profit.com.pk

Earnings, Fed to prove scepticswrong Page 02

Sunday, 22 April, 2012

Acouple of things clearlystand out aboutIslamabad’s election year

policy. First, its surprise trade andinvestment outreach, engagingmajor emerging market players inthe broader Asia-Pacific regionjust when the revenue situationbecame alarming. Second, itscommitment to the Pak-Iranpipeline, despite severeinternational pressure. And nowthat Pakistan’s role in gettingIndia and Afghanistan to settleoutstanding tAPI issues isbecoming clear, so is Islamabad’semerging commitment tofinalising the region’s principalpipeline grid, and getting a handleon the energy problem.Further, the petroleum minister’sconfidence regarding the IP line’sfinancing clearly showsnegotiations with the Russians areprogressing smoothly, if theyhaven’t been settled already, andGazprom will bring its muscle heresooner rather than later. (thedelay on the Pakistani side isknown to all, mandatingimmediate movement). Progresson tAPI, and Kabul and newDelhi’s price agreement, alsoenables Islamabad to bargaindown eventual IP cost, acontractual feature that allowsinfluence from exogenous pricemovements. expected $1 billion insaving will no doubt benefit thesector, plagued as it is with debtand corruption.Appreciated as recent moves are,the advances do seem to occurmore on the international side,with our own homegrownproblems still lingering. thebillion odd in savings matters allthe more now because ourdomestic fiscal situation is sobadly compromised, and that toomostly owing to unnecessaryfactors that are perhaps the easiestto arrest, provided there is ameasure of political will.extra trade and investment, aswell as smoother energy supplies,will bring multiple benefits for

coMMEnt

Pipeline bargaining

WASHINGTON REUTERS

RuSSIA said that G20 advancedand emerging countries wereready at a meeting on Friday tocommit enough new funds to

fulfill IMF chief christine Lagarde’s requestfor at least $400 billion to draw a line underthe euro-zone crisis. Russia itself, he said,would offer $10 billion. “trust me that theG20 will announce the final amount. thiswill be an amount that will satisfy themanagement of the International MonetaryFund,” said Sergei Storchak, Russia’sdeputy finance minister. Support fromRussia, china and Brazil is crucial toachieve the doubling of the IMF’s war chestthe global lender is seeking. europe andJapan already have pledged $320 billion.An international diplomat said that in all,

emerging nations have lined up at least$100 billion. the IMF has warned that theeuro zone’s debt crisis presents the gravestrisk to the global economic expansion, andfinancial markets worry that Spain and Italymay next require bailouts, following Greece,Ireland and Portugal. enlarging the IMF’scoffers could offer solace to nervousinvestors that any widening of the crisiscould be contained. Lagarde said onthursday she expects to seal a deal on freshfunds at the World Bank/IMF meetings thisweekend. But Brazil said that as a conditionfor funds, emerging powers want freshpledges to recognize their fast-growingglobal economic weight written into theG20 communique. they are frustrated overdelays - particularly by the united States -in implementing an agreement to lesseneurope’s sway at the IMF and lift china intothe no. 3 voting slot. “What we want and

demand in every meeting is that thiscommitment be reaffirmed,” BrazilianFinance Minister Guido Mantega saidthursday after a meeting of officials fromthe so-called BRIcS nations - Brazil, Russia,India, china and South Africa. Mantegadrove the point even more forcefully in aspeech prepared for delivery on Saturday tothe IMF’s steering committee, saying it wasno longer enough to simply repeat thatvoting reforms are crucial for theeffectiveness of the IMF.“Progress on this front has been limitedand slow,” he will say, according to thetext. canada, meanwhile, is pushingagainst europe’s dominance on theIMF’s 24-member board. It wants tohold two votes when the IMF decides onhow to use its new resources - one byeuro zone countries and another byothers. the idea would be to dilute

