profitepaper pakistantoday 22nd November, 2012
2
Thursday, 22 November, 2012 KARACHI ISMAIL DILAWAR In a fresh setback to the country’s deplet- ing dollar reserves Pakistan Wednesday “successfully” repaid a seventh tranche of over $394 million to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A central bank spokesman said Wednesday witnessed the repayment of SDr 258.4 million, which is equivalent to $394.3million, to the Fund under the 2008’s $ 11.3 billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) of which Pakistan has received only $ 8.3 billion. In 2008, Islamabad had sought a bailout package from the IMF to avoid a possible default on the Balance of Payment front. “Seventh installment under IMF/SBA facility amounting to SDr 258.4 million, equivalent of US$394.3 million, has been successfully made today,” said Syed Wasimuddin, chief spokesman of the State Bank of Pakistan. With this transfer Pakistan’s repay- ments to the IMF since February 2012 total at $ 2.522 billion. “With payment of 7th installment on 21 november 2012, Pakistan to-date has paid SDrs 1,644 mil- lion equivalent US$ 2,522 million to IMF since Feb-2012,” said the spokesman. The dollar-hungry Pakistan would be repaying the next, 8th, installment to its lenders in the IMF after some three months at the end of February next year. Such huge repayments have been a permanent drain on the foreign exchange reserves of the funds-starved Pakistan which is already breathing hard under heavy foreign debts which, according to official data, have swelled beyond $ 62 billion. What is alarming is the fact that the country’s dollar reserves have contracted to single digit, below $ 9 billion. The State Bank last Thursday re- ported that on november 9 the country’s holding of the greenback stood at $ 13.84 billion. Of this total, the central bank’s re- serves amount to $ 9.24 billion while that of the commercial banks stand at $ 4.60 billion. except worker remittances that are being received on average to the tune of $ 1 billion every month, all other indicators on Pakistan’s Balance of Payment list rest in the red zone. The analysts believe that negatives like poor inflows of foreign investment seem to be offsetting the positive impact of positives like a $258 million surplus in the country’s current account balance. This surplus, however, could only be achieved after the United States, Pak- istan’s non-nato ally in the War on Ter- ror, reimbursed $ 1.118 billion to Islamabad under the long-withheld Coali- tion Support Fund in early August this year. The economic observers believe that such short-term gains were far from being enough to put Pakistan’s troubled exter- nal sector back on track. The received CSF money, the analysts view, was Pakistan’s own money and was hardly enough to repay the IMF tranches due in the months ahead. PAKISTAN’S IMF DEBT BURDEN SHRINKS BY $2.522B WITH 7TH REPAYMENT ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT C enTrAl banks of the De- veloping-8 countries Wednesday agreed on a “sustainable growth strat- egy” under which the mem- ber countries would lessen dependence on their traditional trade partners and focus on the regional blocs like the D-8. In a joint communiqué, the D-8 cen- tral banks decided that the member countries would confront mutual eco- nomic challenges through concerted measures ranging from the establishment of correspondent banking relationship and currency swap arrangements to pro- motion of Islamic finance models to deal with the emerging global economic chal- lenges. The governors of central banks of D- 8 countries held their second meeting here with Governor State Bank of Pak- istan Yaseen Anwar in the chair to achieve the objectives of increasing the block’s mutual understanding of various economic and financial sector related challenges facing them, and enhancing mutual co-operation to confront these challenges. The D-8 central banks’ governors are expected to again gather in 2014 in Turkey. Agenda of the meeting, the gov- ernors agreed Wednesday, would be the discussion on shadow banking and its re- lated risks amongst other financial sector issues. The communiqué issued by the SBP reads as follows: Since we last met in Abuja, nigeria in July 2010, the global economy continues to face a number of challenges. external, fiscal and financial imbalances still per- sist, creating challenges on economic growth and employment. Global growth is projected to drop in 2012 because of weak economic activity in the US and de- teriorating sovereign and banking sector developments in the euro area. As a re- sult, real GDP growth in the emerging and developing economies is going to fur- ther slowdown. Although the impacts and related challenges may be different from country to country, and region to region, we are all united in our resolve to achieve sus- tainable and inclusive growth in a collab- orative way. SpeCifiCally, we will: a. Formulate monetary and financial policies to support sustainable growth strategy in D-8 countries in the backdrop of an uncertain outlook for the global economy. b. Promote Innovative Financial In- clusion Policies. c. explore opportunities in Islamic Finance. d. establish information exchange and promote peer learning amongst D-8 central banks. SuStainable Growth StrateGy We must work together to formulate monetary and financial policies to sup- port sustainable growth strategy for D-8 countries in the