Friday, 12 October, 2012

Exports > importsExports up 4.26%, imports down2.37 % in 1st quarter

ISLAMABAD

APP

The exports from the country witnessed positive growth of4.26 percent while the imports decreased by 2.37 percentduring the first quarter of the current fiscal year, indicatinga positive trends in the overall trade volume of the country.Exports from the country during July-September (2012-13)were recorded at US$6.187 billion against the exports ofUS$5.934 billion during the same period of last year,according to the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics(PBS). On the other hand, the imports into the countrydecreased from US$11.117 billion last year to US$10.853billion during the current fiscal year, the data revealed.Based on these figures, the overall trade deficit has beenrecorded at 9.97 percent as it reduced from the deficit ofUS$5.183 billion last year to US$4.666 this year. Duringthe month of September 2012, the exports from the countryincreased by 21.12 percent wheres the imports decreased by3.20 percent when compared to the same month of the lastyear. Exports from the country during September 2012were recorded at US$2.219 billion against the exports ofUS$1.832 billion during September 2011. Imports into thecountry decreased from US$3.622 billion duringSeptember 2011 to US$3.504 billion during September2012, according to the PBS data. Meanwhile, as comparedto the exports of US$1.911 billion during July 2012, theexports from the country increased by 16.12 percentwhereas imports into the country decreased by 4.86percent in September 2012 when compared to the importsof US$3.685 billion in July 2012.

Indo-Pak trade on the upISLAMABAD

APP

Senate Standing Committee, Foreign Affairs, KashmirAffairs and Gilgit-Baltistan was informed on Thursdaythat Pakistan and India are moving from a positive to anegative list regime which after approval of Cabinetwould be gradually phased out by end of this year. In abriefing to the Committee, chaired by Senator HajiMuhammad Adeel, Secretary Commerce, Munir Qureshisaid Pakistan and India have made substantive progressin economic and trade relations. The meeting wasattended by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, MalikImad Khan, Senators Farhatullah Babar, MuhammadJehangir Badar, Muzafar Hussain Shah, Syeda SughraImam, Secretary Foreign Affairs, Jalil Abbas Jilani andand Representatives of concerned Ministries. MunirQureshi said the visit of Commerce Ministers from bothsides paved the way for normalization of bilateral traderelations and added Pakistan’s agreement in principle togrant MFN status to india was a decision taken in thesame spirit. The Secretary said first meeting under the3rd round of resumed dialogue was that of CommerceSecretaries of the two countries, held in Islamabad. He said the two sides discussed at length measures tofacilitate and encourage business to business contacts.

ISLAMABAD

APP

PAKISTAN can resolve its energy cri-sis by expediting work on The Turk-menistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline Project,Ambassador of Turkmenistan to

Pakistan Atadjan Movlamov said Thursday. He said that Turkmenistan is extending its

railways and power network to Afghanistan whichcan offer new opportunities to Pakistan boost itstransit trade business and cope with power short-fall. The Turkmenistan Ambassador was talking toa delegatio no of business community, members ofwhich included, President Federation of PakistanChambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), HajiGhulam Kadir Sherani, Vice President SAARCChamber, Iftikhar Ali Malik, Vice President, FPCCIHaroon Rashid, Chairman Media FPCCI Malik So-hail, Hina Mansab and others.

First Secretary Turkmenistan EmbassyCharyyev Hydyr and Head of Chancery SarwarKayani were also present of the occasion.

Atadjan Movlamov said that concerns about se-curity challenges to TAPI gas pipeline are baseless as

Afghan government will get some eight per cent ofthe revenue while all stakeholders there favour thismega project. He informed that Turkmenistan isholding more road shows on 1,420 millimeters diam-eter TAPI after holding three in London, New Yorkand Singapore with the help of ADB to attract in-vestors. The Ambassador invited FPCCI to participatein a grand business forum being held in Asghabat inNovember to explore opportunities adding “we areinterested in holding Pakistan Business Forum andsingle country exhibition to boost bilateral trade.”

Movlamov informed that Pakistan and Turk-menistan will soon hold three separate meetings ofworking groups on energy, agriculture and trade.On the occasion, President FPCCI Haji GhulamKadir Sherani said that energy crisis has crippledeconomy but projects to import gas are still incom-

plete. China has built 7500 km pipeline in 18months to get gas from Turkmenistan but we re-mained unable to get gas since decades which willneed only 1735 km pipeline, he lamented. VP SaarcChamber Iftikhar Ali Malik stressed the need oftaking benefit from the resources of the countryhaving world’s fourth largest reserves of naturalgas which are offered on competitive rates.

