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Wednesday, 12 September, 2012
‘Let’s rebuild South Asia’ Not trade alone, but reforms in investment regime, cooperative mechanism to manage natural resources vital for regional integration ISLAMABAD
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STAFF REPORT
HE 5th South Asia Economic Summit kicked off Tuesday saying trade alone is not enough for deeper regional integration, it has to be complimented with reforms related to investment, a cooperative mechanism to manage and utilize natural resources such as water and cooperation between regulatory bodies and promotion of supply chains. “While governments are currently more focused on trade agenda, it remains the responsibility of civil
$2.46 billion! Overseas Pakistanis remit over $2.46b during first two months of FY13 KARACHI STAFF REPORT
The Pakistanis working overseas sent back home over $2.463 billion during the first two months, July–August, of the current fiscal year 2012‐13, said the central bank on Tuesday. This shows a growth of 2.36 percent or $56.91 million compared to $2.406 billion the country had received during the same period of FY12. The inflow of remittances during the months in review from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman, and EU countries amounted to $657.78 million, $505.80 million, $446.61 million, $334.06 million, $274.09 million and $63.57 million, respectively, as compared with the inflow of $601.62 million, $552.11 million, $458.45 million, $282.45 million, $250.76 million and $74.97 million in same months last year. The remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries amounted to $ 181.78 million as against $186.42 million received last year. The monthly average remittances for July‐August 2012 period comes out to $1,231.85 million as compared to $1,203.39 million during the last year’s corresponding period. Some $1,258.98 million were remitted by overseas Pakistanis in August as against $ 1,310.47 million in the same month of FY12. In August 2012, the inflow of remittances from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries and EU countries was counted at $308.12 million, $265.26 million, $231.31 million, $185.57 million, $133.73 million and $32.74 million, respectively, as compared with the inflow of $309.79 million, $ 294.46 million, $263.58 million, $163.90 million, $134.31 million and $42.38 million respectively in August, 2011. The remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during the second month of current fiscal year (August FY13) amounted to $102.25 million as against $102.05 million received in the second month of last fiscal year (August FY12). “The continued growth in workers’ remittances is the result of the efforts made by Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) in collaboration with other stakeholders to facilitate both overseas Pakistanis and their families back home,” said the State Bank.
society to keep reminding the governments of such issues as well which in no manner are less important than trade,” cautioned the speakers. The 3-day summit is going to discuss issues relating to South Asia economic outlook, impacts of global financial crisis, regional trade, energy cooperation, transport connectivity, trade normalization and engaging youth and Diaspora for economic growth. Over 114 foreign delegates, including ministers are participating in the summit. Recommendations of the summit would be submitted to SAARC Secretariat ahead of the upcoming annual SAARC Summit to be held in Nepal this year. Speaking at the inaugural session of the Summit, Federal Minister of Defence, Syed Naveed Qamar called upon the South Asian governments to look at the disconnection
between macro and micro economic performance so that they can realistically address growing poverty and improve social sector. He asked the scholars attending the summit to offer advice to the governments on trade in services and agricultural goods, intra regional movement of people and trade in areas such as energy. “Unless we fight poverty, illiteracy and poor health standards in South Asia and complement this struggle with enabling environment for businesses to generate employment – it will remain a challenge to compete with other regions of the world,” the minister concluded. He said on the trade front, we have taken concrete steps in reducing barriers to trade in South Asia and duties on intra-regional trade are being slashed to unprecedented levels. Stressing the need to understand South Asia’s perspective on post-2015 development forecast, the minister said: “We live in a region with regular natural disasters in the form of droughts, floods
and earthquakes and it’s now time to realize that we have not paid much attention to address the impacts of climate change in this region.” In his welcome speech, SDPI Executive Director, Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri praised the incumbent political leaderships of India and Pakistan for recent landmark initiatives such as new visa regime, MFN status to India by Pakistan and Indian decision allowing investment by Pakistani investors. He said, “We can now see new clouds of hope amidst years of mistrust.” He hoped that new agreements and advancement on issues relating to development would herald an optimistic future in South Asia. However, it cannot happen without an inclusive and pro-poor growth that benefits to all citizens addressing economic disparity within and between countries. Rajiva Wijesinha, Member of Parliament, Sri Lanka said, many developed countries are pushing for freeing capital movements but are denying freer movement of labor across the world.