backdrop of an uncertain outlook for the global economy. The D-8 economies face a diverse set of economic challenges. Some of these are structural; others may be cyclical in nature, while others a direct consequence of the global credit crunch of 2007-08 and the recent euro area crises. However, in formulating a growth strategy to deal with these issues – and to identify areas of potential cooperation between members – it is necessary to un- derstand these challenges better. In order to achieve this, we have agreed to collab- orate and focus on: a. Developing and using monetary and financial policy tools that can buffer the domestic economy against the global slowdown by striking a balance between nurturing sustainable domestic demand and an export-led growth model. b. reduce dependency on demand from traditional trade partners by rebal- ancing and diversifying the sources of economic growth in the domestic economies by focusing on opportunities for greater cooperation amongst regional blocs, such as the D-8. c. establish correspondent banking relationship and currency swap arrange- ments amongst D-8 countries to promote trade and capital flows. d. The need to bring the informal sec- tor into the mainstream economy, and hence into the tax net, by improving the efficiency of public institutions, in order to increase fiscal space and the effective- ness of monetary management processes. e. Developing the means (such as joint research projects and professional exchanges between the member countries for capacity-building) to better under- stand, and learn from member countries’ experiences, on the efforts undertaken to tackle challenges that are common to the D-8 e.g. enforcing better fiscal discipline; promoting investment in infrastructure; implementation of capital standards; in- centivizing banks to lend to the real sec- tor and sustaining low and moderate levels of inflation and contributing to fi- nancial stability. finanCial inCluSion Financial inclusion will remain a top priority as it alleviates financial con- straints on poor and low income house- holds, helps them to benefit from better economic opportunities, and creates em- ployment. We also note the effectiveness of ex- isting policy frameworks and institutions and progress made on various innovative new approaches to financial inclusion. We reaffirm our support to promote financial inclusion in D-8 countries. In this regard, we will take important meas- ures to advance the financial inclusion agenda. Specifically we will: a. reaffirm or formulate national fi- nancial inclusion strategies in our coun- tries and gather support from across our governments, financial sector and other key stakeholders to build broad-based ownership of the financial inclusion agenda. b. Study policy approaches for build- ing delivery channels and payments sys- tems such as agent-based banking, mobile phone banking, and post office networks. c. Form a D-8 Consultative Group on Financial Inclusion (CGFI) with repre- sentation from each central bank. The CGFI will have a series of knowledge ex- change exercises, consultations and pro- duce a comprehensive document by the next D-8 Summit. iSlamiC finanCe We reviewed the progress of Islamic Finance industry in D-8 countries that has enjoyed rapid growth over the past decade primarily due to global trends and local demand for Shariah-complaint fi- nancial services. Going forward, the cen- tral banks may discuss sustainable models to promote Islamic finance in D- 8 countries especially in the wake of chal- lenging global economic landscape. There is need for exploring sustainable models to promote Islamic finance in D-8 coun- tries especially in the wake of challenging global economic landscape. The cooperation will highlight strate- gies for ensuring growth trajectories for Islamic finance in D-8 countries, with emphasis on home grown demand and strategies in D-8 countries, primarily promoting Islamic finance to meet latent demand for financial services due to low level of financial inclusion and lack of Shariah compliant financial solutions. In this regard, the expert group identified three major areas of cooperation i.e. de- velopment of financial instruments & markets, improving perception and en- hancing awareness, and training & capac- ity building. establish Information exchange and Peer learning Finally, we have agreed that each of the D-8 members has their strengths in financial and monetary sector issues. In order for D-8 members to benefit from these strengths we will formalize our co- operation though the regular informa- tion exchange and work through peer learning model amongst D-8 central banks in such areas including monetary policy, banking regulations and supervi- sion, financial inclusion and Islamic fi- nance. We hope that the D-8 countries will join the proposed peer learning working groups and share their unique experiences. D-8 countries agree to focus on regional blocs ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT Stressing the need for continued collabo- ration amongst the D-8 central banks, Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Yaseen Anwar Wednesday said the mem- ber countries need to explore ways to pro- mote Islamic financing in the wake of challenging global economic landscape. While opening and chairing the 2nd meeting of central bank governors of the D-8 countries in Islamabad, Anwar said there was aneed for exploring