europe’s power on euro-zone-relatedissues. this drive reflects growingconcern among non-european countriesover the fairness in the global lender’sdealings with europe. the region has thelargest single bloc on the IMF board andthe Fund is headedby a French woman.“Given that themajor challengehere is a sovereigndebt challenge ineuro-zonecountries, andthat euro-zonecountries areasking non euro-zone countries tocontribute toresources at theIMF, our view isthat there ought tobe two votes,” saidcanadian FinanceMinister JimFlaherty. He hasgained a sympathetic ear, South KoreanFinance Minister Bahk Jae-wan, whosaid: “their recommendation meritssome consideration.” Still, funds were

near to being sealed. the internationaldiplomat said some countries may needto get final approval from their capitols,so any firm deal may have to await ameeting of G20 leaders set for June andthat final sums remained unclear.

china couldcontribute $60 billion,matching Japan’spledge, althoughBeijing had notfinalized the number.Saudi Arabia wouldchip in a little lessthan china, whileRussia and Brazilwere likely tocontribute between$10 billion and $20billion each, thediplomat said. thiswould easily reach themarker of at least$400 billion set by

Lagarde. the firewallwould complement the

$1 trillion in emergency funds for europeagreed upon by the eu leaders last month,which was another precondition forcountries bolstering the IMF resources.

And so they emerged…g Emerging powers ready to give IMF billions

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Recent spell of rains, hailand wind storm havecaused heavy loss to wheat,canola, gram and sunflower

crops in the country though it has alsoprovided some benefit to thesugarcane crop. this was claimed bythe Agri Forum Pakistan chairmanMuhammad Ibrahim Mughal whiletalking to media persons here onSaturday. He claimed that the recentspell of rains has also devastatedcotton crop over 25,000 to 30,000acres of land and farmers have to sowtheir land again. He claimed thatrecent spell of rains has devastatedaround 1.3 million maund of wheat,200,000 maund of canola, 50,000maund of gram and 15,000 maund ofsunflower crop. Mughal said thatmeteorological department haspredicted rains at the end of theMarch, which would have been proved

beneficial for all the Rabi crops, butunfortunately these delayed andlanded in mid of April. these rains notonly delayed the harvesting of Rabicrops but also delayed the sowing ofKhareef crops including cotton. Whilegrowers had to sow their land again inareas where cotton had already beenplanted causing of loss of millions ofrupees to the growers, he added. Heclaimed that cotton this year would besown on an area of 8.5 million acresand rice on an area of 6 million acres.While sugarcane would be sown on anarea of 2.6 million acres of land, headded. Agri Forum Pakistan chairmanadvised the government to help thegrowers who had suffered loss due torecent spell of rains and bring downthe prices of fertilizers to half andexempt agricultural tube wells fromload shedding so as to ensure timelysowing of khareef crops as 80 per centof the exports from Pakistan also relyon two important khareef cropsnamely rice and cotton.

Major emerging powers stoodready to pledge money to bolsterthe International Monetary Fund’scrisis-fighting war chest, though

Brazil was holding out for promisesthat their voting power at theglobal lender would increase

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news02Sunday, 22 April, 2012

ISLAMABADONLINE

tHe World Bank(WB) on Saturdaywarned of the risk

of a credit crunch in theeuropean and centralAsian nations due toexposure to Westernbanks.“the region is going towitness a slowing down ofthe recovery, and this isobviously because a largepart of the region is veryvulnerable to the negativegrowth prospects in theeuro zone,” Philippe LeHouerou, the WorldBank’s vice president forthe european and centralAsian region, said duringa briefing.the region, whichincludes 30 countries andstretches from Polandand the Balkans throughukraine and Russia to thepost-Soviet republics incentral Asia, has strongtrade and financiallinkages with the eurozone, which helped itgrow in the 2000-2008period.economic expansion inthe region is to ease to3.4 percent this year,from 5.5 percent in 2011 -one of the slowestexpansions of anydeveloping region, LeHouerou said.“there is a pattern that’semerged, and again thepattern is prettyconsistent with theoverall macro story,which is the countriesthat will see the sharpestslowdown of the recoverywould be again theeastern europeans andthe Balkans,” he said.turkey is likely to sufferthe biggest slowdown in

