PRO 05-04-2012_Layout 1 4/5/2012 1:01 AM Page 1
Another appalling plunge Page 02
profit.com.pk
Thursday, 05 April, 2012
comment
Exporters losing their marbles g
Free trade requirements S
marble export declines by 20pc in 9 months KARACHI
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GHULAM ABBAS
akISTan’S export of marble which was increased by 68 percent during last financial year has reduced by over 20 percent during the last 9 month of the current financial year due to the deteriorated law and order situation and severe energy crisis in the country. The important industry which was eying to fetch at least $1 billion worth exports this year after the increased demands in china and other countries, has started showing alarming position of negative growth as the country has hardly exported the marble of worth $ 26.77 million during July to March 2011-2012 against the export of $ 33.75 million recorded during the corresponding months of last fiscal year. according to a fresh data provided by marble exporters, over 20
percent decline was recorded during the nine months while further decline was expected in remaining months of the financial year 2012 as security situation in the country especially in karachi was a big concern for the marble exporters. Besides the hours long power outages which have paralyzed the production and function of the industry were another major reason of loses to the exporters. according to Sanaullah khan chairman, all Pakistan Marble Mining, Processing and Export Industry, the industries in Qasba colony area of karachi which remained a flash point during the violence erupted in the city last year making the whole industrial units dysfunctional, have badly affected the over all exports of marble. The ongoing extortion and other criminal activities in the industrial area were also forcing the industry owners to close the units.
He said that it had become a routine that unidentified individuals enter the factories and hand over extortion slips of heavy amounts. In other cases, some people also phone the industrialists seeking huge money. In case of non-compliance these elements resort to firing at the factories. Though three police stations usually cover Mangophir and its surrounding areas but they failed in providing effective security to the industries. He claimed that many industrialists have stopped visiting their units for security reasons. Due to the power crisis during the last couple of months, the industry has been pushed further towards at least $ 7 million losses as its total exports by March 2012 has been recorded $ 26.77 million against the $ 33.75 million registered during the corresponding months of 2011. The country has exported marble
worth $ 19 million against the target of $ 30 million during July to January (2011-2012). The export of highly valued marble, under the present situation, was unlikely to meet even the reduced target of $ 60 million during the current financial year. He feared that exporters will miss the export target of $50 million of marble export in the current fiscal year due to deteriorating law and order and power outages, which is crippling production activities. Pakistan’s marble exports fetched $45 million in 2010-2011 and in July-February 2011-2012 export stood only $22 million. according to him, the country could hardly export marble worth $ 35 million to $ 40 million during the year ended June 2012 against the target which has already been reduced to $ 60 million from $ 100 million owing to the acute electricity crisis and poor law and order situation in karachi.
aarc has got the free trade bit right at least. There’s much to learn from the body’s move to standardise product quality in preparation of free trade in food commodities. That it has been forgotten as the essential prerequisite for falling trade barriers shows how much international trade dynamics have been skewed ever since WTO’s Doha round went off track more than a decade ago. Stranger still is the fact that it took eight years for negotiations to reach near-fruition. common since obviously has its limits. Once South asia has got a handle on food commodity standardisation, it is essential to move on to other commodity ranges sooner rather than later. Till recently, asia was credited with engineering the international bottoming out after the severity of the ’08 recession. But with china revising growth downward and India recording slowing industrial expansion, asia risks losing significance in a world where Europe’s sovereign debt crisis refuses to go away, US recovery is fragile at best, and high oil prices threaten to derail much of the cross-atlantic quantitative easing relief. Opportunities that present themselves today must be exploited forcefully. Once Saarc smoothens out other free trade essentials, there will be a quantum jump in trade within the few countries that comprise the union. The current wave of unprecedented Pak-India trade enhancement is another example of opportunities that must be built upon. asia’s economies need each other. Technically the international recession may have ended the moment two consecutive quarters failed to register negative growth, but its hangover will trouble international financial linkages for some time to come. It’s not even worth the trouble to quote Europe’s example anymore, so clichéd it has become. Our neck of the woods, long used to postures of political and financial confrontation, still features broadly weak systems and institutions (one of the reasons for the eight year delay). But the signs are good. If Saarc’s initiative is successful, numerous similar trading blocs will mushroom in no time. They have got the basics right.