sustainable models to promote Islamic finance in the Developing-8 (D-8) economies. He said macroeconomic policies of D- 8 countries must be balanced to check overheating pressures from strong recov- ery, high credit growth, volatile capital flows, elevated commodity prices, and re- newed risk of inflation. “We must continue to rebalance our economies to sustain growth through mod- ulating domestic consumption, increase in trade and allow capital to flow freely be- tween emerging and developing economies in search of better returns as against in- vestment in debt ridden advanced economies”. He noted that a sudden drop in the growth rate in 2009 immediately after the 2008 crises was perhaps the principal rea- son why the D-8 central bank governors in their first meeting agreed to set this meet- ing agenda on strengthening monetary and financial cooperation. “The global growth is projected to fur- ther drop from 3.8 percent in 2011 to about 3.3 percent in 2012. As a result, the real GDP growth in the emerging and develop- ing economies is projected to be further slower from 6.3 percent in 2011 to 5.2 per- cent in 2012. Therefore, we need continued collaboration to further strengthen our economies,” he added. There was only one central bank in each country/monetary area, and there- fore, it was very logical for central banks to look beyond their national borders for ad- vice and collaboration, he said adding that in recent years, increasing globalization has further enhanced the need for central banks’ cooperation to tackle risks due to the cross border interdependencies and to make the most of emerging opportunities. The central banks’ cooperation had been facilitated through collaborative mul- tilateral forums such as the G20, the FSB and the meetings of the IMF, BIS and a number of bilateral and regional initiatives for cooperation. “The enhanced role of these forums also reflects the increasingly important role that the central banks of emerging and developing economies are playing at these international forums,” said the SBP governor. Stressing the need for strengthening cooperation amongst D-8 countries, Anwar said the D-8’s secretariat must be strengthened to collect and main- tain information on our economies and their interconnectedness. “This would serve the dual purpose as it would provide regular updates on the state of D-8 economies and would help us in reviewing and measuring progress of our economies on economic and financial cooperation,” he said. Anwar suggested that D-8 countries must collaborate and focus on the optimal use of monetary pol- icy tools which are at best the first line of defence against the global crisis. The D-8 countries must collaborate on how to re- balance its growth model from export-led growth to diversifying demand through structural changes in their economies that would enable sustainable future growth and make their economies less susceptible to volatility in other financial markets, par- ticularly by raising domestic demand and recycling more of the D-8 countries sav- ings into investments at home. Let’s explore Islamic finance models SBP urges D-8 central banks to explore Islamic finance models amid global economic challenges PRO 22-11-2012_Layout 1 11/21/2012 11:33 PM Page 1
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profitepaper pakistantoday 22nd November, 2012
Transcript of profitepaper pakistantoday 22nd November, 2012
Thursday, 22 November, 2012
KARACHI
ISMAIL DILAWAR
In a fresh setback to the country’s deplet-ing dollar reserves Pakistan Wednesday“successfully” repaid a seventh tranche ofover $394 million to the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF). A central bankspokesman said Wednesday witnessedthe repayment of SDr 258.4 million,which is equivalent to $394.3million, tothe Fund under the 2008’s $ 11.3 billionStand-By Arrangement (SBA) of whichPakistan has received only $ 8.3 billion.In 2008, Islamabad had sought a bailoutpackage from the IMF to avoid a possibledefault on the Balance of Payment front.
“Seventh installment under IMF/SBAfacility amounting to SDr 258.4 million,equivalent of US$394.3 million, has beensuccessfully made today,” said SyedWasimuddin, chief spokesman of theState Bank of Pakistan.
With this transfer Pakistan’s repay-ments to the IMF since February 2012total at $ 2.522 billion. “With payment of7th installment on 21 november 2012,Pakistan to-date has paid SDrs 1,644 mil-lion equivalent US$ 2,522 million to IMFsince Feb-2012,” said the spokesman.
The dollar-hungry Pakistan would berepaying the next, 8th, installment to itslenders in the IMF after some threemonths at the end of February next year.
Such huge repayments have been apermanent drain on the foreign exchangereserves of the funds-starved Pakistanwhich is already breathing hard underheavy foreign debts which, according toofficial data, have swelled beyond $ 62billion.
What is alarming is the fact that thecountry’s dollar reserves have contractedto single digit, below $ 9 billion.
The State Bank last Thursday re-ported that on november 9 the country’sholding of the greenback stood at $ 13.84billion. Of this total, the central bank’s re-serves amount to $ 9.24 billion while thatof the commercial banks stand at $ 4.60billion.
except worker remittances that arebeing received on average to the tune of $1 billion every month, all other indicatorson Pakistan’s Balance of Payment list restin the red zone.
