profitepaper pakistantoday 13th may, 2012

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Doing development better

profit.com.pk

Sunday, 13 May, 2012

noT So Fond FaReweLLS

Au revoir! auto sector bids adieu to pC deputy chairman g paapaM calls for representation of industry in policy making g

LAHORE

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STAFF REPORT

He Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers (PAAPAM), the representative body of automotive vending industry, while hailing the report of Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Dr Nadeemul Haq’s resignation, has suggested him to focus on his primary duty of governmental development programmes rather than disturbing the industrial culture of which he is not familiar.

Disgruntled by the IMF-planted Dr Haq’s anti-industry policies, who has vast knowledge but zero experience of industry, Business Forum of Punjab and PAAPAM Chairman Syed Nabeel Hashmi, has said that his policies are more relevant to the place he comes from i.e United States of America. So, the Punjab industry and particularly the auto sector welcome his idea of quitting the Planning Commission and leaving Pakistan, as the country needs not such a technocrat, who least cares for the sick manufacturing economy of Pakistan and who likes to see more presence of outsiders to run the restaurants and chain stores.

Criticizing the amusing and funny ideas of Dr Haq ‘that food outlets bring more employment than industry’, Hashmi said that manufacturing provides

employment to more than 10 per cent of the labour force employed in Pakistan; it supports the growth of service sector and generates the taxes of 65 per cent against the share in gross domestic produce of just 20 per cent.

He said that PAAPAM also wants access to cheaper and quality goods for consumers in Pakistan, but its solution does not lie in duties reduction, rather it lies in excessive industrialization and transfer of high technology in the country. Rejecting extraneous and impractical views of Dr Haq, who is a proponent of excessive trade liberalisation through reduction of tariffs, Hashmi said that one cannot forget that the government has failed to provide the required infrastructure to support the growth of manufacturing sector, therefore, the local industry still needs protection. “We work without the support of governments in such atmosphere which is non-predictable; we have switched over from electricity to more expensive power generated by light diesel or by furnace oil; we have to use alternate energy when gas is not available; we have to keep contingencies against being looted on account of being victim of bad law and order situation,” observed Hashmi.

He argued that govt wants to introduce trade liberalization like in Japan, europe and the USA, but we put a single question.

Whether the developed countries have such issues of energy crisis and law and

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order, our industry is confronting with, he asked the deputy chairman.

He said that the slowdown of economic growth is due to internal weaknesses which are also powered by the mismanagement and imported economic policies. He said that the electricity, gas, infrastructure, inflation, high rate of borrowings, soaring power and gas tariffs and staying away from providing credits to manufacturing by banks due to easy management of sale and purchase of treasury bills together have promised a very bad performance of manufacturing economy.

PAAPAM Vice Chairman Munir K. Bana pleaded that if the import tariffs are further reduced, the present growth of industrial economy which has registered less than 2 percent growth during 2010-11 will further decline and also add to the portfolio of nonperforming loans bringing in more industrial units under the category of sick units. He explained that imposition of tariffs or duties

Zubair Motiwala says Thar projects are workable

kCCI hauls coals over planning Commission’s Thar statement

KARACHI: Muhammad Zubair Motiwala, Chairman Sindh Board of Investment has categorically denied news item appearing on media by Planning Commission declaring Thar projects as unworkable. Muhammad Zubair Motiwala said Thar is National strategic Reserve of Pakistan and it has been duly vetted by International agencies considered as authority on Coal and further companies in coal mining and power generation through coal business have committed to invest more than $15 billion in Thar, they have done so only after complete due diligence.

Statements like these tantamount to sabotaging the most important project for Pakistan and its economy.