gross domestic productgrowth to 2.9 percent thisyear from 8 percent in2011. ukraine’s GDPgrowth is expected to easeto 2.5 percent from 5.2percent last year.the region also facesrisks of a credit crunch,Le Houerou said, as aresult of the financialintegration of the regionwith banks in some of thetroubled euro zoneeconomies.“now we have a legacywhere the Western banksare now facing pressuresat home, facing pressureto reducing the lending athome and in the emergingmarkets and there is arisk of credit crunch inthe ecA region,” he said.Greek and Italian banksown about 60 percent ofBulgaria’s total bankingsystem assets and morethan a third of Albania’s,according to the WorldBank. nearly half ofcroatia’s banking assetsbelong to Italian banks.“When Western europeanbanks come underpressure then the creditcrunch on the region maybecome a reality,” LeHouerou said.He also urgedgovernments of theregion to take fiscal andfinancial steps to ensuregrowth. But because manystate coffers in the regionhave been depleted inrecent years, he said, therehas been a big increase infiscal deficit andcorrespondingly, a spike inthe public debt. “now, thekey issue is - there is aslowing down, there is adifficult external context;there is now not much roomfor further stimulus throughpublic spending,” he said.

Global warning

KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID

AnD so another one bites thedust – or at least edgescloser to doing so. Spain, thefourth largest economy in

the eurozone is on the brink of writinganother sorry chapter in the europeandebt saga and the pundits are opiningthat it was only a matter of time. thefirst quarter of 2012 is filled withwretched numbers for any concernedSpaniard or an economist who hasbeen working on the fiscal drawingboards to conjure up a long lastingsolution for the european debt crisis. the unemployment rate in Spain isincreasing at the rate of knots; and asthings stand, almost one in every fourSpaniard – 22.9 percent to be exact –is unemployed. Oh and it gets worse;the unemployment beast has its clawfirmly around the youth’s neck withhalf of the future of the countryhankering after non-existing jobs. Historically, construction and housingwas the go-to play for Spanisheconomy, when in a fix, and it is prettyevident that it has not managed to

stand up on its feet ever since thesector took a nosedive in 2007.exports have never been Spain’s forteand hence, any amount of touristmoney or local consumption is a falsedawn for lasting growth. Anotherdagger in Spain’s emptying wallet hassurfaced courtesy the rising deficit ofthe autonomous regions. It’s almost asif the Spanish government is paying noheed to the menace, which if one wereto be honest is the logical corollary ofits frivolous spending. In a fit ofdesperation the central government isnow vying to conjure up a law thatwould enhance its control over theregions, citing the towering debts andthe plunging deficits of theaforementioned regions.the numbers for Spain are not hasdesolate as those of Greece – whichdoesn’t say much really – but theSpanish banks are indebted up totheir nose, and are running out ofbreathing space with escalating pace.cue the clamour of default. europehas for long been playing for time.Instead of vying to root out theproblem, however impossible it

might’ve had been, the europeanshave just satisfied themselves byextending the inevitable. the officialshave held the currency and the blocktogether for a while now, owingmostly to the european central Bank(ecB) buying both bank bonds andgovernment bonds. the crux of the matter, as expoundedby economic connoisseurs is thateurope as a whole isn’t exactly asdesolate as some of its individual unitsare. this undoubtedly brings the unityof the eurozone under scrutiny, for thesimple fact that if a particularAmerican state were to hypotheticallybe in a Greece-esque quagmire, therewouldn’t exactly be a white flaganywhere in the uS. this puts thewhole “united States of europe”clamour peddled by the eurozoneunder scrutiny.now this spring and undoubtedly thecoming summer, Spain would be at theforefront of this soap opera. the ecBcould both be the protagonist orindeed the antagonist of this dramaand only time will tell which end theeuropean bank ends up hogging.