VP, FPCCI Haroon Rashid said that participa-tion of State Bank of India in the recent TAPI roadshow in Singapore was encouraging which is amajor step to ensure import of up to 33 billioncubic meters of natural gas per year. Malik Sohaildemanded of the government to ensure import ofnatural gas without wasting time, adding that Pak-istan can also import petroleum products includingLPG from brotherly country.

ISLAMABAD

APP

“Pakistan’s liberal investment policies andgrowth potential offers tremendous strate-gic opportunities for Japanese investors indifferent sectors of economy”, this wasstated by Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh Fi-nance Minister of Pakistan while speakingat a MIGA lunch hosted in his honorwhere more than thirty representatives ofthe top Japanese companies participated.

He said that MIGA (Multilateral In-vestment Guarantee Agency) is an impor-tant component of World Bank Group,promoting investment and prosperity.

“We enjoy good political, economicand cultural relationship with Japan,both the countries are collaborating inmany projects from textile to mining”,the Minister said, according to a press re-lease received here from embassy of Pak-istan in Tokyo. He paid tributes to theJapanese people and government for in-troducing latest technology and manage-ment skills to Pakistan.

Dr. Shaikh said that Pakistan is un-

dergoing a transition, “now we have ademocratic government which for the firsttime in the history of Pakistan is going tocomplete its full tenure and we are goingnext year in an election phase, this is agood omen for development and prosper-ity for the people of Pakistan, he added.

He said that all the institutions inPakistan are working freely in their re-spective spheres. Judiciary is performingindependently media is free and vibrant,there are about 88 TV channels openlycriticizing the government policies. Allthe actions of the government are ex-posed for close scrutiny of the media. Itshows the strength of Pakistani society.

Highlighting the economic situationof Pakistan, the Minister said that meas-ures are being taken to bring macroeco-nomic stability in the country hence wetried to remain fiscally austere.

He said that despite various con-straints, the government is trying to mo-bilize the resources. In the last two yearsthe government has doubled the tax col-lection. This year the growth rate is ex-pected to be around 4% and we have

succeeded in bringing the inflation to asingle digit, the Minister added.

Dr. Shaikh said that the governmenthas adopted an open door InvestmentPolicy where all investors are welcomed.He said that Pakistan’s political leader-ship including the President, Prime Min-ister and the Ministers are all available tothe investors for all the time.

Answering to the questions of the par-ticipants the Minister said that relationswith India are improving. Both the coun-tries adopted opening up economic poli-cies. Pakistan has granted India the MFNstatus, the positive list has been abolishedand now we have open visa policy forbusinessmen from both the countries.Joint ventures like electricity fromEast-Punjab to West-Punjab are alsounder consideration to be launchedvery soon. He said that Pakistan of-fers a good opportunity for in-vestment to the Japaneseentrepreneurs in Coal, Solarand Wind energy projects. Healso offered special economiczone to Japanese Investors in

Pakistan. The MIGA-event also includedexhibitions of Pakistan carpets, Pakistanihoney, rock salt and food products.

Earlier Izumi Kobayashi CEO and Ex-ecutive Vice President of World BankGroup MIGA welcoming the FinanceMinister Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh saidthat our mission is to promote foreign di-rect investment in to developing coun-tries to help support economic growth,reduce poverty and improve people’slives. In Pakistan we strongly focus on tocreate jobs and reduce poverty. We arecoordinating hydropower projects in Pak-istan to address its energy needs.

Federal Minister for Finance Dr. AbdulHafeez Shaikh also participated in G-24Ministers meeting. The implications of thedevelopment in the global economy IMFquota reforms and infrastructure financeand development were thread barely dis-

cussed. Minister also held a meetingwith Mr. Masood Ahmed, Direc-

tor MCD, Ms. Daniela Gres-sani, Reviewer, IMF and Ms.Isabel Guerrero, Vice Presi-dent, South Asian Region,World Bank and discussedthe issues pertaining toPakistan’s economy.

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

Gas shortfall would exceed from 1.6 billion cubicfeet (BCF) during next three years and Iran Pak-istan (IP) gas pipeline project would not helpfulto eradicate this menace.

Managing Director of Sui Northern GasPipeline limited (SNGPL) Arif Hameed statedthis during the meeting of senate standing com-mittee on petroleum and Natural resources thatheld under the chairmanship of Senator Muham-mad Yousaf here on Thursday.

