoes to China and other countries. Sources said that Minfal had convened a meeting on Friday to finalise the 'mango export strategy' on war footing to be submitted to the Cabinet in its next meeting.

The Cabinet, sources said, was informed that a significant increase is expected in the export of kinno and mangoes to different countries, including China, during the next season. China has short-listed 12 kinno and two mango grading factories for export purposes.

 

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KARACHI (May 27 2006): When the SBP started daily monitoring of Special Convertible Rupee Accounts (SCRAs) from November 1, 2005, balances in these accounts stood at a rather low level of $204 million.

These were $241 million on November 16 and $257 million on November 23. The balances rose to over $330 million by December 16, 2005. From mid-January 2006, however, balances in SCRAs started surging in a consistent manner, reaching $416 million on January 27, to $445 million on February 16, and then to the record level of $472 million on February 28.

Thereafter, the balances started declining and never bounced back to the record level, though there were numerous spells of short-lived recoveries. In recent months, the balances in these accounts dipped to two-month low of $387 million on April 4 and then to the 3-month low of $374 million on April 18. Since then, the balances, according to available details, have tended to move within the range of the low of $350 million to high of $360 million.

These were $359 million on April 19, $357 million on April 25, $356 million on April 26 and 28, $360 million on May 2, $355 million on May 12, $357 million on May 16, $352 million on May 18, and $359 million on May 22, 2006.

It is worth recalling that a total of 22 countries maintain SCRAs in Pakistan. One country, namely, Bahamas has remained a dormant player throughout FY06 so far. Among the partly active up to February 28, eight countries, namely, France, Japan, Liberia, Kuwait, Netherlands, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia remained inactive between February 28 and May 22--the date for which latest update was available. They neither withdrew any amount nor brought in any fresh funds.

Of the remaining 13 countries, the largest withdrawals occurred in the case of five most active countries, namely, USA $74 million, UK $22 million, Hong Kong $14.5 million, UAE $13 million, and Switzerland $12 million.

Bahrain, BV Island and Singapore were the exceptions, which brought in, instead, $21.6 million, $3.3 million and $2.6 million, respectively, during this period.

Oman also brought in negligible amount.

Minor inflow took place in the case of Guernsey ($0.8 million), while minor withdrawal took place in the case of Germany ($0.7 million).

Qatar and Luxembourg resorted to negligible withdrawal.

As on May 22, the total balance of all countries stood at $359 million, with US investors enjoying the largest balance ($290 million), followed by UK ($32 million), Hong Kong ($29 million) and Bahrain ($21.6 million).

 

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KARACHI (May 27 2006): the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has constituted a committee on venture capital and private equity. The committee is aimed at bridging the gap between the local business houses and visiting as well as existing venture capital and private equity firms desirous of investing in Pakistan.

It will assist businesses to develop themselves in line with the requirements of VC & PE firms and to form global joint ventures. Arjumand A. Qazi has been nominated as the founder chairperson of the committee. She brings with her 20 years of rich experience in investment banking, business, social sector development and consulting.

In addition to business and professional services, she initiated several social sector projects successfully that are now operational. In her capacity as the vice-chairperson for FPCCI Standing Committee on Health, she initiated the project of burns centre at Civil Hospital, Karachi, a 66-bed state-of-the-art facility.

Another project, the heart centre at Sindh Government Hospital, Liaquatabad, is providing emergency heartcare facilities.

As the founder Chairperson of the FPCCI-Standing Committee on Women Entrepreneurs, she provided a platform for women entrepreneurs to interact with the mainstream businesses and strengthened it by collaborating with the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) and other institutions to provide maximum facilities for women in business.

 

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KARACHI (May 27 2006): With a good mix of professional cabin crew having diverse backgrounds enriched with relevant experiences, PIA's in-flight services are poised to become second to none with national carrier's in-flight hospitality flying high in the sky.

This was stated by Syed Farooq Hussein Shah, Deputy Managing Director, PIA, at the passing out ceremony of first batch of 19 foreign flight stewardesses (airhostesses) hired from Malaysia and Thailand at PIA Training Center, Karachi.

This was in the line with PIA's vision to become a truly world class carrier catering to a global passenger base in addition to the ethnic ones, he pointed out.

He said this would help attract international passengers by overcoming the language barrier and create welcoming atmosphere with native flight stewardesses on board while simultaneously portraying a progressive and global face of the airline.

The foreign flight stewardesses are now being hired by PIA after a period of almost twenty years, he added. The national carrier has started a campaign to hire fight stewardesses (airhostesses) from numerous international destinations where the PIA flights operate.