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Thursday, 05 April, 2012
news
Another appalling plunge Déjà vu g
Pakistan drops 14 points on GItR-2012 ranking for poor governance g Ranked 102 by WeF in Global Information technology Report g
France keen to fund Munda Dam, Harpo, Basho hydel projects: Envoy LAHORE STAFF REPORT
KARACHI
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STAFF REPORT
akISTan has been ranked 102, dropping 14 points, by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in its Global Information Technology report 2012 (GITr-2012). Mishal in partnership with WEF released Pakistan’s ranking on the GITr-2012 measuring the network readiness Index of 142 economies over 10 different pillars. “The lack of seriousness from the government of Pakistan reflects in the Global Information Technology report 2012 of the World Economic Forum,” said the report. It said the Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology being headed by Syed Yousuf raza Gilani, Prime Minister of Pakistan; shows lack of efficiency and poor governance at the part of the Government of Pakistan. Despite efforts over the past decade to develop information and communications technologies (IcT) infrastructure in developing economies, a new digital divide in terms of IcT impacts persists, said the latest rankings of the GITr-2012 titled “Living in a Hyper connected World”. The GITr indicates Pakistan’s challenges and opportunities on 10 different pillars, where the country has not been able to show any remarkable improvement in the previous year. Pakistan lost its competitive advantage on the fixed broadband internet tariffs, where it dropped the ranking from 36 in 2011 to 79 in 2012, which means residential monthly fee in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), the report said. adding the extent of information and communications technologies improving access for all citizens to basic services (health, education, financial services, etc.) also took a dip to 113 with losing 30 points from last year. Government prioritizing of IcT also achieved a rank of 103 from 83 last year, making a variation of 20 points. a serious concern and bottleneck on
Pakistan’s business and entrepreneurship initiatives have been identified by the GITr on Pakistan’s policies on the tax regime introduced in 2011, this actually sum of profit tax, labor tax and social contributions, property taxes, turnover taxes, and other taxes, as a share (percent) of commercial profits, Pakistan stood 58 this year from 39 last out of 142 economies in the world. The GITr also identified that the extent of information and communication technologies creating new organizational models are also weakening in Pakistan, going 81 from 63 last year. However, Pakistan improved its competitiveness in certain areas including, efficiency of the legal system in challenging regulations, where Pakistan improved from 95 in 2011 to 79 in 2012 out of 142 countries. The judicial independence was also highlighted as one of the advantages in Pakistan, where the improvements were made on 11 points, thus ranking Pakistan at 62 in the world. The effectiveness of the law making body has also improved 9 points, with a ranking of 93 this year. The quality of education system and the capacity for innovation also shows improvement of 7 points each ranking at 79 and 51 respectively. On the ten pillars of the GITr-2012, out of 142 countries Pakistan scored as follows: on the 1st pillar; Political and regulatory environment (110), 2nd pillar; business and innovation environment (96); infrastructure and
digital content (108); 3rd pillar doing well on the affordability pillar (26); 5th pillar; Skills (129), 6th pillar; individual usage (104); 7th pillar; business usage (96), 8th pillar; government usage (103); 9th pillar; economic impacts (94) and on the 10th pillar; of social impacts (99). Sweden stood (1st) and Singapore (2nd) top the rankings in this year’s report in leveraging information and communications technologies to boost country competitiveness. Switzerland (5th), the netherlands (6th), the United States (8th), canada (9th) and the United kingdom (10th) also show strong performances in the top 10. However, IcT readiness in sub-Saharan africa is still low, with most countries showing significant lags in connectivity due to insufficient development of IcT infrastructure, which remains too costly, and displaying poor skill levels that do not allow for an efficient use of the available technology. Even in those countries where IcT infrastructure has been improved, IcT-driven impacts on competitiveness and well-being trail behind, resulting in a new digital divide. Despite improvements in many drivers of competitiveness, the BrIcS countries– led by china (51st) – still face important challenges to more fully adopt and leverage IcT. an insufficient skills base and institutional weaknesses, especially in the business environment, present a number of shortcomings that stifle entrepreneurship and innovation.