The analysts believe that negativeslike poor inflows of foreign investmentseem to be offsetting the positive impactof positives like a $258 million surplus inthe country’s current account balance.
This surplus, however, could only beachieved after the United States, Pak-istan’s non-nato ally in the War on Ter-ror, reimbursed $ 1.118 billion toIslamabad under the long-withheld Coali-tion Support Fund in early August thisyear. The economic observers believe that
such short-term gains were far from beingenough to put Pakistan’s troubled exter-nal sector back on track.
The received CSF money, the analystsview, was Pakistan’s own money and washardly enough to repay the IMF tranchesdue in the months ahead.
PAKISTAN’S IMF DEBT BURDEN SHRINKS BY $2.522B WITH 7TH REPAYMENT
ISLAMABAD
STAFF REPORT
CenTrAl banks of the De-veloping-8 countriesWednesday agreed on a“sustainable growth strat-egy” under which the mem-
ber countries would lessen dependenceon their traditional trade partners andfocus on the regional blocs like the D-8.
In a joint communiqué, the D-8 cen-tral banks decided that the membercountries would confront mutual eco-nomic challenges through concertedmeasures ranging from the establishmentof correspondent banking relationshipand currency swap arrangements to pro-motion of Islamic finance models to dealwith the emerging global economic chal-lenges.
The governors of central banks of D-8 countries held their second meetinghere with Governor State Bank of Pak-istan Yaseen Anwar in the chair toachieve the objectives of increasing theblock’s mutual understanding of variouseconomic and financial sector relatedchallenges facing them, and enhancingmutual co-operation to confront thesechallenges.
The D-8 central banks’ governors areexpected to again gather in 2014 inTurkey. Agenda of the meeting, the gov-ernors agreed Wednesday, would be thediscussion on shadow banking and its re-lated risks amongst other financial sectorissues.
The communiqué issued by the SBPreads as follows:
Since we last met in Abuja, nigeria inJuly 2010, the global economy continuesto face a number of challenges. external,fiscal and financial imbalances still per-sist, creating challenges on economicgrowth and employment. Global growthis projected to drop in 2012 because ofweak economic activity in the US and de-teriorating sovereign and banking sectordevelopments in the euro area. As a re-sult, real GDP growth in the emergingand developing economies is going to fur-ther slowdown.
Although the impacts and relatedchallenges may be different from countryto country, and region to region, we areall united in our resolve to achieve sus-tainable and inclusive growth in a collab-orative way.SpeCifiCally, we will:
a. Formulate monetary and financialpolicies to support sustainable growth
strategy in D-8 countries in the backdropof an uncertain outlook for the globaleconomy.
b. Promote Innovative Financial In-clusion Policies.
c. explore opportunities in IslamicFinance.
d. establish information exchangeand promote peer learning amongst D-8central banks.SuStainable Growth StrateGy
We must work together to formulatemonetary and financial policies to sup-port sustainable growth strategy for D-8countries in the backdrop of an uncertainoutlook for the global economy. The D-8economies face a diverse set of economicchallenges. Some of these are structural;others may be cyclical in nature, whileothers a direct consequence of the globalcredit crunch of 2007-08 and the recenteuro area crises.
However, in formulating a growthstrategy to deal with these issues – and toidentify areas of potential cooperationbetween members – it is necessary to un-derstand these challenges better. In orderto achieve this, we have agreed to collab-orate and focus on:
a. Developing and using monetaryand financial policy tools that can bufferthe domestic economy against the globalslowdown by striking a balance betweennurturing sustainable domestic demandand an export-led growth model.
b. reduce dependency on demandfrom traditional trade partners by rebal-
ancing and diversifying the sources ofeconomic growth in the domesticeconomies by focusing on opportunitiesfor greater cooperation amongst regionalblocs, such as the D-8.
c. establish correspondent bankingrelationship and currency swap arrange-ments amongst D-8 countries to promotetrade and capital flows.
d. The need to bring the informal sec-tor into the mainstream economy, andhence into the tax net, by improving theefficiency of public institutions, in orderto increase fiscal space and the effective-ness of monetary management processes.
e. Developing the means (such asjoint research projects and professionalexchanges between the member countriesfor capacity-building) to better under-stand, and learn from member countries’experiences, on the efforts undertaken totackle challenges that are common to theD-8 e.g. enforcing better fiscal discipline;promoting investment in infrastructure;implementation of capital standards; in-centivizing banks to lend to the real sec-tor and sustaining low and moderatelevels of inflation and contributing to fi-nancial stability.finanCial inCluSion
Financial inclusion will remain a toppriority as it alleviates financial con-straints on poor and low income house-holds, helps them to benefit from bettereconomic opportunities, and creates em-ployment.