And now SpainIt’s déjà vu all over again as Spain writes another sorry chapter in the European debt saga

It’S cRUncH tIME

g WB warns of credit crunch in theEuropean and central Asian nations

NEW YORKREUTERS

Aspike in bond yields hasbrought europe’s debt cri-sis back to the forefront.u.S. economic figures

point to steady-but-uninspiredgrowth, and stocks have backed offthe sharp gains that recently pushedindexes to near four-year highs.

Stocks returned a bit to theirwinning track this week after strongearnings reports, and investors arewaiting to see if more positive sur-prises from u.S. companies are instore. nearly 180 of the S&P 500’scomponents will report earningsnext week, and heading into a sea-sonally weak period, the marketwill need strong reports to offsetthe perception that there’s no moreroom to rally.

“It is very encouraging that themajority of the news flow is aboutearnings rather than europe,” saidLeo Grohowski, who oversees about$171 billion in client assets as chiefinvestment officer at BnY MellonWealth Management in new York.

earnings are “alleviating ourconcerns about economic growth andmaking us feel more comfortableabout our estimates for the year.”

next week will see earnings re-leases from several bellwethers. themost important will likely be AppleInc (AAPL.O), which reports after themarket close on tuesday.

While the largest u.S. companyby market capitalization has a historyof blowout quarters, many say thecompany’s meteoric rise so far thisyear has created unrealistic expecta-tions. For the first time since Decem-ber 2008, the stock fell more than 4percent in back-to-back weeks.

Analysts see double-digit earn-ings growth for the S&P’s financialand consumer discretionary sectors in2012, with industrials close behind.All three are cyclical growth sectors,while sectors that tend to lead at theend of a growth cycle and before cor-rections are expected to slow.

Still, worries remain about eu-rope, where bond yields have beenrising to ominous levels. And with in-vestors skeptical of the S&P’s nearly30-percent surge since its Octoberlow, the “sell in May, go away” adagecould prove prophetic.

A trend of buying into the mar-ket’s weakness was recently broken,indicating investors might be readyto capitulate. the S&P has closednear its lows on recent down days,while positive sessions have endedwell below their highs.

“We don’t see the type of buyingthat will cause the market to slow itspullback,” said Joseph Greco, man-aging director at Meridian equityPartners in new York. “there’s noconviction buying.”PULLBACK DONE OR

SEASONALITY IN PLAY? chartwatchers are starting to bet the S&P500 is about to pull a repeat perform-ance of 2010 and 2011, when a mid-year pullback followed an April peak,and that smart investors are sellingu.S. stocks after highs reached ear-lier in the month.

“Seasonality is important, and itdoes make a discernable pattern. Youcan follow it, but it can also make youlook foolish if you hew to it too

closely,” said David Joy, chief marketstrategist at Ameriprise Financial inBoston, where he helps oversee $571billion in assets.

“the economy is on a better foot-ing now than last year or at any timesince the start of the recovery,” hesaid. the early 2011 market rallyfaded after a massive earthquake andtsunami in Japan, which has theworld’s third-largest economy. Andafter a large drop triggered by thedowngrade of the u.S. credit rating,the S&P rallied to close the year flat.

“It isn’t a stretch to say thedowngrade won’t happen again thisyear, or that the number of exoge-nous shocks will be fewer,” said An-drew Slimmon, managing director ofglobal investment solutions at Mor-gan Stanley Smith Barney inchicago.“In addition, the result ofthose shocks was a fear that theeconomy was going to slip back intorecession. I don’t believe that’s thecase this year.” Kenneth Fisher, thebillionaire investor who oversees$43 billion at Woodside, california-based Fisher Investments Inc, saidthe current economic environmentwas “as beautiful as I have ever seenit,” and that 2012 would be “a superbig year” for equities.