HE French ambassador to Pakistan Philippe Thiebaud today visited WaPDa House and attended a briefing about various projects being implemented by WaPDa in water and hydropower sectors. He was also accompanied by the French Development agency (aFD) country Director nicolas Fomage and Project Manager nauman Bhutta. The French ambassador said that his country was keen to support Pakistan in projects viz water development, irrigation and electricity generation. He said that the process to provide funds for Munda Dam Project was being speeded up and would be completed as early as possible. aFD is also working in close coordination with the German counterpart for financial
assistance to construct Harpo and Basho hydropower projects, he further said. Speaking on the occasion, WaPDa chairman Shakil Durrani said that WaPDa was indebted to the people and Government of France for their support in providing assistance for water and hydropower projects, vital for socio-economic development of the people of Pakistan. He expressed the hope that France would also extend her cooperation in the future projects as well. referring to the Munda Dam multipurpose project in FaTa, WaPDa chairman said that the project, approved by the Planning commission last week, would help control floods, ensure availability of water for irrigated agriculture and provide 740 MW low cost hydel electricity. Munda Dam, being a multipurpose project, has excellent rate of returns, he added. currently, aFD is providing 25 million euros for rehabilitation and upgradation of Jabban hydropower project in Malakand. In addition, aFD has also shown keen interest to provide funds for Munda Dam multipurpose project in Mohmand agency, and Harpo and Basho hydropower projects in Gilgit Baltistan. It is pertinent to mention that the case for financial assistance to Munda Dam project is being forwarded to aFD Board of Directors for formal approval.
Here’s why smaller countries should develop trade with bigger economies KARACHI STAFF REPORT
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raDE Development authority of Pakistan organized a seminar at rawalpindi chamber of commerce & Industry on Trade normalization with India. It was the first of the series of ten Seminars being arranged by TDaP in different cities to educate the business community about the challenges and opportunities resulting from the new trade regime between India and Pakistan. Manzoor ahmad, Former ambassador of Pakistan to WTO gave an overview of the trade normalization process between India and Pakistan. He was of the opinion that smaller countries can also gain advantage by developing
trade relations with bigger economies. He cited the example of Turkey and Mexico which gained tremendously after enhancing their trade relations with EU and US respectively. He was hopeful that the agreements on mutual recognition and customs cooperation being signed between India and Pakistan would help in removing the non tariff barrier being imposed by the Indian Government. Javed akhtar Bhatti, President, rawalpindi chamber of commerce & Industry expressed his apprehensions whether Pakistan was geared enough to benefit from trade normalization with India in the wake of power shortage and weak regulatory structures within the country. He however, agreed with the significance of regional trade in economic development of a country.
BRIdGeS BuRn
LccI’s John Rambo moment So fellas got some Lashes out at power outages g Launches blitzkrieg of ramifications g
LAHORE
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STAFF REPORT
HE Lahore chamber of commerce and Industry has urged the government to immediately stop unscheduled loadshedding as despite repeated assurances by the authorities the electricity situation is worsening and power-related riots are a daily occurrence. In a statement issued here Wednesday, the LccI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, Senior Vice President kashif Younis Meher and Vice President Saeeda nazar said that they fear an anarchy-like situation in the country if appropriate measures are not taken to overcome unprecedented long hours forced closures. They said that law and order situation is bound to aggravate in the coming days as over 12 hour power outages in the industrial estates is jacking up the graph of unemployment particularly hitting the daily wagers hard. The LccI office-bearers said that the most of industrial units had already reduced their working to
single six-hour shift from the previous three shifts system. This had led to increased level of rawmaterial wastage, making production process non-profitable. now the leading industrial units were experiencing losses despite being managed professionally. The crisis in industrial sector is not only causing flight of capital and relocation of industrial units to the countries like Bangladesh and Malaysia but had also reduced government revenues drastically. They said that a similar situation had erupted about two years ago but that was resolved with the help of the business community who lent a lot of input in developing a viable load management plan. “LccILEScO Dispute resolution committee and LccI-LEScO Load management committees used to have regular meetings to oversee and overcome the situation promptly”, they said and added that these committees need to be revived and reactivated urgently and immediately so that the issues could be discussed and tackled in an open minded manner.
The LccI office-bearers urged the President and Prime Minister to take notice of this grave situation and act promptly act to save industrial and social fabric of the country. They said that the government should share its energy plan with the LccI as the highestever electricity tariff and power outages have crippled both the trade and industry. “How the government would establish its writ and from where it would collect revenues to run its day-to-day affairs when the industrial wheel is coming to a grinding halt.” The LccI officebearers said that the government should understand that economic well being is a must for democracy. Unemployment, price-hikes, industrial closures always give birth to lawlessness and anarchy. Therefore, the government should understand the ground realities and reset its priorities. They said that it is astonishing that on the one hand the government circles were talking of economic stability in 2012 while on the other hand they were not sharing any kind of roadmap to achieve this goal.
