Pakistan's economic future

[MOSABJA]

Are we sleeping.i mean pakistan is blessed with every thing . OIL GAS GOLD URANIUM COAL.Pakistan cant go too far with Agriculture.Industrialisation is very difficult and a long term thing .So why not focus on our RESOURCES..

Pakistan has an interesting Geo-dynamic history of large and prospective basin (onshore and offshore) with sedimentary area of 827,268 sq. km. So far about 883 million barrels crude oil reserves have been discovered of which 559 million barrels have already been produced. A Prognostic potential of total endowment of hydrocarbons has been estimated as 27 billion barrels of oil and 282 trillion cubic feet of gas. out of which onle 40-50 trillion cubic feet are discovered. Up till now over 653 exploratory wells have been drilled by various national and international exploration and production companies, resulting in over 185 oil and gas discoveries. Indigenous production of crude oil during the year 2005-06 was 65,577 barrels per day.


Besiedes it Pakistan is present on three geographical plate i.e INDIA,EURASSIAN,ARABIAN.They all collide in pakistan .The place where these plates collide is extremely rich in MINERALS.


TETHYAN MAGNETIC ARC also known as the golden arc for its GOLD POTENITOL starts from TURKEY to EUPHRATES to IRAN to BALOCHISTAN to FATA to NWFP to KASHMIR.We hve UNPRECEDENTED HIGH LEVELS of GOLD AND URANIUM,SILVER,COPPERe.t.c
We also have fourth largest COAL RESERVES in our country.

We have no shortage of ENERGY.Pakistan has a potential of 80000 MWs just from WIND POWER which is the cheapest and continuos form of energy.
50000MW potential from HYDEL POWER.
If we produce 100000 MW from COAL RESERVES for 40 years only 10% of our coal would be used.In ALTERNATE ENERGY we have large potential in SOLAR ENERGY .

GWADAR port alone if fully developed could give pakistan 50 billion$ in transit fees.



WE ARE WE NOT EXPLOITING THIS POTENTIAL
WHERE ARE THESE RESERVES????????????

its the future of PAKISTAN

 

[khanz]

I agree on top of that we have the 6th biggest population in the world and sole muslim nuclaer power and rapidly growing surely we can use this to our benefit somehow ? well i think simply we just don't have the money to exploit them but it is changing we are inviting foreign companies to come and invest and develop these resources gwadar is a step in this direction.

 

[mujahideen]

I agree on top of that we have the 6th biggest population in the world and sole muslim nuclaer power and rapidly growing surely we can use this to our benefit somehow ? well i think simply we just don't have the money to exploit them but it is changing we are inviting foreign companies to come and invest and develop these resources gwadar is a step in this direction.

Well said, you kept the ground realities in mind, but I think we have the seventh biggest population.

 

[khanz]

Well said, you kept the ground realities in mind, but I think we have the seventh biggest population.

thx bro but i think we are 6th after :

china
india
usa
indonesia
brazil
-pakistan

and above bangladesh,russia,nigeria and japan which make top 10 world populations.

soon we'll overtake brazil and indonesia and be 4th
ha along with bangladesh and india rapidly growing too south asia will be massively packed we desis reproduce too much lol

 

[Neo]

Government has been reluctant to explore mineral sector and I'll have to agree with Khanz thats we lack funds to undertake intensive exploring.

Oil was cheap and easily available till the first crisis in early seventies, we could have done more to become atleast self sufficient by intensifying oil and gas exploring in potentially rich area's but we were severly hit by sanctions and embargoes from 1977 and on. Funds we should have invested in development and mineral exploring went to the nuclear programme and military.

Luckily Musharraf administration has revived the sector sucessfully, we've seen a record amount of FDI in mining and also a record in terms of area allocation to foreign explorers.

Huge copper and gold reserves worth $72 billion were discovered in 2005, mining will start late this summer. Oil and gas exploration is extended from landside to offshore and Indus delta. Sindh's coal reserves are being exploited, we'll start exporting coal in 2012!

I hope future governments will do more to attract foreign involvement and FDI and use better technologies wheich are being offered by USA and China to explore minerals by satelite imaging.

 

[danishsaleem]

salam to all,


First of all please remember, that from last 8 years , the Money which we received from Privitisation of our Instituation used for competing budget deficit.

Secondly from last 60 years we got loans worth Us$:38 Billion, but from last two years our trade dificit is 33 Billion. Which create serious concerns.