KARACHI: Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s Acting President Younus Muhammad Bashir has strongly reacted over the statement from planning commission terming the Thar Coal project “unworkable”. He stated that Chairman Sindh Board of Investment Muhammad Zubair Motiwala has completely denied news item appearing in the media by planning commission declaring Thar Coal projects as unworkable. SBI Chairman has said that Thar Coal is National Strategic Reserve of Pakistan and it has been duly vetted by International agencies considered as authority on Coal and further companies in coal and mining and power generation through coal business have committed to invest more than 15 billion USD in Thar. They have done so only after complete due diligence.

Statements like these tantamount to sabotaging the most important project for Pakistan and its economy. STAFF REPORT

NNI

at import stage is necessary to provide a cost differential for competing the wrath of under invoiced imports in Pakistan. He said that

Pakistan’s motorcycle industry has progressed in a very impressive fashion over the last half decade based on the AIDP. Adequate competition has been introduced and today well over 60 companies are producing motorcycles in Pakistan. The recommendations by the Planning Commission to reduce tariffs seem to be IMF agenda to further aggregate the sufferings of the auto business community at large. He further said that the Deputy Chairman Planning Commission seems to be oblivious from the ground realities and the problems that confront small and medium manufacturers which form the backbone of the motorcycle vending industry.

ToyS BeInG ThRown FRoM The pRaM LeFT, RIGhT and CenTRe LAHORE STAFF REPORT

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He Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Saturday urged the government to bring down the prices of petroleum products and their prices in the International market registered visible decline.

In a statement issued here Saturday, the LCCI president Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that if Indian government can curtail the prices of petroleum products by about Indian Rs.11 per liter (about 19 Pakistani rupees) in one go, the Pakistani authorities should also make equal cut in the prices. The LCCI President said that the cut in oil prices would cause no dent to government revenues as it would just be passing on what it is getting from the international market. Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that by bringing down the prices of petroleum products government would be arresting fast escalating inflation graph while cut in cost of doing business would help

Squeaky wheeL needS oIL… and Cheap LCCI wants cut in oil prices

expedite productions that have nose-dived due to an acute electricity shortage and high cost of doing business. The LCCI President also urged the government to cut the number of taxes on petroleum products as the fuel is the engine of growth. If the fuel would be heavily taxed the entire economy would suffer and the same happened in Pakistan as the repeated increases in the POL prices had ruined the industrial and economic activities.

He said that only because of high cost of doing business in Pakistan, a large number of industrial units had already shifted their operations to other countries. The LCCI president said that the entire industrial sector was already facing multiple internal and external challenges and a cut POL prices would help provide them some relief. He said that the ongoing high prices of petroleum products had also hit the agriculture sector.

The LCCI President said that not only the transportation cost of goods would come down but fares of public transport would also decrease. He said that Government is producing huge amount of electricity through thermal means and after cut in petroleum prices, prices of electricity would come down.

Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry had for the last many months been calling on the concerned government circles to take measures for the promotion of alternate fuels as trade deficit was fast widening due to heavy imports under the head of petroleum products.

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Sunday, 13 May, 2012

news

Doing development better

SeCp’s seminar on e-Governance SARGODHA

CAMBRIDGE

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ONLINE

DANI RODRIk

IM Yong Kim’s appointment as World Bank president may have been predictable, given the long-standing tradition that renders the selection an American prerogative. But even the appearance of competition between Kim and the other candidates, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and José Antonio Ocampo, served to expose a deep fissure within the field of development policy, because Kim and his two rivals represented dramatically different approaches.

The vision for which Kim stands is bottom-up. It focuses directly on the poor, and on delivering services – for example, education, health care, and microcredit – to their communities.

This tradition’s motto could be, “Development is accomplished one project at a time.”

The other approach, represented by Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo, takes an economy-wide approach. It emphasizes broad reforms that affect the overall economic environment, and thus focuses on areas such as international trade, finance, macroeconomics, and governance.