MD SNGPL said that for the current monthof Oct our demand is 1570 mmcfd while shortfallis 566 mmcfd while this shortfall would bereached to 1bcf during January next year andwinter would be once again tough.

He said that SNGPL has given connections to0.16 million consumers while 1.1million applica-

tions are pending before us for new connections.He said that exploration work is under progressfor new reserves in the country and 240 mmcfdgas would be added into the national system dur-ing next two and half years.

Additional secretary Abid Saeed apprised thecommittee that till 2013 our local productionwould be increased from 750 mmcfd and 1325mmcfd would be imported from Turkmenistanthorough TAPI pipeline project. He said that till2015, 400 mmcfd LNG gas would be importedand 2 bcfd gas would be imported thoughpipeline. MD SNGPL said that domestic sectorused 3mcfd gas.

During the meeting, Senators resented theexpected plan to roll out the CNG sector from thecountry and said that people have invested billionof rupees in this sector therefore governmentshould not roll out but to mange the existing sys-tem. Senator Nabi Bakhsh said that why govern-ment allowed thousand of CNG stations tooperate when there was already shortage of gasin the country and now after ten years when peo-ple have invested in this sector now governmentis considering to roll out this sector which is un-

fair with investors.Senator Usman Saifullah said that govern-

ment is providing gas to inefficient plants whichare wasting the gas and are not well productive.

He said that government should devisemechanism to enhance the efficiency of plantsand industrial units and initiate a comprehen-sive program to increase the efficiency of homeappliances.

Senator Hamza said that ex-prime MinisterSyed Yousaf Raza Gillani has also contributed inincreasing gas shortfall as he issued directivesto provide gas to large no of villages for just po-litical gains and gas provided to those areaswhere alternative fuel like cottons sticks andother things were available. `

Earlier, Senator rozi khan Kakar walkoutfrom the meeting over regular absence of Advisorto Prime Minister for Petroleum and natural re-sources Dr Asim and secretary Petroleum DrWaqar Masood.

Committee proposed to raise this issue of ab-sence of Dr Asim in the house because throughhis attitude it seems that he has not respect forthe parliament and parliamentarians.

Let’s tap into TAPI!

The Doc conjures japanese remeDy

Pakistan urged to expeditework on TAPI project toresolve energy crisis

Gas predicament to grow

Pak growth potential offers strategic opportunities to Japanese investors: Hafeez Sheikh

Shortfall to increase from1.6 bcf in 3 years: SNGPL

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02

Friday, 12 October, 2012

Major Gainers

COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVERNestle Pakistan Ltd. 5200.00 5460.00 5100.00 5460.00 260.00 180Colgate Palmolive 1290.00 1354.50 1261.00 1354.50 64.50 2,000Bata (Pak) Limited 1060.00 1106.00 1040.00 1106.00 46.00 200Exide (PAK) 309.90 325.39 311.00 325.39 15.49 6,100Island TextileXD 300.00 314.60 314.60 314.60 14.60 100

Major LosersUniLever Pak 10195.00 10195.00 9750.00 9750.00 -445.00 320National FoodsSPOT 280.26 287.05 266.25 272.74 -7.52 20,100Mehmood Tex 97.70 92.85 92.85 92.85 -4.85 2,000Service Industries 186.75 185.99 180.00 182.00 -4.75 4,600Indus Motor Co 252.00 250.01 248.00 248.28 -3.72 3,400

Volume Leaders

P.T.C.L.A 19.80 20.25 19.76 19.98 0.18 15,960,500Engro Foods Ltd. 69.97 71.70 69.51 71.39 1.42 5,101,000Askari Bank 15.67 16.00 15.66 15.86 0.19 4,706,500Summit Bank 2.98 3.35 2.99 3.20 0.22 4,264,500National Bank Pak 44.75 45.48 44.65 44.91 0.16 3,875,000

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 95.5178UK Pound 152.9812Japanese Yen 1.2227Euro 123.0746

Dollar EastBUY SELL

US Dollar 95.10 95.60Euro 122.42 123.62Great Britain Pound 151.82 153.27Japanese Yen 1.2032 1.2146Canadian Dollar 96.46 97.89Hong Kong Dollar 12.10 12.28UAE Dirham 25.83 26.05Saudi Riyal 25.28 25.50Australian Dollar 96.81 99.19

Business

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

WITH cement industries op-erating at 68.86% of its in-stalled capacity industrycircles are worried by thestagnant domestic demand

during the first three months of this fiscal andcontinuously declining exports which is hurtingthe viability of the industry.