Thirdly in all over world, Dollar loosing its value ,but in pakistan Rupee is loosing its value, for example in August 2007 1 Us$:=61 Pak Rupees and now 1 Us$ = 63 Pak Rupees, which is also concern for any economy.

Forthly According to tax collection ratio which we achive during 90 as compere to GDP ratio, our Tax collection will be Rs:1350 Billion rupees, but we are collecting Rs:1025 Billion (Budgtery Target 2007-2008), which shows that Tax collection as per GDP decreasing.

Fifthly , no new Power Generation Unit , started production from last 7 years, inspite the fact that in 2002, Minitry of Economics, and Fininace presented the report infront of PM ,that the power shortages during 2007-2008 will be 2500 MW .

Any ways, these are the few points , which are serious concerns for any economy.

Danish

 

[MOSABJA]

I tell what we should do.

1)Get back 2 billion$ loans(of Q league) which were forgiven and put them in energy sector you are gonna have 2500 MW electricity from wind power.

2)Get back the mega corruption of Q LEAGIANS which might reach 5 billion$ estimate.Put all this money in energy sector and go for VIGOROUS searches in country.

3)Restore democracy and Judiciary to persuade the investor.

4) make peace deal with Taliban and stop fighting .Search the whole FATA and NWFP for Gold,Oil and resources.

5)Go for talks with baluch nationalists.Give Balochs maximum economic propserity you can .Also keep a strict eye on BLA.Choke its supply from Afghanstan.

6) Ask the chinese and the other friendly nations to invest money in searching of the oil off shore and on shore.

PAKISTAN WOULD GET PROPSPEROUS BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS

 

[JK!]

If only it was as simple as you say.

Here's something to consider, Peak oil was hit in November 2005 so its all downhill from here.

And as for renewable energy well thats exactly what I am studying here at University so as soon as I'm finished I'll come over and exploit that wind resource.

 

[khanz]

If only it was as simple as you say.

Here's something to consider, Peak oil was hit in November 2005 so its all downhill from here.

And as for renewable energy well thats exactly what I am studying here at University so as soon as I'm finished I'll come over and exploit that wind resource.

hope it's a success ! your post makes me think of that indian film swades

 

[Neo]

Huge copper and gold reserves worth $72 billion were discovered in 2005, mining will start late this summer.

Copper deposits estimated at 2bn tonnes: ACC Chief ​

ISLAMABAD: Antofagasta Copper Company of Chile Marcelo Awad has informed the government that the Reko Diq Project in Chaghai district of Balohistan has two billion tonnes of copper deposits.

President of Antofagasta Copper Company (ACC) of Chile Marcelo Awad, who along with Chief Executive Officer of Tethyan Copper Company of Australia Hugh James called on the Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Ahsanullah Khan here Wednesday and briefed him about the copper reserves. They exchanged views on investment potential in the mineral sector with the Federal Minister.

During the meeting, the President of Antofagasta Company briefed the Minister about the updated progress on Reko Diq Copper Project in Chaghai District of Balochistan Province being undertaken by the Antofagasta Joint Venture. Marcelo Awad informed the Minister that the Reko Diq Project involves multi-billion dollars investment and has two billion tonnes of copper deposits. He said that the company had so far invested $46 million on the development of the project and efforts were underway for the speedy commissioning of this mega copper project.

The Minister said that the government was keen to develop the mineral sector on modern lines and providing attractive package of incentives to the investors to boost mineral development activities in the country. He said the government was taking concrete steps to ensure availability of infrastructure pre-requisite for the successful mineral exploration.

The Minister said that annual production of 250,000 tonnes of copper from Reko Diq project would not only bring Pakistan on the world copper map but also help strengthen its economy.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[Neo]

Foreign company plans to invest $3 billion in Reko Diq copper-gold mine​

KARACHI (July 01 2009): A foreign joint-venture company plans to invest up to $3 billion in Pakistan in a copper and gold mine, the venture's chief executive said on Tuesday. Tethyan Copper Co Ltd, a joint venture between Canada's Barrick Gold and Chile's Antofagasta Plc, one of the world's largest copper miners, has been granted an exploration license for the Reko Diq site in Balochistan.

The site's ore reserves, a mixture of minerals, are estimated at 4 billion tonnes, of which 0.5 percent is expected to be copper with 0.29 gram of gold per tonne of ore, Tethyan Chief Executive Cassie Boggs told Reuters in an interview.