So far, with 23 percent of S&P500 companies having reported re-sults, more than four-fifths havebeaten expectations, topping consen-sus forecasts with an average sur-prise factor of 8.8 percent. Profitgrowth in this quarter has been up6.2 percent, according to thomsonReuters Proprietary Research.FED MEETING LOOMS: tues-day will see the start of anotherpolicy-setting meeting of the u.S.central bank’s Federal Open Mar-ket committee.

A slowly improving u.S. jobsmarket and reasonably solid growthat the start of the year brightened theeconomic outlook and cut chancesthe Fed will conduct another roundof bond purchases, according to aReuters poll last week.

With the Fed monitoring a heal-ing but still fragile economy, thestatement expected on Wednesdaywill be closely watched by investors.

“When you have a market domi-nated by what central bankers aredoing and saying, it is risky to beout,” said Quincy Krosby, marketstrategist with Prudential Financialin newark new Jersey. “nobodywants to wake up to learn that therewas a big move.”

Earnings, Fed toprove sceptics wrongAfter a strong first quarter, Wall Street has got a case of the jitters

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news

Sunday, 22 April, 2012

03

DIPLoMAtIc GAStRonoMY

ISLAMABADAPP

PAKIStAn’S Ambassador to chinaMasood Khan called on PrimeMinister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani atPrime Minister’s House on Satur-

day and briefed him about Pak-china eco-nomic cooperation. the ambassador briefedthe Prime Minister especially following hisrecent visit to china in connection withBoao conference where he had useful meet-ings with china’s executive Vice Premier, LiKeqiang, and several corporate leaders.About the progress regarding the invest-ment by the growing chinese solar energyindustry in Pakistan, the ambassador saidthat top chinese entrepreneurs would visitPakistan next month to explore and expandsolar energy cooperation between the twocountries. It may be mentioned that thePrime Minister in his recent visit invited theinfluential chinese solar energy entrepre-neurs to invest in Pakistan. the Prime Min-ister expressed satisfaction that thedecisions regarding the energy projectstaken during his visit to china were beingimplemented swiftly by the two sides. Dur-ing his recent visit to china the Prime Min-

ister asked the chi-nese leadershipand the AxiomBank of china to ex-tend confessionalcredit for small andmedium size dams,water conservancy and irrigationprojects in Pakistan. these proj-ects will also create jobs opportu-nities and alleviate povertyespecially in the rural areas of thecountry. A credit line of $ 700 mil-lion covers these projects. credit forother energy projects is also beingfast-tracked. Ambassador MasoodKhan apprised the Prime Ministerabout the preparations being made bythe two sides to hold the second ses-sion of Joint energy Working Group(JeWG) in Islamabad in the secondweek of May, 2012. In December 2010,during the visit of the chinese Premier,Wen Jiabao, to Pakistan, both sides de-cided to set up the JeWG which held its in-augural session in Beijng in August,2011. the mechanism of the JeWGcovers energy projects in conven-tional and alternate sectors.

THE INQUISITR

tHe McDonald’s fast-food empire re-ported a “fat” 4.8% increase in profitin the first quarter of 2012. McDon-ald’s profit increased to $1.27 billion

or $1.23/share. Last year at this time, theworld’s largest restaurant chain reported profitat $1.21 billion and $1.15 share.