Practitioners in the first group idolize NGO leaders like Mohammad Yunus, whose Grameen Bank pioneered microfinance, and ela Bhatt, a founder of India’s Self-employment Women’s Association (SeWA). The heroes of the second group are reformist finance or economy ministers such as India’s Manmohan Singh or Brazil’s Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

At first sight, this might seem like another dispute between economists and non-economists, but the rift runs within, rather than between, disciplinary boundaries. For example, recent work with field experiments and randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which has caught on like wildfire among development economists, lies strictly in the tradition of bottom-up development.

The relative effectiveness of the two visions is not easy to determine.

Proponents of the macro approach point out that the greatest development successes have typically been the product of economy-wide reforms. The dramatic reductions in poverty achieved by China over the span of a few decades, as well as by other east Asian countries like South Korea and Taiwan, resulted largely from improved economic management (as much as earlier investments in education and health may have played a role).

Reforms in incentives and propertyrights arrangements, not anti-poverty programs, enabled these economies to take off.

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The trouble is that these experiences have not proved as informative for other countries as one might have wished. Asian-style reforms do not travel well, and, in any case, there is significant controversy about the role of specific policies. In particular, was the key to the Asian miracle economic liberalization or the limits that were placed on it?

Moreover, the macro tradition vacillates between specific recommendations (“set low and uniform tariffs,” “remove interest-rate ceilings on banks,” “improve your ‘doing business’ ranking”) that find limited support in cross-country evidence, and broad recommendations that lack operational content (“integrate into world economy,” “achieve macroeconomic stability,” “improve contract enforcement”).

Development specialists in the bottomup tradition, for their part, can deservedly claim success in demonstrating the effectiveness of education, public health, or microcredit projects in specific contexts. But, too often, such projects treat poverty’s symptoms rather than its causes.

Poverty is often best addressed not by helping the poor to be better at what they are already doing, but by getting them to do something altogether different. This calls for diversification of production, urbanization, and industrialization, which in turn require policy interventions that may lie at considerable distance from the poor

(such as fixing regulations or targeting the value of the currency).

Moreover, as with macro-level economic reforms, there are limits to what can be learned from individual projects. An RCT conducted under specific conditions does not generate usable hard evidence for policymakers in other settings. Learning requires some degree of extrapolation, converting randomized evaluations from hard evidence into soft evidence.

The good news is that there has been real progress in development policy, and, beneath the doctrinal differences, is a certain convergence – not on what works, but on how we should think about and do development policy. The best of the recent work in the two traditions shares common predilections. Both favor diagnostic, pragmatic, experimental, and contextspecific strategies.

Conventional development policy has been prone to fads, moving from one big fix to another. Development is held back by too little government, too much government, too little credit, the absence of property rights, and so on.

The remedy is planning, the Washington Consensus, microcredit, or distributing land titles to the poor.

By contrast, the new approaches are agnostic. They acknowledge that we do not know what works, and that the binding constraints to development tend to be context-specific. Policy experimentation is a central part of discovery, coupled with monitoring and

evaluation to close the learning loop. experiments do not need to be of the RCT type; China certainly learned from its policy experiments without a proper control group.

Reformers in this mold are suspicious of “best practices” and universal blueprints. They look instead for policy innovations, small and large, that are tailored to local economic circumstances and political complications.

The field of development policy can and should be reunified around these shared diagnostic, contextual approaches. Macro-development economists need to recognize the advantages of the experimental approach and adopt the policy mindset of enthusiasts of randomized evaluation. Micro-development economists need to recognize that one can learn from diverse types of evidence, and that, while randomized evaluations are tremendously useful, the utility of their results is often restricted by the narrow scope of their application. In the end, both camps should show greater humility: macrodevelopment practitioners about what they already know, and microdevelopment practitioners about what they can learn. The writer is a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a leading scholar of globalization and economic development.

Courtesy: Project Syndicate

He SeCP’s Company Registration Office (CRO) Faisalabad Saturday held a seminar on e-Governance Regime and corporatization at the Sargodha Chambers of Commerce and Industries (SCCI) Sargodha.