dough on ya? Government borrows over Rs139 billion from banks to bridge budget deficit g
KARACHI
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ISMAIL DILAWAR
HE federal government Wednesday borrowed over rs 139 billion from the scheduled banks to cater its ever increasing budgetary needs. The fresh borrowing was made through the State Bank of Pakistan which auctioned the market treasury bills (MTBs) worth over rs 139.182 billion. The government papers sold out to the risk-averse banks are of 03-, 06and 12-month maturity period against which the central bank, respectively, raised rs 91.031 billion, rs 45.319 billion and rs 2.832 billion. The cut-off yield for the T-bills was 11.8742, 11.9420 and 11.9396 percent. While the weighted average yield for the three maturity periods was set at 11.8670, 11.9279 and 11.9396 percent, respectively. In line with their current risk-averse
behavior the banks had submitted bids accumulating to rs 192.582 billion but the federal finance ministry, through the State Bank, accepted bids of rs 139.182 billion only. The banks had bid to extend a loan of rs 126.831 against the securities maturing in three months, rs 57.319 billion for six months and rs 8.432 billion for 12 months. The banks’ inclination towards shortterm investment shows their risk-averse behavior which the official and unofficial analysts believe would adversely impact the economic growth prospects in the country. While the economic observers warn against the government’s increased reliance on bank borrowings, the cash-strapped government has targeted to sell the government papers amounting to over rs 1 trillion during the ongoing last quarter, april-June, of FY12.
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Thursday, 05 April, 2012
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news
Another blazing bull surge as KSe 100-share index skyrockets 254pts
Major Gainers Company
Open
High
Low
Close
Change
Turnover
Wyeth Pak Ltd.XD Tri-Pack Films XD Attock PetroleumXD Pak.Int.ContXD SD Sapphire Fiber
745.00 195.66 454.59 140.13 128.21
772.71 204.88 464.80 147.13 134.62
708.01 197.00 451.50 139.00 134.62
772.71 203.72 462.51 146.93 134.62
27.71 101 8.06 14,029 7.92 115,905 6.80 103,470 6.41 5
Major Losers KARACHI
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STAFF REPORT
n Wednesday the bulls kept dominating karachi stocks market with the benchmark, kSE 100-share index skyrocket 254.22 points. ahsan Mehanti, Director at arif Habib Investments Limited, said that the stocks closed bullish at kSE amid renewed institutional & foreign interest lead by bluechip oil and banking stocks ahead of quarter end earning announcements due next week. The day saw the index closing up by 1.86 percent at 13945.30
points against 13,691.08 points of Tuesday. The trading volumes at the ready-counter were recorded higher at 409.301 million shares against 318.143 million shares of the previous day. The trading value too surged to rs 9.219 billion compared to rs 6.745 billion of the previous session. The intraday high and low, respectively, stood at 13,955.42 and 13,691.08 points. He added that the higher global commodities, rising cement prices, expectations for stronger quarterend results, improvement in Pak-US relations played a catalyst role in bullish sentiments at kSE as investor expected early an-
the credit transfer prism SBP allows settlement of 3rd party fund transfers through PRISm system KARACHI STAFF REPORT
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HE central bank has decided to allow multiple credit transfers using MT 102 for the third party transfers to further enhance the payment transfer facilities through PrISM System. To have immediate effect, the facility would be subject to certain conditions that are: The lower value limit for each credit transfer in MT 102 shall be rs 100,000, maximum 10 payment instructions are allowed to be sent through one MT 102 message. Further, the transaction time and charges for each payment instruction within a single MT 102 will be from Mondays to Fridays between 9am and 4:30pm with charges applicable to be rs 25 per instruction. all inclusive transaction charges recovered by the banks and DFIs from their customers for each payment instruction sent using MT 102 shall not exceed rs 50. “However, MT 103 may continue to be used for 3rd party time critical single credit transfers attracting charges as outlined in PSD circular letter no. 5 dated October 14, 2011,” said an SBP circular issued Wednesday. The bank advised all PrISM direct participants to ensure compliance with the customer Transfer Guidelines, Payment Systems and Electronic Fund Transfers act 2007, PrISM Operating rules, 2009 and all other applicable SBP rules and regulations including those related to kYc and aML/cFT.