‘Mega projects to revive economy’ LAHORE APP
Deputy Prime Minister and PML-Q senior leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said on Tuesday that many mega projects were underway for the economic revival of the country, including establishment of Export Processing Zones all over the country and implementation of a new industrial policy that is being formulated in consultation with the business community. Talking to LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh and Vice President Saeeda Nazar during a meeting at his residence here, he said, “When we got the charge of the EPZA, its land was under occupation of land grabbers, now 100 acres of land has been retrieved on which the Export Processing Zone would be established.” He said EPZA offices would be set up all over the country including Karachi so that more industrial estates could be established and new job opportunities created. The Deputy Prime Minister said the government was aware of problems of trade and industry due to power crisis and added that a remarkable cut in loadshedding would be witnessed in the coming months. He said the proposed industrial policy would pave the way for acceleration of industrial activity in the country, ultimately boosting exports, alleviating poverty and unemployment. He said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce would be taken on board well before the finalization of the upcoming industrial policy. He said the government was focusing on implementation of long term policies so that true results could be produced for the benefit of the common man. The promotion
of Indo-Pak trade would go a long way in bringing peace and prosperity in South Asia, he said, asserting that to help cope with imports from India, the government was endeavoring to strengthen the local industrial sector. Pervaiz Elahi said that all possible measures were being taken to ensure continuity in economic policies that was a prerequisite to turn the country a hub of economic activities and to achieve the goal all stakeholders including chambers of commerce in the country would be consulted. Earlier, the LCCI president apprised the Deputy Prime Minister of the challenges being faced by the business community, saying that electricity shortage had forced the businessmen to shift their operations to other places. On trade with India, the LCCI president said that it is a welcome sign but the government would have to facilitate the business community to enable it to cope with a bigger economy. He said the LCCI had conveyed its concern over non-tariff barriers by India which needed to be addressed as they were hitting hard Pakistani businessmen.
JS Bank to benefit from HSBC acquisition KARACHI STAFF REPORT
The HSBC Bank is said to have agreed to sell its Pakistani operations to JS Bank Limited. However, the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and the approval of the stakeholders of both the parties, namely the HBME and JSBL. According to market observers, the acquisition would give the JS Bank much more than the customer base. The analysts at InvestCap Research opine that contrary to popular opinion, JSBL’s interest in HSBC’s Pakistani operation has to do with much more than its premium customer base. They said the prime factors that made the former to acquire the latter include HSBC’s strong footprint in the consumer banking segment, something which JSBL lacks, enhancing the tier 1 capital of the bank, as JSBL had fallen short on State Bank’s prescribed Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR) during CY11 and face the music this time around, as the MCR has been raised to Rs9bn (For CY12). Thirdly, they said the superior information technology infrastructure and better risk management parameters of HSBC, which are highlighted by the infection ratio of mere 3% during 1HCY12 against JSBL’s12% during the same period.
Neighborly talks Pak, India commerce secretaries’ talks in last week of September ISLAMABAD ONLINE
Commerce Secretaries talks between Pakistan and India have scheduled to be held last week of September, official sources informed on Monday. Earlier these talks were scheduled to be held from September 11-13 but it was not possible to hold talks as both the countries have to prepare themselves in according with the outcome achieved in Foreign Minister level talks, explained the official. The foreign ministers level talks concluded last Saturday have been termed as reason for delay in trade talks. Pakistan had earlier agreed to abolish the negative list of products by mid December so as to complete the trade liberalization from January 1, 2013. Indian side had agreed to accord approval to the three agreements for standardization of the standards and other technical specifications as proposed by Pakistan for providing level playing field to Pakistani exporters.