Mahboob Ahmad, Joint Registrar, in charge CRO Faisalabad, underlined numerous actions taken by the SeCP to facilitate the corporate Sector of Pakistan. He made a detailed presentation on introduction of e-services project covering the relevant provisions of the company laws especially highlighting different aspects of incorporation of companies and post incorporation statutory compliance. He elaborated the newly introduced Fast Track Registration Services (FTRS) wherein the registration of the selected services carried out within 4 working hours of filing of the application/documents. He said that the concept of “Once Online For ever Online” being implemented from May 16, 2012, and also answered participants’ questions and sought their suggestions for further improvement.Muhammad Asghar Baig, Deputy Registrar, elucidated the technical aspects of various steps of online filing of documents in e-services including availability of name, steps/procedures for online incorporation and e-filing of various statutory returns.Muhammad Tariq Rasheed facilitated the seminar and answered the different queries of the participants regarding the e-Services.The participants included practicing members of Sargodha Chamber of Commerce and Industries including business dignitaries, corporate secretaries and practitioners.Mazhar Ahmad Malik, president, SCCI, appreciated the efforts of SeCP in the development of corporate sector of the country and facilitation provided vide introduction of e-Services.

‘diamir Bhasha dam is paksitan’s lifeline’ ISLAMABAD APP

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IAMIR-BHASHA Dam project, a life-line for the national economy, would help meet country future agricultural and power requirements. Talking to APP an official of Water and Power Ministry said that the dam would generate 19 billion units of electricity annually. He said the mega project would store over 8 Million Acre Feet of water to meet country’s growing power and irrigation needs.He said the Dam would enhance life of Tarbela Dam by over 35 years. To a question he said, DiamirBhasha dam is the first major hydel power project after Mangla Dam built in 1967 and Tarbela Dam built in 1974. To another question, he said Diamer Bhasha dam with a height of 272 meters, is being built on Indus river, about 300 kilometers upstream of Tarbela Dam, he added. He said the Dam will be completed in seven to eight years.

Global stocks, euro slip as Europe concerns mount NEW YORK

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REUTERS

LOBAL stocks retreated on Friday as uncertainty over europe’s festering debt crisis overcame an early bounce driven by better-than-expected U.S. consumer sentiment, while oil prices fell after weak data from China reduced demand expectations.

Safe-haven government debt rose, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note falling for the eighth straight week. Whether Greece can remain in the euro zone and concerns about the health of Spanish banks spurred buying.

The euro retreated against the U.S. dollar late in the session on news that the Greek Socialist party leader had been unable to form a national unity government after holding last-ditch talks with rivals. Data showing U.S. consumer

sentiment rose to its highest level in more than four years in early May lifted shares earlier in the day, but concerns over europe and JPMorgan Chase & Co’s (JPM.N) $2 billion trading loss led equity markets to retreat.

“Today there is a flight to safety; Greece is not resolved, Spain is not resolved,” said Lou Brien, market strategist with DRW Trading Group in Chicago.

“And JPMorgan adds a bit of concern simply because they were assumed to be the well-run bank, and if this sort of thing could happen there, where else could it happen?” Brien said.

JPMorgan’s stock fell 9.3 percent to $36.96, the biggest drag on the S&P 500 index. The next-biggest drag was Citibank (C.N), down 4.2 percent at $29.35. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 34.44 points, or 0.27 percent, to close at 12,820.60. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index .SPX declined 4.60 points, or 0.34 percent, to

1,353.39. But the Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC inched up just 0.18 of a point, or 0.01 percent, to end at 2,933.82. Tim Ghriskey, who oversees about $2 billion as chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York, said JPMorgan will become a political issue. “This will increase regulations on banks and the overhang on large banks will last for awhile,” Ghriskey said. The KBW index .BKX of large U.S. financial services firms’ shares fell 1.2 percent, and in europe, the euro zone STOXX banking index .SX7P fell 1 percent. The euro slid to a 3-1/2-month low in volatile trade. The euro has dropped against the dollar in eight of the last 10 sessions for a cumulative 2.4 percent decline, hit by the turmoil in Greece. The euro slid 0.12 percent to $1.2919, while the U.S. dollar index .DXY rose 0.21 percent to 80.283.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was down 0.03 percent at 79.90.