We also note the effectiveness of ex-
isting policy frameworks and institutionsand progress made on various innovativenew approaches to financial inclusion.
We reaffirm our support to promotefinancial inclusion in D-8 countries. Inthis regard, we will take important meas-ures to advance the financial inclusionagenda. Specifically we will:
a. reaffirm or formulate national fi-nancial inclusion strategies in our coun-tries and gather support from across ourgovernments, financial sector and otherkey stakeholders to build broad-basedownership of the financial inclusionagenda.
b. Study policy approaches for build-ing delivery channels and payments sys-tems such as agent-based banking,mobile phone banking, and post officenetworks.
c. Form a D-8 Consultative Group onFinancial Inclusion (CGFI) with repre-sentation from each central bank. TheCGFI will have a series of knowledge ex-change exercises, consultations and pro-duce a comprehensive document by thenext D-8 Summit.iSlamiC finanCe
We reviewed the progress of IslamicFinance industry in D-8 countries thathas enjoyed rapid growth over the pastdecade primarily due to global trends andlocal demand for Shariah-complaint fi-nancial services. Going forward, the cen-tral banks may discuss sustainablemodels to promote Islamic finance in D-8 countries especially in the wake of chal-
lenging global economic landscape. Thereis need for exploring sustainable modelsto promote Islamic finance in D-8 coun-tries especially in the wake of challengingglobal economic landscape.
The cooperation will highlight strate-gies for ensuring growth trajectories forIslamic finance in D-8 countries, withemphasis on home grown demand andstrategies in D-8 countries, primarilypromoting Islamic finance to meet latentdemand for financial services due to lowlevel of financial inclusion and lack ofShariah compliant financial solutions. Inthis regard, the expert group identifiedthree major areas of cooperation i.e. de-velopment of financial instruments &markets, improving perception and en-hancing awareness, and training & capac-ity building.
establish Information exchange andPeer learning
Finally, we have agreed that each ofthe D-8 members has their strengths infinancial and monetary sector issues. Inorder for D-8 members to benefit fromthese strengths we will formalize our co-operation though the regular informa-tion exchange and work through peerlearning model amongst D-8 centralbanks in such areas including monetarypolicy, banking regulations and supervi-sion, financial inclusion and Islamic fi-nance. We hope that the D-8 countrieswill join the proposed peer learningworking groups and share their uniqueexperiences.
D-8 countries agree to focus on regional blocs
ISLAMABAD
STAFF REPORT
Stressing the need for continued collabo-ration amongst the D-8 central banks,Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)Yaseen Anwar Wednesday said the mem-ber countries need to explore ways to pro-mote Islamic financing in the wake ofchallenging global economic landscape.
While opening and chairing the 2ndmeeting of central bank governors of theD-8 countries in Islamabad, Anwar saidthere was aneed for exploring sustainablemodels to promote Islamic finance in theDeveloping-8 (D-8) economies.
He said macroeconomic policies of D-8 countries must be balanced to checkoverheating pressures from strong recov-ery, high credit growth, volatile capitalflows, elevated commodity prices, and re-newed risk of inflation.
“We must continue to rebalance oureconomies to sustain growth through mod-ulating domestic consumption, increase intrade and allow capital to flow freely be-tween emerging and developing economiesin search of better returns as against in-vestment in debt ridden advancedeconomies”.
He noted that a sudden drop in thegrowth rate in 2009 immediately after the
2008 crises was perhaps the principal rea-son why the D-8 central bank governors intheir first meeting agreed to set this meet-ing agenda on strengthening monetary andfinancial cooperation.
“The global growth is projected to fur-ther drop from 3.8 percent in 2011 to about3.3 percent in 2012. As a result, the realGDP growth in the emerging and develop-ing economies is projected to be furtherslower from 6.3 percent in 2011 to 5.2 per-cent in 2012. Therefore, we need continuedcollaboration to further strengthen oureconomies,” he added.
There was only one central bank ineach country/monetary area, and there-fore, it was very logical for central banks tolook beyond their national borders for ad-vice and collaboration, he said adding thatin recent years, increasing globalizationhas further enhanced the need for centralbanks’ cooperation to tackle risks due tothe cross border interdependencies and tomake the most of emerging opportunities.