nouncements on implementation of revised cGT regime. The market capitalization grew modestly and increased to rs 3.575 trillion from rs 3.511 trillion a day earlier. Of the total 369 traded scrips, 288 gained, 85 lost and 56 finished as unchanged.The freefloat kSE-30 index also gained 216.53 points to close at 12,272.53 points against the previous 12,056.00 points. The kSE allshare index closed with a gained of 176.51 points to 9,780.09 points as against 9,603.58 points. Lafarge Pakistan was the day’s volume leader counting its traded shares at 30.369 million with the
opening and closing rates standing at rs 4.82 and rs 5.11, followed by azgard nine, Jahangir Siddiqui company, Hub Power company XD and D.G.k. cement with turnover of 26.210 million, 25.243 million, 23.349 million and 18.587 million shares respectively. On the future market, the turnover decreased by over 6 million shares to 16.666 million against 22.690 million shares of Tuesday. The rafhan Maize XD and Bata Pakistan Limited, up rs 127.00 and rs 28.68, led highest price gainers while, Wyeth Pakistan Limited XD and Ismail Industries, down rs 32.71 and rs 3.86 respectively, led the losers.
Byco’s baffling balloon over Rs1 billion operational loss disrupts Byco’s business operations KARACHI
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ISMAIL DILAWAR
YcO, one of the country’s energy giants, saw its operational loss ballooning by 74.4 percent or rs 507 million owing to the company’s reduced sells, Profit learnt Wednesday. according to the company’s consolidated profit and loss account, during first quarter of the current fiscal year, July-September FY2012, Byco faced a loss after taxation of rs 1.118 billion compared to rs 681.170 million the firm incurred in the corresponding period last year. The loss per share, basic and diluted, amounts to rs 1.14 against last year’s rs 1.74. During the period under review, the net sales of the company have declined to rs 5.348 billion as compared to rs 7.899 billion during the same period in FY11. “The company continued facing significant working capital constraints which resulted in limited supplies and
disrupted business operations during the quarter ended September 30 (2011)”, the company’s chief executive officer told the shareholders at karachi, Lahore and Islamabad stock exchanges and the Securities and Exchange commission of Pakistan. as a result, he said, the company suffered a loss after taxation of rs 1.188 billion for the period as compared to a loss after taxation of rs 681 million in the last corresponding period. Byco is country’s emerging energy companies engaged in the businesses of oil refining, petroleum marketing, chemicals manufacturing and petroleum logistics. Headquartered in karachi, the firm is catering the energy demand in and outside Pakistan. The companies that work under Byco’s umbrella include Byco Oil Pakistan Limited, Oil refining & chemical Manufacturing, Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited, Oil refining & Petroleum Marketing, Universal Terminal Limited and Infrastructure and Logistics.
TDAP’s seminar with KPCCI PESHAWAR
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STAFF REPORT
raDE Development authority of Pakistan (TDaP) organized a seminar in collaboration with khyber Pakhtunkhwa chamber of commerce and Industry (kPccI) on trade normalization between Pakistan and India. The seminar held at the chamber on Wednesday was aimed at generating awareness among business community and educate traders about normalization of trade between the two countries. Prominent among those who attended the seminar included kPccI senior vice president Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, vice president abid Salam, former kPccI president Ghazanfar Bilour, president Women chamber of commerce and Industry Sajida Zulfiqar, vice president nasira Lughmani, Dr Manzoor ahmed, former Pakistan
ambassador to World Trade Organization (WTO), Director General (DG) TDaP Tariq Parvez and others. Dr Manzoor briefed the audience on why Pakistan should have trade with India, what are its benefits and why these trade ties be normalized and expanded. He said Pakistan was mostly trading with the European Union (EU) and the US. Dr Manzoor said Pakistan trade was growing but in a wrong manner. Dr Manzoor said smaller economies should do trade with bigger economies to grow and strengthen their economies and gave the example of Turkey and Mexico. Dr Manzoor suggested Pakistan should increase its exports. Dr Manzoor said all WTO members are bound to give MFn status to their neighbors and if they don’t, they would be violating WTO agreement. Ziaul Haq Sarhadi said Pakistan would have to better its relations with its neighbors to promote
trade. Sarhadi said khyber Pakhtunkhwa was an important province and therefore Peshawar dry port which was running temporarily needed to be modernized to export goods. He said exports had badly suffered due to poor condition of railway. Sarhadi demanded the government modernize the dry without which exports were not possible. He said the dry port was temporally established in 1986 and is still running temporarily. Sarhadi said efforts be made to set up a dry port trust at aza khel near Peshawar. Sarhadi said the railways could earn rs 15 to 20 billion by running goods trains. regarding the afghan transit trade, he said the province would not benefit from the new agreement as it had rendered a large number of people unemployed. He said amended agreement would have negative impact on our economy. Sarhadi said the decision by Pakistan to give India the Most Fa-
vorite nation (MFn) status was a welcome step. But, he added, the government must take all stakeholders into confidence before implementing its decision and make a negative list of items. He said the government would have to put pressure on India to remove nontariff barriers. He said TDaP was not playing an effective role due to which kP exporters were having problems. Sarhadi demanded the government include businessmen in TDaP foreign delegations. DG TDaP underlined the need for exchange of delegations and exhibitions, saying TDaP was shortly holding an exhibition in Delhi. The DG said businessmen from Pakistan and India should hold meetings without which the trade ties would not normalize. He said his department would fully cooperate with women entrepreneurs. He said TDaP agenda was to educate exporters.