europe stoked market jitters. The failure by politicians in Greece to agree on a new government sent the country hurtling toward a new vote, with radical leftists leading in the polls and poised to scrap a 130-billion-euro bailout that has staved off default.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose 9/32 in price to yield 1.84 percent. european shares erased early losses to end higher on the U.S. consumer sentiment data, although many investors remained wary over Spain’s banks and Greece’s political impasse. The Greek stock market dropped to levels last seen 20 years ago during an earlier crisis over a mechanism to reduce exchange-rate swings in europe before the euro’s advent. German Bund futures rose as high as 143.09, up 48 ticks on the day.

The FTSeurofirst .FTeU3 index of top european stocks rose 0.3 percent to close at 1,022.52. The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS turned lower,

falling 0.3 percent to 314.99.

Prices of crude oil, copper and gold all fell. Brent crude oil prices fell below $112 a barrel early in the session after a weak reading of industrial growth in China sparked worries that demand may slow from the world’s No. 2 oil consumer.

Chinese industrial output expanded in April at its slowest annual pace in nearly three years. When paired with poor trade figures from Thursday, the data suggest China’s economy continues to slow after a weak firstquarter performance. Brent crude futures for June delivery shed 47 cents to settle at $112.26 a barrel. The U.S. June light sweet crude contract declined 95 cents to settle at $96.13 a barrel.

Gold fell almost 1 percent, capping a 3.7 percent loss for the week, its biggest weekly decline this year.

U.S. gold futures for June delivery slid $11.50 to settle at $1,584 an ounce.

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Sunday, 13 May, 2012

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news waLL STReeT week ahead

Stocks face choppy seas of bank woes, uncertainty NEW YORK

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REUTERS

ORe volatility could be in store for stocks next week as investors grapple with less certainty about the economic outlook and a new blow to the financial sector after JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM.N) trading loss. europe is expected to keep investors jumpy as well, with inconclusive results from the recent Greek election and the country’s future appearing more worrisome. The economic picture appears cloudy these days, with some data showing a more positive trend and other reports showing the opposite. An index of consumer sentiment rose to its highest in a more than four years, but last week’s jobs report showed another monthly decline in hiring.

Next week brings minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting, which investors will look to for more guidance on whether the central bank plans to give additional help to

the economy. Stocks closed lower for a second straight week on Friday after a week of choppy trading.

Strategists say that’s likely to be the case again in days to come. “expect more volatility. We’re still seeing this natural risk aversion.

We expect any source of bad news to trigger a sell-off, but we’re still not in a red-alert area,” said Omar Aguilar, chief investment officer of equities for Charles Schwab in San Francisco. “The good economy in the U.S. is leading the way, with the Federal Reserve being very accommodating.” Citigroup’s chief U.S. equity strategist, Tobias Levkovich, said the market has likely begun a pullback, and that the Standard & Poor’s 500 index could fall 5 percent to 7 percent from its April 2nd intraday high of 1,422. “We’re going to probably spend several months in kind of choppy trading,” he said.

News that JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), the largest U.S. bank by assets, lost billions of dollar on bad trades raised fresh worries that the financial sector was not on the

mend. The KBW bank index .BKX fell 1.2 percent for the day. There’s likely to be more focus on the company next week. After the close of trading, Fitch Ratings cut JPMorgan’s credit rating one notch and cited the bank’s $2 billion trading loss, and Standard & Poor’s revised its outlook of JPMorgan to negative.

The S&P financial index .GSPF has lost ground since rallying 21.5 percent in the first quarter. The index is still up 13.6 percent since the start of the year.