Economy digs itself out of ‘War on Terror’ quagmire ISLAMABAD APP
Despite challenges of war on terrorism, energy crisis and global economic meltdown, the economy of the country sustained growth during the past four years as it is suggested by the major economic indicators including, foreign exchange reserves, workers remittances, inflation and industrial growth. Four years back, when Asif Ali Zardari took the office of the President of Pakistan, the political and economic conditions of the country were at transitional phase from a dictatorial regime to a democratically elected president and parliament. Pakistan’s economy was in a shabby condition, foreign exchange reserves were fast depleting and the balance of payment position was in a difficult situation. Under the wise leadership of President Asif Ali Zardari, PPP took tough decisions including austerity measures, steps for enhancing revenues enhance spending on social welfare and social safety nets to benefit the poor and vul-
nerable segment of the society. President Asif Ali Zadari gave a new direction to present government by raising slogan of “Trade not aid” and urged the government to focus on boosting its exports and exploit local resources in this regard. Pakistan had been confronted with security challenges since 2001 after the 9/11 episode and so far Pakistan has spent over $ 80 billion on war against terrorism. President Asif Ali Zardari in his recent address to NAM summit held in Iran said “Terrorism is a global threat. No country has suffered so much from it as Pakistan. We have lost more than 40,000 innocent lives. Our economic losses are almost 80 billion dollars”. However, despite all these challenges the economy sustained growth during the past four years. Although the campaign against terrorism coupled with financial meltdown and spike in commodity and oil prices had led to inflation, the country still managed economy and controlled commodity prices. Now the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) went down to single digit during
the month of August. Official sources said that the surge in food and commodity prices witnessed during 2008-09 pushed the CPI to a record level of 25.3 percent in August 2008, however during the month of August 2012, the CPI recorded just a single digit increase. On the other hand, the Industrial sector of the country also sustained positive growth during the period despite several challenges of electricity and gas shortage coupled with law and order situation and natural calamities. The Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) output increased by 1.17 percent during the fiscal year 2011-12 as against the same period of last year. Meanwhile, the remittances from the overseas Pakistanis are also increasing with each passing year and during the year 2011-12 it crossed the $13 billion mark. Pakistan has been witnessing a growing surge in remittances since the present democratic government took over in 2008, the sources said adding that from mere $6.4 billion remittances
in 2008, the fiscal year 2011-12 saw record remittances of over $13 billion. During the month of August 2012, overseas Pakistanis remitted an amount of $ 1.204 billion in July 2012 showing an impressive growth of 9.89 percent or $108.40 million when compared with $1.096 billion received during the same month of the last fiscal year (FY-12). Analysts are of the view that rising foreign remittances have not only brought stability to value of Pakistani rupee, but also played key role in narrowing down gap between foreign payments and receipts. The rising remittances, second major source of foreign exchange earnings after exports, practically helped the country with record foreign exchange reserves despite high oil prices and costly imports. The exports from the country also crossed the psychological barrier of $25 billion during the previous fiscal year (2010-11) and remained almost near to this target during the fiscal year 2011-12, showing stability in overall macro economy.
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Business 02 Branching out promisingly Branchless banking shows impressive growth in fourth quarter: SBP KARACHI STAFF REPORT
Branchless banking (BB) has witnessed an impressive growth during the fourth quarter (April – June 2012) of the last fiscal year 2011-12 as the number of mobile banking accounts touched the figure of 1.45 million, depicting a remarkable growth of 37 percent. According to SBP’s ‘Branchless Banking Newsletter’, posted on its website today, the accounts’ activity level has also improved considerably during the quarter under review as the number of active accounts increased by 66 percent. Over 28 million transactions worth Rs.115.3 billion were processed during the April – June quarter. The number and value of transactions have grown rapidly during April – June quarter by 12 per cent and 36 per cent respectively. The growth in value of transactions is almost 3 times more than the growth in number of transactions. The overall average size of transaction has increased from Rs 3,367 to Rs 4,065 during the quarter under review. The agents’ network has risen to 29,525 on 30th June, 2012 from 26,792 as on 31st March, 2012 registering an increase of 10 percent. The agents now have presence in 90 percent of the districts in the country. Bills payments & mobile top-ups remained the dominating activity with 50 percent share in total numbers, followed by person to person (over the counter) fund transfers with share of 36 percent. Loan repayments of Rs.464 million primarily of microfinance institutions were collected through BB agents during the quarter. According to the Newsletter, the growth expectation in coming quarters is fairly high as the existing two BB players are increasing their scale of operations and six other banks are in pilot phase and are likely to start their BB operations shortly. Moreover, banks are exploring avenues to increase the attractiveness of the mwallets for their customers, and offering them new services such as purchasing air-tickets, receiving salaries/ pensions, utilizing ATM through debit cards, and internet banking.