Colgate Palmolive Nestle PakXD Siemens Pakistan Mithchells Fruit Service IndXD
814.68 4431.18 789.00 184.00 184.11
776.00 4499.00 800.00 175.00 184.11
775.00 4390.00 751.00 175.00 175.00
775.00 4409.00 770.00 175.00 178.78
21.72 9.31 38.47 6.70 47.80
19.66 8.21 36.16 6.02 44.80
21.71 9.28 37.76 6.53 47.05
-39.68 120 -22.18 33 -19.00 1,810 -9.00 679 -5.33 2,322
Volume Leaders Jah.Sidd. Co. Azgard Nine D.G.K.Cement JS Bank Ltd National BankXDXB
20.69 8.31 38.06 6.64 45.53
1.02 56,777,428 0.97 26,802,977 -0.30 22,334,636 -0.11 16,360,100 1.52 12,656,728
Interbank Rates US Dollar Uk Pound Japanese Yen Euro
90.5473 145.1835 1.1042 120.9983
Dollar East US Dollar Euro Great Britain Pound Japanese Yen Canadian Dollar Hong Kong Dollar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal Australian Dollar
Buy
Sell
90.50 120.16 144.11 1.0839 90.15 11.49 24.56 24.06 93.15
91.10 121.48 145.73 1.0957 91.65 11.67 24.83 24.30 94.61
CORPORATE CORNER Inauguration of orient centre, Shalimar Branch
LAHORE: Orient Group takes deep pride in the fact that its primary mission is to equip the Pakistani household with the latest electronics and provide its customers with the best technical support after purchase. Such was the statement by Mr. ahmad Fazal, Executive Director of Orient Group of companies at the inauguration of the Orient centre, Shalimar Branch. On the occasion, the Director Marketing of Orient Group of companies, Mr. abdul rehman Talat said that in order to facilitate its customers, Orient is launching the Orient centre so that an independent retail chain network can be expanded. He further said that Orient wishes to spread this network nationwide so that our primary mission is complete. Uptil now many similar centres have been established. PRESS RELEASE
etihad Airways adds 500,000 passengers LAHORE: Etihad airways, the national airline of the United arab Emirates, continued its industry-leading growth in the first quarter of 2012, with a 28 per cent rise in revenue to US$ 989 million over the corresponding period in 2011 and passenger numbers soaring by 500,000 to 2.4 million. Etihad airways President and chief Executive Officer, James Hogan, said: “Despite the tough economic times we believe our business model of organic network growth combined with codeshare partnerships and strategic equity investments will enable us to continue to ensure sustainable profitability. Our seat factor has now hit a record high.” Etihad has announced a daily service to its first South america destination and new services to Vietnam, Basra and Lagos, with increased flight frequencies to Düsseldorf, Bangkok, cairo, kuwait, and Dammam. Etihad now has a worldwide network that stretches across 84 cities in 54 countries and 6 continents. PRESS RELEASE
LAHORE: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and Airlink Communication recently held a motivational Sales & Distribution Conference for their sales and distribution teams. Held at Airlink Lahore office, the conference was led by PTCL Senior Executive President Commercial, Naveed Saeed, and was attended by management and sales teams of PTCL and Airlink. Airlink Communication is managing a national distribution program for PTCL’s wireless products including Vfone and EVO. The conference helped to align both teams towards meeting corporate objectives and strengthening their relationships. PRESS RELEASE