MESSAGE FROM THE FED: Wall Street will scrutinize the minutes from the FOMC’s late April meeting, which the Fed will release on Wednesday at around 2 p.m. eastern time. At that April 24-25 meeting, the FOMC repeated its expectation that interest rates would not rise until late 2014 at the earliest, and it took no action on monetary policy. But Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spurred stock market gains when he told reporters on April 25 that “we remain entirely prepared to take additional balance-sheet actions as necessary to achieve our objectives. Those tools remained very much on the table and we would not hesitate to use them, should the economy require that additional support.”

More focus may be on the Fed and economic data next week, with the first-quarter U.S. earnings period nearly done. Ninety percent of S&P 500 companies have already reported results. Major retailers set to report earnings next week include Home Depot (HD.N), a Dow component, and JC Penney Co. (JCP.N), both on Tuesday, followed by Limited Brands (LTD.N), parent of Victoria’s Secret, and discount chain Target Corp

(TGT.N) on Wednesday. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc (WMT.N), the world’s largest retailer and a Dow component, is set to report earnings on Thursday before the opening bell. The week’s mostly closely watched economic indicators will include the U.S. Consumer Price Index and retail sales, both for April, on Tuesday, followed by April housing starts and April, industrial output and capacity utilization, all on Wednesday. In europe, problems with the Greek elections raised the risk of it exiting the euro zone.

“I think earnings and valuations are still very compelling. Unfortunately, what we’re looking at on earnings and valuations is going to be overshadowed by the fact that we’ve got these global issues we’re dealing with: Greece and France and their elections, and debt issues and the possible breakup of the euro,” said evan Nowack, managing director at HighTower’s Leventhal Group in Bethesda, Maryland.

BEARISH PATTERN: Technical charts indicate bearishness ahead.

“My ‘bigger picture’ view is that in the near or intermediate term, further downside is favored,” said Chris Burba, short-term market technician at Standard & Poor’s in New York. S&P 500 charts are showing a “head-and-shoulders top,” he said, noting that demand earlier this month was not strong enough to push the benchmark index above its April high. He sees support just below 1,300, while resistance could come at 1,415 for the S&P 500. “The outlook stays bearish unless you get above 1,415,” Burba said.

(Wall St Week Ahead runs every Friday. Questions or comments on this column can be emailed to:

Loss in the structuring which is in line with structuring of similar products in more developed economies. PRESS RELEASE

Farooq Sattar inaugurates 8th auto & Transport asia 2012 Int’l exo on May 15

LAHORE: The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and MCB Bank Limited signed an agreement on Saturday, May 12, 2012 through which MCB Bank will provide commercial loans to MBA and executive MBA students of the Suleman Dawood School of Business (SDSB) of the university. The commercial loan facility will be pivotal for students who are currently financially unable to afford the cost of tuition and living facilities. This is one of the first ventures of such kind in Pakistan and is a testimony to MCB’s commitment to support higher education as well as the marketability of LUMS students. While speaking at the ceremony, Dr. Arif Butt, Dean Suleman Dawood School of Business, LUMS, said, “LUMS holds a need blind admission policy i.e. it does not discriminate on the basis of financial strength of the individual while admitting a student, the process for which is based purely on merit. Today, LUMS gives 25% of its tuition fee as waivers and aid to various students. At any point in time over 1/3rd of students in LUMS are availing some form of financial support. The institution has consistently been including other stakeholders in the community to help with this important task through various endowments and scholarship programs. This student loan by MCB is part of the endeavor for providing financial assistance to students and we hope to see the program being expanded to include other graduate and undergraduate students.” Ali Mubashir Kazmi, the Head of Consumer Banking at MCB said: This structured student loan facility for LUMS MBA Programme, is first of a kind being offered in the country. This is in line with MCB Bank’s vision to provide financial assistance to talented students while maintaining financial viability of the product.