"We think the investment is probably going to be between $2.5 and $3 billion," Boggs said by telephone. Tethyan is working on a feasibility study which is expected to be finished by early next year. The aim of the project is to exploit both copper and gold deposits, Boggs said.

Tethyan has a 75 percent interest while the government of Balochistan holds the remaining 25 percent. The project is expected to create up to 9,000 jobs in the construction phase, which will last for about three years, and then employ up to 3,000 people once the mine is operational. "Initially, we will need to probably bring in people from the outside with certain mining expertise," said Boggs. "But certainly, the plan is to train and develop the local workforce."

 

[muse]

Below is another piece about the same subject, but readers can decide for themselves the value of the spin -- with that said, readers will note that some have been successful in gbetting Chinese companies to pull out of Pakistan -- Chinese companies have found welcome in,.. Afghanistan, would you believe? Chinese companies are pleased that the U.S can provide security there.

Some Pakistanis should take note.

After reading the piece below, what would you say are the 2 or 3 most important ideas in the piece:


Miners bank $3bn on Baloch project
By Syed Fazl-e-Haider

QUETTA, Pakistan - Canada's Barrick Gold and Chile's Antofagasta plan to invest up to US$3 billion in a copper and gold mine at Reko Diq in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan. This will be the single-largest foreign investment in Pakistan in the fiscal year that started on July 1 and is larger than the $3.32 billion of total foreign direct investment for the first 11 months of the 2008-09 fiscal year.

Security concerns are deterring foreign investors from putting their cash into Pakistan. Poor and sparsely populated Balochistan, already home to native insurgent groups seeking a greater say in local affairs, has also recently become a new focus of the US "war on terror" as it spills over from neighboring Afghanistan.

The financial benefits that might accrue from the Reko Diq site are
overcoming these concerns. Rights to the nearby Saindak copper project, in the same district of Chagai, have already been sold to the Chinese on a 10-year lease.

Critics say that the government in Islamabad blundered by selling what may be the world's biggest untapped copper and gold deposits, worth over $100 billion, to foreign mining firms at a throwaway price, to the disservice of the people of the country's most backward province and economy.

Tethyan Copper, a joint venture between Barrick Gold and Antofagasta, one of the world's largest copper miners, has been granted an exploration license for the Reko Diq site. Tethyan, formerly a subsidiary of Australia's Mincor Resources, has a 75% interest, and the Balochistan government holds 25%.

"We think the investment is probably going to be between $2.5 billion and $3 billion," Reuters quoted Cassie Boggs, chief executive of Tethyan Copper, as saying on Tuesday when the investment was announced. "Here in Pakistan, all the current events make security a concern but we actually believe security is manageable."

Boggs said the company would continue to weigh the benefits against the risks but felt the project had a lot of potential for its investors and for Pakistan. Ore reserves at the site are estimated at 4 billion tonnes, of which 0.5% is expected to be copper, with 0.29 gram of gold per tonne of ore, according to Boggs.

Antofagasta, listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, is active in mineral exploration in Chile and Peru. It has estimated there are two billion tonnes of copper deposits at Reko Diq. Barrick is the world's pre-eminent gold producer, with 27 operating mines in various countries. The company's shares are traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges. Its share of measured and indicated and inferred copper at Reko Diq are 4.3 and 13.4 billion pounds respectively.

Though the actual size of Reko Diq deposits is yet to be confirmed, experts believe they are bigger than at Sarcheshmeh in Iran's Kerman province and at Escondida in Chile. With1.2 billion tonnes of resources, Sarcheshmeh is a large open-cast copper mine and is considered to be the world's second-largest copper deposit. Escondida, with 57.6 million tonnes of resources, is the world's highest producing copper mine.

Like Escondida, Reko Diq could become an important part of the national as well as provincial economy. In 2007, Escondida produced 1.48 million tonnes of copper, mainly as copper concentrate, worth $10.12 billion. As a result of extensive drilling in the Reko Diq area, about 167 million tonnes of copper ore reserves have been proved.

In the international market, each stage of copper production is tradable from copper concentrate, smelted copper and blister copper to refined copper or pure copper. Copper is currently being sold at an average price of US$4,000 a tonne in the world metal market.

With the exploitation of Reko Diq, Pakistan is poised to appear for the first time on the world's copper-producing map. The government will launch the project with an investment of $1 billion by 2010, the Daily Times reported, citing an official document. The project is expected to create up to 9,000 jobs in the construction phase, which will last for about three years, then employ up to 3,000 people once the mine is operational. Tethyan initially plans to bring in mining experts from the outside while training and developing the local workforce.