McDonald’s operates about 33,000 outletsaround the world. Although franchises alreadyseem to be everywhere, the chain plans to open1,500 new stores this year and plans to remodelthousands more. this is “earnings season,” ascorporations of all kinds release their quarterlyfinancial statements. Why does McDonald’scontinue to be successful in the crowded fast-food marketplace? According to the WallStreet Journal, McDonald’s ” has been able toboost guest traffic and sales faster than most ofits competitors with its increasingly diversemenu…and its growing global operations. ” AWall Street analyst cited by Bloomberg claims

that “McDonald’s is taking market share justbecause their restaurants are more up-to-date,more modern and cleaner” than other burgerchains. chicken McBites and other new menuitems are said to have contributed to the climb-ing profits. changes in corporate leadership arecoming too, with a new ceO and cFO takingover later this year. current ceO Jim Skinneris retiring in July after 41 years with McDon-ald’s, and eight years at the top job.

the fact that you can’t turn on the tV orradio without encountering a McDonald’s com-mercial doesn’t hurt either, but does anyonefind this advertising overkill annoying?

the company continues to push forwarddespite warnings about the obesity epidemicand while the u.S. economy is still weak. Mc-Donald’s and other chains have tweaked theirmenus somewhat to apparently make the foodmore health friendly. McDonald’s serves 56million customers each day and employs 1.6million people around the world in corporateand restaurant positions.

PESHAWARAPP

KHYBeR Pakhtunkhwa Minister forPopulation Welfare, Salim Khan saidthat government has approved 70 MW

hydel project at Lawi while work on two morepower generation projects would start from thisyear to address the issues of energy crises in theprovince. He expressed these views in inaugu-ration ceremony of newly constructed Govern-ment High School at taar on Saturday. He saidthat work on Rs 12.5 billion Lawi hydel projectwould start soon to resolve the issues of powershortage and low voltage in the area. SalimKhan said that government has accomplishedrecord development work during four years in-cluding chitral by pass road, chitral townWater Supply Scheme, Daroosh Water supply,

District Headquarters Hospital up gradationand expansion of chitra-Shagoor Road whichis a depiction of our commitment to addressthe basic issues of area people. the ministersaid that more than 2000 people of chitralwere provided jobs while Rs 1.8 billion agricul-ture and business loan have been waved offthat would directly affect common man andhelp ameliorating socio-economic conditions ofpeople. Provincial Minister said that educationis the priority of the government and two uni-versity campuses, two degree colleges, fourhigher secondary schools and various middleand primary schools have been constructed toprovide facility of education to people at theirdoorsteps. Present on the occasion large num-ber of people reposed confidence on leadershipof the minister and announced joining PPPwith friends and families.

McDonald’s shareholders are lovin’it: nearly 5pc profit increase

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

FeDeRAL Board of Revenue (FBR)Member Inland Revenue ShahidHussein Asad has said that efforts arebeing made to bring down sales tax to

single digit in next few years. It is beingconsidered to exempt annual income up to350,000 per annum from the income tax.these views were expressed by him whilespeaking at a pre-budget seminar arranged bythe Lahore tax Bar Association (LtBA) at theRegional tax Office (RtO) here on Saturday.LtBA President Zahid Attiq chaudhry, JointSecretary naeem Khan, former presidentsnaeem Shah, Zia Haider Rizvi, FarhanShahzad and other senior lawyers werepresent on this occasion. Member InlandRevenue said that the coming budget would bea people friendly budget and instead ofputting extra burden on taxpayers newtaxpayers would be brought under tax net. Heclaimed that instead of levying new taxes ratioof existing taxes would be brought down in thecoming budget. He said that national taxnumber (ntn) must be issued within 72hours but issuing of sales tax requireverifications so it get more time than issuanceof ntn. He said that most of the budgetproposals presented by the Bar had been