Dollar slips in Asia before US Fed meeting TOKYO AFP
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HE dollar weakened in Asia Tuesday with markets eyeing a US Federal Reserve meeting later in the week, while the euro firmed as risk sentiment rose on upbeat China data. The dollar was quoted at 78.20 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade from 78.27 yen in New York late Monday. The euro bought $1.2772 from $1.2758 while it was at 99.90 yen from 99.86 yen in US trade. Dollar-yen trading would likely stay within a narrow range as markets speculate about whether the US central bank meeting on Wednesday and Thursday will see a third round of bond buying, or quantitative easing, to power the world’s largest economy, dealers said. “Opinion is mixed toward whether the Fed would initiate QE3 (a third round of quantitative easing), and the market is having a hard time factoring in a possible outcome,” said Kengo Suzuki, forex analyst at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo. There was also caution ahead of a Ger-
man court ruling on the eurozone’s bailout fund, but the euro won a measure of support on upbeat Chinese data that showed bank lending in August grew to 703.9 billion yuan ($112 billion), up from 540.1 billion yuan in July. The data from the People’s Bank of China surpassed market expectations of 600 billion yuan in new loans, according to a forecast of 13 economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. Last week, the euro jumped above 100 yen for the first time in two months after the European Central Bank said it would buy bonds from troubled eurozone nations in a bid to bring down their borrowing costs and prop up the currency. But euro sentiment had dampened since, owing to broader worries about the bloc sinking into recession, while traders looked to Wednesday’s German court ruling on the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund (ESM), dealers said. The court, which is due to rule on the constitutional legality of Berlin taking part in a rescue fund set up to support under-pressure countries, was not expected to block the ESM. Also Wednesday, the Netherlands holds parliamentary elections for the second time in two years after a tight race dominated by economic uncertainty thanks to Europe’s long-running debt crisis.
Super iPhone! New iPhone could boost US GDP by up to 0.5 percent, says JP Morgan NEW YORK AGENCIES
The next generation iPhone 5, which Apple Inc. plans to release this week, could not only boost the tech giant’s bottom line - but could give a significant boost to the overall U.S. economy. Sales of the new iPhone could add between a quarter and a half percentage point to fourth quarter annualized growth in the U.S., according to J.P. Morgan’s chief economist, Michael Feroli in a note to clients on Monday. Such an impact would be significant. “Calculated using the so-called retail control method, sales of iPhone 5 could boost annualized GDP growth by $3.2 billion, or $12.8 billion at an annual rate,” Feroli wrote. That 0.33 percent-
age-point boost, he added, “would limit the downside risk to our Q4 GDP growth protection, which remains 2.0 percent.” Feroli laid out his math. J.P. Morgan’s analysts expect Apple to sell around 8 million iPhone 5s in the fourth quarter. They expect the sales price to be about $600. With about $200 in discounted import component costs, the government can factor in $400 per phone into its measure of gross domestic product for the fourth quarter. Feroli said the estimate of between a quarter to a half point of annualized GDP “seems fairly large, and for that reason should be treated skeptically.”
Major Gainers COmPANY OPEN Unilever FoodXD 3269.00 Colgate PalmolivSPOT 1325.00 Island Textile 305.00 National Foods 248.75 Abbott Lab.XD 199.99
HIgH 3432.45 1350.05 320.25 261.18 209.98
LOw 3432.45 1350.00 300.00 248.25 199.00
CLOSE CHANgE 3432.45 163.45 1350.00 25.00 320.00 15.00 259.56 10.81 207.82 7.83
TURNOvER 20 2,000 2,900 260,200 57,400
1099.99 140.00 133.00 400.00 137.75
997.50 138.70 133.00 400.00 133.00
1000.00 138.70 133.00 400.00 133.76
-50.00 -7.30 -7.00 -5.00 -4.54
300 900 500 2,000 43,000
19.80 7.94 6.49 110.75 3.65
18.63 7.42 5.90 106.80 3.36
18.81 7.50 5.99 109.47 3.41
-0.80 0.05 -0.21 1.38 -0.05
21,216,000 16,527,000 10,042,500 8,789,300 7,659,500
Major Losers Bata (Pak) Limited Shield Corpor Ismail Industr Indus Dyeing Shell Pakistan Ltd.
1050.00 146.00 140.00 405.00 138.30
Volume Leaders P.T.C.L.A K.E.S.C. JS Bank Ltd Engro Corporation Pace (Pak) Ltd.