The Chinese engaged in the Saindak copper project are committed to transferring technology in copper mining and to training Pakistani engineers and workers.

The wealth from Reko Diq could enable Pakistan to retire its external debt and liabilities, which have surged to $50.9 billion. Economically backward Balochistan province could also attain enough fiscal space and financial health to finance its social-sector development projects and run its financial affairs without relying on the central government.

The provincial government first signed a contract for Reko Diq exploration with the BHP Minerals in July 1993 and established a joint venture with the province holding a 25% interests and BHP Billiton 75% by virtue of a deed of waiver and consent signed in June 2000. Tethyan Copper Co, then a subsidiary of Australian Mincor Resources, held an alliance with BHP.

In 2000, Mincor Resources estimated that the Reko Diq region held 5 million tonnes of copper metal deposits and 32 million ounces of gold. Tethyan planned to start the Reko-Diq copper project in 2003 with an investment of $130 million. Antofagasta and Barrick Gold have since taken over 100% of Tethyan, which has reported total, indicated and inferred mineral resource estimates at its properties of 1.2 billion tonnes with a copper grade of 0.58% and a gold grade of 0.28 grams per tonne.

Critics have questioned why the authorities did not refuse the transfer of the Reko Diq project from the internationally reputed BHP Billiton to the Tethyan, which raised funds for the project by floating its shares in the Australian Stock Exchange after acquiring the project. They say that failure has deprived the country of a 75% stake in the vast untapped deposits.

BHP's failure to make significant progress in exploring the copper resources had provided the government a chance to seek fresh offers for exploiting Reko Diq, the critics claim.

Syed Fazl-e-Haider, sfazlehaider05@yahoo.com, is a Quetta-based development analyst in Pakistan. He is the author of six books, including The Economic Development of Balochistan (2004).

 

[saroshshahid]

what about 6 trillions barrel of oil in baloch?????

 

[Hutchroy]

Mukhtar urges world community to solve Pakistan’s economic woes

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations is actively engaged in mobilizing international community to assist Pakistan to help resolve its social and economic difficulties, said UN Special Envoy for Assistance to Pakistan, Jean-Maurice Ripert on Friday.

“The United Nations understood Pakistan's difficulties and is approaching various donor countries to extend financial and social assistance for Pakistan," Ripert said during a meeting with defence Minister Ch Ahmed Mukhtar.

“This assistance shall be utilized for reconstruction of terror-ravaged areas of Malakand Division and Federal Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) areas and rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)," he added.

The Minister briefed the UN envoy about the economic and human losses suffered by Pakistan as a result of anti-terror operations.

He urged the International community to realize and understand Pakistan's difficulties as the war on terror had inflicted billions of dollar losses on its economy, apart from devastating educational and health infrastructure particularly in the terror-affected areas.

Ahmed Mukhtar said industrial zones needed to be set up in tribal areas with the help of international community to provide employment opportunities to residents of the area.

He informed the envoy that Pakistan's economic conditions can be improved by granting it trade concessions by the Western World as well as entering into free agreement with it on the Turkish Model

 

[Abdu Samad]

It is impossible to have better economy unless we have stability in Pak, that we do not have presently.
When u appoint a guard of bank who is in fact a disguised thief; then Ur Bank is no more a bank.

Best solution for Pak. in Present situation:

No Literacy - No Election. Ignorant voters mostly elect Thieves.
TRUTH: Democracy brings good results only in literate society but democracy is the most disastrous system in an ignorant Society. See Past 63 yrs.

1-Supreme Court must disqualify all MNA MPA Cabinet President, due to 45% Bogus Votes in past election.

2-Military take over & with in 1 to 3 month give full charge to Imran Khan [or a grp of proven honest Technocrats] as caretaker GOV.

3-Imran GOV must continue for 10 to 15 yrs with the Full support of SC, autonomous Audit General+NAB & Military.

4-Educate Pakis at war-basis to get at least 85% literacy rate in 10~15 yrs.

5-Free elections after 15 yrs. We bet u, Pak will be Paradise on earth.

Note: A Corrupt Democratic GOV [Licensed looter] is 100rds time worse than comparatively an honest Military rule [as was of Ayub Khan].

Should be there new elections with existing literacy rate? Our "THE World's WISEST" voters will elect again thieves.
The real culprit in this all despicable scenario is ignorant voter who can sell his vote just for a plate of Buryaani & he/she just follow what his feudal/tribe head says.