The central banks’ cooperation hadbeen facilitated through collaborative mul-tilateral forums such as the G20, the FSBand the meetings of the IMF, BIS and a
number of bilateral and regional initiativesfor cooperation. “The enhanced role ofthese forums also reflects the increasinglyimportant role that the central banks ofemerging and developing economies areplaying at these international forums,” saidthe SBP governor. Stressing the need forstrengthening cooperation amongst D-8countries, Anwar said the D-8’s secretariatmust be strengthened to collect and main-tain information on our economies andtheir interconnectedness.
“This would serve the dual purpose asit would provide regular updates on thestate of D-8 economies and would help usin reviewing and measuring progress ofour economies on economic and financialcooperation,” he said. Anwar suggestedthat D-8 countries must collaborate andfocus on the optimal use of monetary pol-icy tools which are at best the first line ofdefence against the global crisis. The D-8countries must collaborate on how to re-balance its growth model from export-ledgrowth to diversifying demand throughstructural changes in their economies thatwould enable sustainable future growthand make their economies less susceptibleto volatility in other financial markets, par-ticularly by raising domestic demand andrecycling more of the D-8 countries sav-ings into investments at home.
Let’s explore Islamic finance modelsSBP urges D-8 central banks to explore Islamic finance models amid global economic challenges
PRO 22-11-2012_Layout 1 11/21/2012 11:33 PM Page 1
02
Thursday, 22 November, 2012
Major Gainers
COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVERIsland Textile 687.34 721.70 720.00 721.70 34.36 500Bhanero Tex.XD 226.00 237.30 237.30 237.30 11.30 1,600Millat Tractors Ltd. 558.84 578.00 559.00 569.80 10.96 38,000Siemens Pakistan 740.00 750.00 747.00 750.00 10.00 1,700Colgate Palmolive 1290.00 1301.00 1300.00 1300.00 10.00 400
Major LosersBata (Pak) XD 1380.00 1400.00 1311.50 1352.50 -27.50 900Indus DyeingXD 549.98 550.00 522.50 538.91 -11.07 1,200Sanofi-Aventis Pak 325.00 315.00 315.00 315.00 -10.00 100Murree BreweryXDXB 155.00 152.00 147.25 147.38 -7.62 1,200IGI Insurance 126.91 123.00 120.57 120.57 -6.34 83,500
Volume Leaders
K.E.S.C. 5.65 6.44 5.70 6.16 0.51 36,529,000Fauji Cement 6.77 6.88 6.63 6.70 -0.07 23,695,000Jah.Sidd. Co. 15.87 16.35 15.40 16.10 0.23 12,298,500Maple Leaf Cement 13.95 14.70 13.75 14.25 0.30 9,255,000Azgard Nine 8.26 8.49 8.01 8.28 0.02 9,093,500
Interbank RatesUS Dollar 95.9684UK Pound 152.7433Japanese Yen 1.1679Euro 122.6572
Dollar EastBUY SELL
US Dollar 96.40 96.90Euro 122.64 124.11Great Britain Pound 152.45 154.24Japanese Yen 1.1569 1.1704Canadian Dollar 95.64 97.26Hong Kong Dollar 12.21 12.43UAE Dirham 26.10 26.38Saudi Riyal 25.58 25.83Australian Dollar 98.61 101.22
Business
ISLAMABAD
ONLINE
Dr Asim Hussain Advisor to thePrime Minister on Petroleumand natural resources has saidthat lnG import is most essen-tial to overcome the energy
shortfall and it will also help in improving theeconomy ultimately. He said this while chairinga meeting on lnG import.
The meeting was also attended by SenatorSaleem H.Mandviwalla, Minister of State forFinance, Dr. Waqar Masood Khan SecretaryPetroleum, Mr. Zuhair Siddiqui Managing Di-rector Sui Southern Gas Company ltd, (SSGC)Mr. Shahid Sattar Member Planning Commis-sion of Pakistan, Dr. riaz Mahmood SeniorJoint Secretary Ministry of law, Mr. MansoorSiddiqui Director State Bank of Pakistan, rep-resentative of the Ministry of Finance, seniorofficers of SSGC and Ministry of Petroleum.
A briefing was given by SSGC regardinglnG Integrated Project’s request For Proposal(rFP). It was informed by SSGC that the lnGbidding process would be through two enve-lope system i.e. technical and Financial propos-als would be sought.
Detailed discussions were held on variousaspects of lnG import including quantity, bid-ding process, timelines, bid security and per-formance bond, credit structure, sovereignguarantees, evaluation of bids and Gas SalePurchase Agreement (GSPA) terms.