This structured loan facility to LUMS is the first step towards this vision and we will also try to extend this facility to other premier institutions of the country. The lending rate under this scheme is subsidized as compared to commercial rate so that students can take educational loans on softer terms. We have introduced the concept of First

Company

Open

High

Low

Close

Change

Turnover

Unilever Food Rafhan MaizeSPOT Nestle Pakistan Ltd. Colgate Palmolive Sanofi-AventisXD

2990.06 2902.00 4122.31 861.00 168.58

3139.56 3047.10 4320.00 875.00 176.75

3000.00 2950.00 4150.00 850.00 168.58

3139.01 3047.00 4199.75 875.00 176.70

148.95 175 145.00 442 77.44 2,102 14.00 180 8.12 1,606

Major Losers Siemens Pakistan Indus Dyeing UniLever PakSPOT Island Textile Shezan Inter.

718.97 438.10 7341.25 228.73 172.94

702.00 416.32 7400.00 217.50 168.01

683.10 416.20 7100.00 217.30 165.00

15.90 10.06 46.55 17.46 29.40

16.20 9.13 44.70 16.25 27.74

685.57 416.29 7326.43 217.30 165.69

-33.40 1,345 -21.81 69 -14.82 315 -11.43 1 -7.25 3,900

Volume Leaders P.T.C.L.A 16.05 Lotte PakPTA D.G.K.Cement Jah.Sidd. Co. Bank AL-Habib

16.90 9.12 45.84 16.46 28.00

0.15 47,264,734 9.94 0.82 38,610,901 46.22 0.38 25,254,141 17.46 1.00 22,052,868 29.24 1.24 16,474,965

Interbank Rates US Dollar UK Pound Japanese Yen euro

90.8170 146.2971 1.1401 117.8351

Dollar East US Dollar Euro Great Britain Pound Japanese Yen Canadian Dollar Hong Kong Dollar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal Australian Dollar

Buy

Sell

91.10 117.58 146.45 1.1358 90.38 11.58 24.78 24.28 91.02

91.80 118.40 147.43 1.1433 91.49 11.75 24.92 24.41 93.09

pRopeRTy RIGhTS

BRIEF CORNER MCB offers soft loans to students

Major Gainers

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistani, Dr. Muhammad Farooq Sattar will inaugurate 8th Auto & Transport Asia 2012 Int’l exhibition on 15th May 2012 at Karachi expo Centre. There are more than 100 stalls in the exhibition where more than 60 international & domestic exhibitors are showcasing their products and services. Over 51 foreign delegates are also gracing the event from more than 8 countries including China, Iran, Taiwan, India, UAe and more etc. The event will be open only for Trade Corporate Visitors from 10 AM to 7 PM daily. More than 35,000 visitors are expected to visit the event during the 3 days. Some of the major companies to exhibit at the exhibition are Atlas Honda Ltd., Sherwani Motors, Dhl, Beilin Oil equipment Company, Babol Moquette & Carpet Industries, Jiangling Import & export Co. Ltd., Organizing Committee of China International, Shenyang Jinbei Vehicle Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Shijiazhuang Woyang Diesel Fittings Co. Ltd., Tecwin Inc., and Zhuhai Beilin Fueling equipment Co. Ltd. NNI

Mobilink signs up 10 cricket stars as brand ambassadors LAHORE: Mobilink has signed 10 members of the Pakistan Cricket team as the Brand Ambassadors for Jazz - Pakistan’s premier prepaid cellular brand. A ceremony was held in Islamabad where powerful cricketing performers including; Misbah-ul-Haq, Muhammad Hafeez, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Toufeeq Umar, Asad Shafiq, Abdur Rehman and Azhar Ali were officially appointed as Jazz Brand Ambassadors. Mobilink’s Vice President Marketing, Jahanzeb Taj said; “We are delighted to

create a strong and exciting alliance between Jazz and these accomplished sportspersons, who have won several accolades for the nation. Mobilink has a long standing commitment to the nation’s passion for Cricket, as we continue to inspire the fans by recognizing these outstanding cricketers and sponsoring international tournaments.” Jazz is actively looking to promote cricket in Pakistan under the banner of Yeh Khel Apna Hai. These cricketers will also appear in marketing activities for the promotion of cricket amongst the masses. Mobilink partnered with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in 2007, to conduct nation-wide talent-hunt activities titled; “Mobilink - Hunt for Heroes” program. Reaching out to more than 60 districts across Pakistan, this program strengthened the domestic cricket infrastructure, trained young cricket stars for the future and brought many new cricketers to the National Juniors team. NNI