Accordingly, interviews have been conducted in various countries for hiring native flight stewardesses, including Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Kenya, Norway, Greece and Germany with other countries in the pipeline.

The second batch, comprising Japanese flight stewardesses, currently under training, was also present at the ceremony along with other senior officials of PIA. Farooq Shah later distributed certificates among passing out batch of air stewardesses.

 

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Saturday, May 27, 2006


KARACHI: In the recent review under a new methodology, Pakistan’s foreign-currency ceiling has been raised by two notches from B2 to Ba3, by international credit rating institution Moody’s.

The new outlook on Pakistan’s Ba3 foreign currency debt is “Stable.” On Thursday, Moody’s Investors Service raised its foreign-currency country ceilings for bonds following the change in its approach. This has resulted in the upward revision of 70 countries’ ratings, while no country’s ceiling has been downgraded. Pakistan’s rating has been raised by two notches under the revised methodology.

Under the new methodology, the country’s foreign-currency ceiling will reflect the reduced probability that a government would impose restriction on foreign-currency debt repayment. This has resulted in improved foreign-currency ceiling of a number of countries thereby raising the ratings of those countries. In fact, it was observed that due to this new approach, ceilings of the majority of countries rated by Moodys were upgraded by at least one notch. Countries having US dollar as their default currency have not been affected by the change in methodology, as their risk profile remains intact.

Previously, for assessing countries the rating agency assumed that a foreign-currency bond default by the government would be accompanied by foreign-currency payment restrictions.

Pakistan’s foreign-currency ceiling has been raised and outlook on Pakistan’s foreign currency debt is “Stable.” Under previous rating of B2 for its foreign currency debt, Pakistan had “Positive’ outlook. This has made Pakistan closer to Investment Grade, as now it is only three notches down, while previously it was five notches below, from the entitlement of Investment Grade. Neighbouring India has got an improvement of one notch from Baa3 to Baa2 with stable outlook.

“Despite the interventionist nature of the Pakistani government, we believe that the risk of imposing a moratorium is lower than such a policy tradition would indicate. Also, we have the recent example in which the Pakistani government defaulted on its foreign-currency bonds, but did not impose a moratorium on private sector bonds and notes,” these are comments of Moodys on Pakistan’s moratorium risk.

On the other hand, in last seven years Pakistan’s foreign currency rating by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has been upgraded by seven notches to B+ from SD. The last revision in ratings was done in November 2004 by S&P, where it raised Pakistan’s long-term sovereign credit ratings by one notch to ‘B+’ from ‘B’ for foreign currency. In December 2005, S&P revised its outlook on the foreign currency rating to “Positive” from stable and reaffirmed its B+ foreign currency.

 

[Neo]

Saturday, May 27, 2006

* Subcommittee chairman says mistakes were made ‘in good faith’

By Mohammad Imran

ISLAMABAD: A subcommittee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) exonerated three retired army generals on Friday of charges of “serious misconduct” in a $100 million deal for the purchase of locomotives for the Pakistan Railways, on the grounds that the “mistake” had been made “in good faith”.

Railways Secretary Shakeel Durrani told a meeting of the subcommittee, headed by Col (r) Ghulam Rasool Sahi, that “serious violations” had been committed in the procurement of the freight trains. “If I had been the Pakistan Railways chairman, I would not have gone for such a deal,” he said.

The Railways secretary named former Railways minister Lt Gen (r) Javed Ashraf Qazi, former Railways chairman Lt Gen (r) Saeeduzzafar and former Railways Administration general manager Lt Gen (r) Butt as the officials responsible for making the deal.

However, Durrani said that the deal had been made “in good faith”.

He noted that foreign funding had dried up following Pakistan’s 1998 nuclear tests, and that China had at the time been the only country willing to offer the country financial support. Pakistan Railways had thus decided to purchase 69 locomotives on credit from China, he said.

“The Railways would have collapsed had it not purchased the locomotives,” Durrani told the subcommittee. He said that the Railways administration had the made the deal “to save the department”.

Sahi concluded that the misconduct, “although serious, was in good faith. Therefore, this issue is settled”.

Durrani had earlier told the committee that the government had decided to stop the payment instalments for the locomotives after signing a promissory note with the Chinese government. “But the attorney general of Pakistan had said that the National Bank of Pakistan would be blacklisted in the world market in case of non-payment, as it was the government’s guarantor in the agreement,” he said.

The Railways secretary also told the committee that the authority had continued buying more locomotives from China in spite of apparent defects in them. However, their performance was now satisfactory, he said.