It may be re-called that eCC in its meetingon 7th August 2012 approved the short andlong term liquefied natural Gas (lnG) Import
Framework proposed by Ministry of Petroleum& natural resources. However, eCC formed atechnical group comprising Secretary Petro-leum, Secretary Finance, Secretary Water &Power, Deputy Chairman Planning Commis-sion, Chairman Board of Investment andChairman State Bank of Pakistan to work fur-ther on mechanism, bidding details, guaranteematters and legal issues.
KArAChi: November 2012 Karachi Kings Lions Club
District-305 -S3 Pakistan is a part of Lions Club
international participating with PiD Lions Malik Khuda
Baksh on the occasion of Jurisdiction of houses Keys
along with the Wall clocks from Karachi Kings Lions Club
to the flood victims on the event of “handing Over
Ceremony of 24 houses” at Thatha, Sindh. Governor Lion
Tasneem Ahmed (District 305-S3)Lion ishrat Bano
President of Karachi Kings Lions Club and the team
members distributed clocks to the flood disasters.
Samsung wins 27 honours at the
‘CES 2013 innovations Awards’
lahore: Samsung electronics Co. ltd., a mar-ket leader and award-winning innovator, has won27 prestigious International Consumer electronicsShow (CeS) 2013 Innovations Awards. Samsungwas recognized with two “Best of Innovations”awards and four “eco-Design” honors, by CeS, theworld’s largest annual consumer-technologytradeshow. Over the past four years, Samsung hasbeen honored with 117 awards, judged across 29product categories, by a preeminent panel of in-dustrial designers, engineers, and Media Mem-bers, who converge to honor outstanding designand cutting edge engineering. Samsung’s award winning products at CeS 2013
include; 85-inch UHD TV, the world’s largestcommercialized UHD leD TV, boasts life-like pic-ture quality with over 8 million pixels, four timesthe resolution of Full HD displays. SamsungSmart TV Camera supports full HD resolution andenables Smart Interaction features such as Ges-ture Control and Face recognition. The 2013Smart leD TV 7500 and 8000 Series, along withOleD TV also won Design & engineering Awards.The eX2F SMArT Compact Camera impresseseveryone, with premium images, full manual con-trol and robust wireless connectivity. The Induc-tion range with Flex Cookzone makes cookingeasier by eliminating boil-overs, automatic alertsand preset heating levels.
New Era Watches steals the
limelight at Swiss embassy
KaraChi: new era Watches, the sole distributorfor Omega watches and jewelry in Pakistan, was astar of the Swiss Watch Fair, organized by theSwiss embassy in collaboration with the authorizedSwiss watch dealers in Pakistan. Held on novem-ber 17, 2012, the Swiss Watch Fair showcased thelatest designs, innovation and technology of Swisswatches. Omega , a major attraction the event withits latest collection of exclusive and chic timepiecesand jewelry, attracted huge crowds and apprecia-tion across different walks of life. On the occasion,the visitors also enjoyed Swiss delicacies likeraclette and Movinpick ice cream.
Fatima Memorial hospital,
Jahanara Memorial Trust sign MoU
lahore: Jahanara Memorial Trust (JMT) andFatima Memorial Hospital (FMH) have signed aMemorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collabo-rate with their specific strengths and capacities todevelop state of the art emergency room (er) serv-ices at FMH. This collaboration will launch Pak-istan’s first fully equipped ‘er room of the Future’compliant international standards of technologicaladvanced high quality medical care complete withevery state-of-the-art feature and facility availablein the global market. The vision is to provide emer-gency treatment to all walk in patients, regardless oftheir citizenship, status or ability to pay.
iSLAMABAD: indonesian Delegation along with the
President of republic of indonesia, his Excellency Dr. h.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, were warmly received by
Executive Assistant Manager, Salman Saeed upon their
arrival at islamabad Marriott for D-8 Summit 2012.
inauguration ceremony
of Aman Center at iBA
KaraChi: The Inauguration Ceremony of IBA-Center for entrepreneurial Development (CeD) washeld at the Institute of Business AdministrationKarachi, this evening. This Center has been estab-lished in collaboration with the Aman foundation topromote entrepreneurship by providing state of theart facilities to young entrepreneurs at IBA.The Director CeD, Mr. ZafarSiddiqui, welcomedthe esteemed guests and highlighted the impor-tance of this center. He spoke about IBA’s strate-gic vision and informed the audience in detailabout the center’s vision and functional areas. Healso highlighted the regional collaboration withother communities to promote entrepreneurship.