A spokesman of All Pakistan Cement Man-ufacturers Association said during the firstquarter of this fiscal the industry despatchedonly 7,707,399 tons of cement which was nom-inally higher than the total cement despatchesof 7,496,470 tons during corresponding quar-ter of last year.

He said the local demand increased duringthe quarter by 5.30 percent but the decline inexports by 2.68 percent reduced the overallgain in despatches to 2.81 percent.

He said in September the mills in northdespatched 1,499,246 tons of cement for do-

mestic market and exported only 633,867 tonsof the commodity.

He said the South based mills despatched294,041 tons of cement for domestic and ex-ported only 184,182 tons of cement.

The spokesman said the total productioncapacity of cement industry has increased to44.768 million tons.

He said low capacity utilization is particu-larly more painful for those units that en-hanced their capacities in recent years.

He said debt servicing has now become amajor component of cost as even after three in-terest rates cuts in past six months the effectivebank markup for the industry is still well above12 percent. He appealed the planners to pro-vide some industry specific interest rebate tothe industry to keep it afloat.

Exports to India in fact have been on con-stant decline ever since the two countriesopened their borders for liberal bilateral trade.

The decline is not due to lack of cement de-mand in India but because of very stringentnon tariff barriers erected by our neighbor” hesaid adding Pakistan’s cement is preferred bythe Indians because of better quality. He saidgovernment failure to push India for removalof trade barriers has denied Pakistan a lucra-tive market that exists across the border.

Aman Foundation, Bill Gates signagreement on family health

DUBAI: Arif Naqvi, Chairman Aman Foundation,and Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill & MelindaGates Foundation signed a five-year frameworkagreement on family planning and health in Pak-istan. They will also explore further areas for col-laboration to advance global health anddevelopment. The Aman Foundation and the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation believe that all people

have the right to live a healthy and productive life.They recognize that achieving the Millennium De-velopment Goals will require new partnerships,along with innovative funding mechanisms to en-courage those with significant resources help theworld’s poorest people improve their lives. Today,more than 200 million women in developing coun-tries who do not want to get pregnant lack accessto contraceptives, information, and services, whichlead to complications in pregnancy and childbirth.The maternal mortality rate in Pakistan is cur-rently 276 per 100,000, and infant mortality atbirth stands at 62 deaths per 1000 live births. Inlight of these worrying figures, both Aman and theGates Foundation have pledged to invest US $5million each to address the gaps in reproductivehealth and family planning services in Pakistan.Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda GatesFoundation said: “This is a significant co-invest-ment partnership for our foundation which lever-ages Aman’s on-the-ground knowledge in familyplanning and maternal and child health in Pak-istan. It is also an example of the kind of smartpartnerships that hold huge promise for the future.

Investments in family planning have a transforma-tional effect on the health and wealth of nations. “

NIT declares 1QFY13 resultsKARACHI: National Investment Trust Limited(NITL), the first & largest Asset ManagementCompany of Pakistan has declared results for allFunds under its management for the quarterended 30th September 2012. This was stated byChairman/Managing Director – NIT, Mr. WazirAli Khoja in a statement, issued by NITL on Octo-ber 11, 2012 after its Board of Directors approvedthe quarterly accounts of all Funds under its man-agement. MD-NIT further stated that as of 30thSeptember 2012, NIT is managing 5 Funds withnet assets under management of around Rs.74,402 million. During 1QFY13, the Fund has out-performed its benchmark by 0.34%, whereby theFund’s NAV increased by 12.25% against an in-crease of 11.91% in the benchmark KSE-100 Index.The Chairman also stated that during the periodunder review, the dividend income earned by the

Fund grew by 16.2% YoY and stood at Rs. 472 mil-lion as compared to Rs. 406 million in the corre-sponding period last year. The Fund realizedcapital gains of Rs. 175 million in 1QFY13 againstRs. 129 million in 1QFY12, a growth of 36.1% YoY.

CORPORATE CORNER

Stagnant domestic demand, decliningexport exacerbate cement industry

KARACHI: Mr. Masood Hashmi, President – MarketingAssociation of Pakistan presenting momento to Mr AminHashwani, guest speaker on the subject of “Pakistan – Indiarelation and the future of our country”. On the right Mr TalibSyed Karim, Honorary Secretary & Mr Sohail Aziz, HonoraryTreasurer were also seen in this photo.