19.61 7.45 6.20 108.09 3.46
Interbank Rates US Dollar UK Pound Japanese Yen Euro
94.6339 151.5184 1.2114 121.0936
Dollar East US Dollar Euro Great Britain Pound Japanese Yen Canadian Dollar Hong Kong Dollar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal Australian Dollar
BUY
SELL
94.50 120.67 150.84 1.2028 96.24 11.99 25.61 25.09 97.62
95.00 121.81 152.23 1.2138 97.63 12.17 25.82 25.27 99.97
Cement export increase 18.23 percent in July ISLAMABAD: The cement export from the country during the first month of current financial year has registered an increase of 18.23 percent as compared with the same month of last year. The export of cement posted positive growth in dollars as about 545,125 metric tons cement worth $ 46.197 million exported during the month of July 2012 against the export of 740,592 metric tons worth $ 39.074 million in July 2011. According to the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the export of cement remained on down track as compared with the previous month as it was recorded at 612,500 metric tons of $ 52,064 million. However, the export of gems and jewellery during the first month of current financial year have registered an increase of 9.96 and 143.78 percent respectively as about one metric tons gems of $ 0.265 million were exported against the export of one million metric tons worth $ 0.241million same month of last year. APP
CORPORATE CORNER PTCL shows impressive growth, posting revenue of Rs 60 billion for FY 2011-12 ISLAMABAD: Country’s leading integrated telecommunication services provider, Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL), has posted net profit of Rs 7.24 billion in FY 201112. The company also showed a steady growth of 9% in revenue. The annual accounts were announced at the company’s Board of Directors meeting. PRESS RELEASE
Cardiovascular diseases account Intel to launch low-power Pakistan Envoy invites European companies to invest for 100,000 deaths in Pakistan processors to fuel future of mobile computing innovation in Energy Sector KARACHI: A medical educational program focused on raising disease management awareness and to share the latest scientific advancements in the area of cardiovascular disease started here in Karachi. Pfizer Pakistan supported series of events are going to be held across the country and are aimed towards healthcare professionals – both the specialists in the field of cardiology as well as leading general physicians.
PRESS RELEASE
ISLAMABAD: Starting with the company’s 4th generation Intel® Core™ processor family, Intel‘s low-power processors will set a new standard for mobile computing experiences and innovative Ultrabook™, convertible and tablet designs. PRESS RELEASE
BOK Karak Branch formally inaugurated KARAK: The Bank of Khyber (BOK) is committed to provide prompt and quality services in order to cater to the financial needs of the business community and general public across the country with special emphasis to the less developed areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and for this purpose the Bank has undertaken rapid expansion of its branch network. PRESS RELEASE
BERLIN: Pakistan’s ambassador to Germany Abdul Basit has encouraged European companies, especially German, to look at Pakistan also through a regional prism as the country was destined to become a regional economic hub. Addressing the participants of one-day Conference on “Solar Energy in Pakistan” held in Munich on Tuesday, Basit in his keynote address stated that Pakistan’s efforts towards promoting trans-regional connectivity had started showing results and its time for European companies to come forward and avail themselves of business opportunities created in Pakistan. APP
3rd LADIESFUND Entrepreneurship Conference on 15th
(L – R) - Google Pakistan Country Consultant Badar Khushnood, Andy Warner, Marc Warburton, Jana Levene, Tanya aidrus, Niken Sasmaya , Anand Tilak, and Aileen Apolo at a moot on Google @ Pakistan organized in partnership with Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA) and managed by Terrabiz.
KARACHI: The 3rd LADIESFUND Entrepreneurship Conference (LEC) 2012, featuring success stories of fabulous personalities, career and networking opportunities with a vast circle of over 600 VIPs, women entrepreneurs, male and female students, media, and a grand exhibition is going to be held on Saturday, September 15, 2012 at the Bahria Auditorium. PRESS RELEASE
HBL - China UnionPay Alliance signed an agreement with UnionPay (UP) to issue UP cards in Pakistan and in global markets where HBL has presence. Sitting from left to right: Mr. Zakir Mahmood and Mr. Cai Jianbo. Standing from left to right: Faiq Sadiq; Nauman K. Dar; Sultan Allana; Mr. Su Ning and other senior officials at the signing of this agreement.
Wednesday, 12 September, 2012