KArAChi: The British Deputy high Commissioner and
Director UK Trade and investment, Pakistan Mr. Francis
Campbell, at a reception hosted by him at his residence
to introduce LSBF (London School of Business and
Finance) Country head for Pakistan, Mr. Faisal Azeem.
CORPORATE CORNER
‘LNG import imperativefor country’s economy’
Euro weakens as eurozonefails to agree Greek dealhonG KonG: The euro fell in Asian trade on Wednesday andshares eased after eurozone finance chiefs said they had failed toagree on a deal to unlock the latest batch of crucial bailout cashfor Greece. Ministers said in a statement at the end of talks thatended in the small hours that they would meet again next Monday“for further technical work on some elements of the package”.
The news sent the euro diving from recent highs against the yen,while it also lost almost a US cent from its intra-day peak againstthe dollar. In afternoon trade the single currency bought $1.2747and 104.30 yen after hitting $1.2820 and 105.07 yen before the an-nouncement from Brussels. It had finished in new York Tuesday at$1.2818 and 104.70 yen. The dollar, which had touched a seven-month high of 81.97 yen in the morning, bought 81.81 yen in the af-ternoon. Traders were left disappointed as they had been buyingthe euro on expectations an agreement would be made in Brussels,while Jean-Claude Juncker, who presides over the eurogroup hassaid there were “good chances of an agreement”. AGENCIES
‘Gas supply to domestic consumers top priority’
ISLAMABAD
APP
Advisor to the Prime Minister on Petroleum and natural resources Dr Asim Hussain has saidthat the supply of natural gas to domestic consumers is the top priority of the government. He said this in a meeting with parliamentarians, including MnAs engineer Khurram DastagirKhan, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, Zahid Hamid, Mufti Ajmal Khan, Mazhar Hayat Khan, roshan-ud-Din Junejo, Senator Baz Muhammad and Senator Zahid Khan, who called on him to apprisehim of the problems in supply of natural gas to their respective constituencies. The meetingwas also attended by Managing Director and Senior Management of Sui northern GasPipelines ltd. The parliamentarians apprised the advisor regarding progress on gas supplyschemes in their respective constituencies, on which the Advisor on Petroleum issued direc-tives to SnGPl for expediting work. Dr. Asim Hussain informed the parliamentarians that asite office of the SnGPl was being established in the ministry’s premises to cater for publiccomplaints and providing up-to-date information on gas supply / connection cases.
ISLAMABAD
ONLINE
Zakaria Kamarudin, Deputy Chief executive Of-ficer of Trade and Services Promotion Divisionsaid that bilateral trade volume of Pakistan andMalaysia could be increased by finding new av-enues of opportunities and cooperation
Zakaria Kamarudin and noraslan HadiAbdul Kadir, Consulate General of Malaysia vis-ited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry (ICCI) for having a meeting withMr.Zafar Bakhtawari, President of ICCI.
Kamarudin said that Malaysia offers a dy-namic and vibrant business environment to in-vestors who intend to set up projects in themanufacturing and services sectors in Malaysiaas foreign investment is considered an impor-tant source of development for a country. Thus,
Pakistan should accord high importance to en-courage foreign investors by creating invest-ment-friendly environment in the country toaccelerate pace of economic progress.
He said that various multi-national compa-nies of Malaysia have established their r&Dcenters adjacent to industries for creatingstrong linkage between students and industriesso that they could have complete know-howabout demands of industries . He informed themeeting about export Bank of Malaysia whichprovides financing to Malaysian entrepreneursas well as facilities foreign exporters.
Deputy Chief executive Officer invited ICCIdelegation to visit Malaysia to meet their coun-terparts and assured of support accordingly. Hesaid that the negative perception of Pakistan canonly be eliminated through frequent exchangeof trade delegations between two countries.
Crude up in Asia onUS stockpile fallSinGapore: Oil prices rose in Asiantrade Wednesday on an unexpected fallin US crude stockpiles, analysts said.new York’s main contract, light sweetcrude for delivery in January rose 52cents to $87.27 a barrel and Brent northSea crude for January delivery added 62cents to $110.45. The black gold re-ceived support from “the American Pe-troleum Institute (API) report showing astock drawdown”, said Victor Shum,senior principal of Purvin and Gertz en-ergy consultants in Singapore. “What’sdriving it is primarily the report fromthe API showing a crude oil inventorydraw,” he told AFP. The API data Tues-day showed US inventories falling bymore than 1.9 million barrels last week,compared with analyst projections of a900,000 barrel gain. AGENCIES
ICCI president stresses creation ofdirect Pakistan, Malaysia air link
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