approved while as far as bringing down thesales tax ratio is considered, he was serious tobring it down to single digit in next few years.Shahid Hussein Asad said that Pakistan waspassing through a crucial juncture. He saidthat FBR was collecting around Rs 1952billion at present out of which Rs 900 billionwas spent on debt servicing, which should hadbeen spent on social welfare and uplifting ofcommon man. He termed tax as dividend ofeconomy and said that a strong economycould give better dividend so the governmentshould take steps to improve the economy.Drawing the attention of the office-bearers ofthe tax bar, he said that almost all theproposals sent by the Bar had been approvedas most of these were also forwarded bydifferent chambers, IcAP and other businessorganizations. He said that increase in taxbase is a joint venture of the FBR and tax Barand urged the Lahore tax Bar AssociationPresident Zahid Attique chaudhry to playtheir role in national development. earlierspeaking on this occasion LtBA PresidentZahid Attique chaudhry said that short termpolicies to increase revenue should beabolished and the Board should adopt a long-term policy. He also called for taking steps toincrease trust between the taxpayer and taxcollectors. He said that audit cases should beselected on solid evidences.

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

DutcH senior expertsare ready to help Pakbusinesses cope withcapacity and

production-related challenges aseconomy of this resource-richcountry is in shambles onlybecause on non-availability ofup-to-date information. this was stated by Senior Dutchexpert Sjaak Vink, PuM countrycoordinator for Pakistan andAfghanistan, while talking toLccI President Irfan QaiserSheikh on Saturday. LccI SeniorVice President Kashif YounisMeher, executive committeeMembers Shoaib Zahid Malik,Rehman Aziz chan, FahimurRehman Saigol, ch Wajid Ali andWaqar Ahmad Mian also spokeon the occasion. Sjaak Vink, whowas heading a three-membercomprising PuM localrepresentative Asim Qadri andRizwan Razi, said that PuMnetherlands is a non-profit

organisation, which has beenadvising businesses indeveloping countries andemerging markets for over thirtyyears. He said that the PuMlinks these businesses, at theirown request, to Dutchprofessionals who voluntarilydevote their considerableexperience to creating a betterworld. He said that the PuMpromotes entrepreneurship, self-sufficiency and the sustainabledevelopment of small andmedium-sized enterprise locally. the Dutch expert said that byallowing these professionals toexecute short-term, solidconsultancy projects on theworkfloor, businesses canestablish sufficient knowledge todevelop into a growth engine forthe local economy. this benefitsboth employment and thesustainable economicdevelopment of the region. Hesaid that the PuM has a networkcomprising some 3,200volunteers, which executes over2,000 projects worldwide on an

annual basis. Speaking on theoccasion, the LccI PresidentIrfan Qaiser Sheikh said thatbusinesses in Pakistan are facingmultiple internal and externalchallenges and it is a good omenfor the country that seniorexperts from the netherlandshave shown their interest toextend cooperation. He said that the Lahorechamber of commerce andIndustry would extend everypossible cooperation to theDutch senior experts on theirarrival in Pakistan. Irfan QaiserSheikh said that Pakistan’sindustry is facing a seriousknowledge gap and that couldbe fulfilled with the help ofDutch Senior experts, who canimpart training to trainers inPakistan. the LccI Presidentsaid that sector specific expertscould do a lot for the revival ofPak economy as a self-sufficientbusiness sector is beneficial toboth the development of anycountry and that of the globaleconomy.

A game of digits LccI has a Dutch uncle

FAt PRoFIt

PoWER GEnERAtIon

LtBA’S PRE-BUDGEt SEMInAR tHE EconoMIc JIGSAW

Govt approves Rs 12.5b hydel project at Lawig 70 MW project approved at Lawi g Project to cater to powershortage needs, work to start soon g 2,000 jobs provided at chitral

g Ambassador Masood Khan briefs PM aboutPak-china economic cooperation g china interested in growing its solar energyindustry in Pakistan g Axiom Bank of china toextend confessional credit for waterconservation, irrigation projects

g FBR vying to bring sales tax down to single digits g coming budgetto be ‘people friendly’ g LtBA president thinks long-term planning beats short-term planning any day

g Senior experts from netherlands give their input on capacity, production g PUM here to promote entrepreneurship, self-sufficiencyand sustainable development of small and medium-sized enterprise

our fiscal cuisineneeds chineseflavour

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