Zubair welcomes Britain’s commitment for investment in pakistan ISLAMABAD: Leading industrialist Zubair Motiwala has said the commitment of the UK for investment in Pakistan’s various economic sectors including energy, is appreciable. Talking to a private news channel, he said that the commitments of the UK are very significant for the progress of Pakistan. He said Pakistan needs short, medium and long term economic cooperation by friendly countries like the UK. He said Britain should cooperate with Pakistan in wind energy, thermal and coal power. Commenting on the visit of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani to the UK, he said Britain is not only Pakistan’s strong trading partner, but also a second largest investor in Pakistan. Pakistan, the US and the UK have democratic governments and they should resolve their issues through dialogues, he added. He said Pakistan should talk with the US and the UK frankly on the future of Afghanistan.

He said Pakistan wants constructive role in Afghanistan being its neighbour. PRESS RELEASE

LAHORE: ZONG CEO Fan Yunjun giving lecture on Next Generation Seamless Mobility – the Way Forward in National University of Science and Technology (NUST). PRESS RELEASE

Mulling Ip rights Bringing Ip rights registration under one roof has begun: Chairman Ipo-pakistan

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ISLAMABAD: Chairman IPO-Pakistan Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi on Saturday said the process of bringing IP Rights Registration under one roof for efficient management has began. He further said besides this other initiatives adopted to accelerate the IP registration formalities within stipulated period has also been started. The chairman said this in a briefing presented by Registrar Trademarks Khalid Hidayat Khan, says a press release issued here today.

Chairman IPO said that all out efforts would be made to upgrade the service delivery system according to the expectations of right owners.

He said that analyzing the patterns of members countries of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), various successful models had been studied and with the consultation of IP experts and stakeholders the best prices would be adopted for strengthening National IP system in the country. Hameed Ullah said that Trademark registration has been comparatively increased in Pakistan in the result of continuous awareness activities performed in different cities with the cooperation of media. He said in order to involve media persons in awareness related programmes, it has been decided to organise IP Media Orientation workshops and conferences.Jan Afridi further said that in order to become self-reliant nation, public and private partnership is imperative for strengthening IP regime in the country. He said a mumber of agreements had been signed with Trade and Business Organizations. The executive Director IPO, Umar Dad Afridi, Registrar Copyrights Shakeel Abbasi and Controller of Patents Sabir Gul were alo present on. APP

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SITe industrial area suffers from poor roads

KARACHI: Muhammad Irfan Moton, Chairman, S.I.T.e. Association of Industry has expressed concern on the miserable state of the road network in the SITe area and drew attention of the authorities towards poor condition of infrastructure saying that SITe area being a prime industrial area of the country is suffering from the poor infrastructure and no due attention is being given to this issue. The state of the roads depicts ruin like position. The S.I T.e. Association had been striving for the improvement of roads and despite assurance given by the concerned authorities no positive response and no cogent measure have so far been taken in this respect. He also stressed that Provincial Minister for Industries & Commerce should issue direction to the concerned authorities to take cognizance of the deteriorating infrastructure and take urgent measures to improve the quality of roads on priority basis. S.I.T.e. Association demanded Governor Sindh, CM Sindh, to issue strict instructions to all concerned for taking necessary measures for start of immediate work for the revamping of road network, so that smooth economic activities are carried out in the SITe area which is contributing enormous share of revenue and providing ample employment opportunities to the people. NNI