TOKYO

AGENCIES

The IMF prodded the world’s rich countries for swifter action on Thursday as Europe’s debt crisisdrags on while the United States and Japan show scant progress handling their budget deficits.Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said political wranglingadded to economic uncertainty, slowing growth in both advanced and emerging economies. The IMFcut its global growth forecast this week for the second time since April. “We expect action and weexpect courageous and cooperative action on the part of our members,” Lagarde said in a newsbriefing ahead of the IMF’s twice-yearly meetings in Tokyo. TheIMF has expressed frustration with Europe’s piecemealresponse to its debt crisis and warned that a recentrespite in borrowing costs for debt-laden countriessuch as Spain may prove short-lived unless eurozone leaders come up with acomprehensive and credible plan.Standard & Poor’s cut its ratingon Spain on Wednesday to a leveljust above junk territory, andMoody’s may soon follow. The IMFitself is struggling to muster the sortof decisive action that Lagarde wants tosee from world leaders. Its 188 membercountries meet on Friday and Saturday,and will fall short of a goal to implementvoting reforms that would give large emergingeconomies greater say. A territorial disputebetween Japan and China added another elementof disharmony. China’s top central bank andfinance ministry officials backed out of the meetingsand sent deputies to Tokyo instead. Lagarde said shehoped the world’s second- and third-largest economiescould resolve their differences “harmoniously andexpeditiously.” “I think they lose out by notattending the meeting,” shesaid of the Chineseofficials. “And they willbe missingsomething great.”

IMF calls for action aseuro zone crisis festers

ISE ends flat ISLAMABAD: Islamabad StockExchange (ISE-10) here on Thursdaywitnessed bullish trend as the index wasup by 3.48 points to close at 2965.74 ascompared to the previous day’s trading.Talking to APP, Stock Analyst, M.MHassan said that the buying in the fertilizersector led the bullish rally in the local stockmarket. The investors were seen busywhile taking fresh positions in the marketafter booking profit since last few days, headded. Appreciating the performance ofeconomic indicators in the country, he saidthat the market would perform better inthe future. Total volume of shares tradedwas 38,200, which was up when comparedit with a day earlier’s trading. Fatima, NIBBank and FFC remained volume leader onThursday, with volume of 28,000, 10,000and 100 shares respectively. APP

SME is the real deal!ISLAMABAD: The 28th session of theStanding Committee for Economic andCommercial Cooperation (COMCEC) of theOrganization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)was held in Istanbul from Oct. 9-11 atwhich Pakistan called for greater economiccooperation among the member states.Various Ministers from OIC member statesrepresented their governments while theinaugural session was opened by TurkishPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ThePakistan delegation was led by SeniorMinister and Minister for CommerceMakhdoom Muhammad Amin Fahim, saida message received here from Istanbul.COMCEC Secretariat in consultation withOIC member countries honoured Pakistanby asking Commerce Minister MakhdoomAmin Fahim to make a speech on behalf ofthe Asia Group. APP

Crude up in Asia on

Middle East tensionsSINGAPORE: Crude oil prices rose in Asia Thursday with MiddleEast supply risks coming to the fore after Turkey warned Syria of atougher response if artillery shellings continue, analysts said. NewYork’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in Novemberadvanced 33 cents to $91.58 a barrel in the afternoon and BrentNorth Sea crude for November delivery gained 57 cents to $114.90.“Prices were up as renewed Middle Eastern supply worriesoutweighed concerns about a slowing global economy,” saidSanjeev Gupta, who heads the Asia-Pacific oil and gas practice atErnst and Young in Singapore. Tensions between allies Turkey andSyria took a turn for the worse last Wednesday when a Syrian shellhit the Turkish border town of Akcakale, killing five civilians — twowomen and three children. Following the deadly shelling, Turkey’sparliament approved the use of military force if necessary. OnWednesday, Turkey’s top military commander warned that it wouldmount stronger retaliatory action should more Syrian shellsland in Turkish territory. “We have retaliated (for the shelling)and if it continues, we’ll respond more strongly,” the head ofTurkey’s armed forces, General Necdet Ozel, said inAkcakale. Turkish authorities also Wednesday confiscated“objectionable cargo” aboard a Syrian passenger plane itintercepted en route from Moscow to Damascus. Theconfiscated cargo is believed to be missile parts,Turkey’s NTV news channel reported, while thecountry’s state-run TRT channel speculatedit could be communicationsequipment. AFP

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