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Thursday, 13 December, 2012
Pakistan, Turkey agree on early implementation of joint projects ANKARA
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APP
AKISTAN and Turkey Tuesday agreed on early implementation of the joint projects, encouraging private sector of the two countries and creating facilitative trade mechanisms and opportunities for the businessmen to fully utilise the true trade potential and further deepen bilateral commercial and investment ties. President Asif Ali Zardari stressed the need of translating the excellent political relations between the two countries into a strong and long term economic bond to the mutual benefit of the people of the two countries. President Zardari said this during his separate bilateral meetings with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the 7th Trilateral Summit of Afghanistan-Pakistan and Turkey, a statement from the President House said. President Zardari held wide-ranging discussions with the Turkish leadership on bilateral, regional and international issues, peace process in Afghanistan and the situation in Middle East. Discussing bilateral relations, Zardari stressed the need for early finalisation of Pakistan-Turkey Preferential Trade Agreement, which he said would help
Oil prices higher in Asian trade
boost trade ties and achieving the mutually agreed trade target of $ 2 billion. He termed the recent suggestion from the Turkish side to include mutual concessions within the ambit of the PTA as a positive step and expressed the hope that next round of PTA discussions would be held soon after the exchange of revised request list covering major textile products, being affected by the Turkish safeguard duties and extra tariffs. The president invited Turkish investment and joint ventures in key sec-
tors such as infrastructure, housing, engineering, energy, agriculture, telecommunications and mining and said that it was encouraging that private sectors of the two countries are collaborating in the energy, construction, food processing and rubber industries. He also welcomed Turkish investment in hydro-power generation and alternative energy. The president expressed the hope that Gul Train Project would revolutionise cargo and transit facilities be-
Services trade witnesses surplus during July-October ISLAMABAD APP
SINGAPORE AGENCIES
World oil prices extended gains in Asian trade Wednesday on supply concerns after the OPEC cartel reported a drop in crude production last month. New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in January, edged up 16 cents to $85.95 in the morning, and Brent North Sea crude for January added 26 cents at $108.27. “On the commodities front, the energy markets were greeted with news that Saudi Arabian oil production has now fallen to its lowest level in a year as it scales back output amid weaker economic demand and rising US supplies,” said Jason Hughes, an analyst at IG Markets Singapore. The 12-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which covers 35 percent of global demand for crude, said Tuesday that its production fell by 210,000 barrels per day in November. OPEC left its 2012 and 2013 demand forecasts unchanged from the prior month. Cartel ministers are meeting in Vienna on Wednesday, but Phillip Futures said most analysts do not expect it to change its output quotas from a combined 30 million barrels per day. Markets are also waiting for the outcome of a meeting of the US central bank, which is expected to see fresh easing measures to boost the economy, while eyes are also on talks in Washington to avert the fiscal cliff.
tween the two countries and urged for early finalisation of border crossing formalities, harmonising customs procedures and generating cargo by larger involvement of the private sector. The president said that Pakistan was keenly interested in the project and thanked Turkish prime minister and President Gul for their personal interest in Gul Train Project. The president thanked Turkish prime minister for his participation in the D-8 Summit held last month in Islamabad and expressed the confidence that summit, with its distinct trade promotion focus, would further energise economic and commercial ties within the D-8 family. The summit, he said would go a long way in confronting common challenges faced by the D-8 community, especially achieving food security, mitigating the impact of natural disasters and countering all forms of extremism which undermine economic progress and negatively affect the livelihood of our peoples. The president appreciated the Turkish leadership for hosting the trilateral Summit of Afghanistan-Pakistan and Turkey for the seventh time and said that Turkey was a trusted friend of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, adding that all the three countries shared the objective of peace and stability in Afghanistan and in the wider region.
Pakistan services trade balance witnessed a surplus of $43.86 million during first four months of current financial year July-October (2012-13). The overall trade deficit during the period under review also narrowed by 104.6 percent as compared to same period of last year as its exports surged by 53.4 percent with imports showing negative growth of 3.96 percent during first four months of the current fiscal year. The services’ exports from the country were recorded at $2.563 billion during July-October (2011-12) against the exports of $1.671 billion
during July-October (2010-11), showing growth of 53.4 percent, according to the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistic (PBS). On the other hand, the imports of services into the country during first four months of current year decreased by 3.96 percent by going down from last years imports of $2.623 billion to $2.519 billion, the data revealed. Based on this data, the services trade witnessed surplus which was recorded at $43.86 million during the period under review against the deficit of $952.46 million during last year. The services exports, however, decreased by 7.81 percent and imports were increased by 1.65 percent during
the month of October as compared to same month of last year. The exports of services during October 2012 were recorded at $443.48 million against the exports of $481.04 million in October 2011 while imports during October 2012 stood at $699.32 million against the imports of $687.94 million during same month of last year. As compared to the exports of $312.1 million during September 2012, the exports during October 2012 increased by 42.1 percent, while, as compared to the imports of $628.99 million in September 2012, the imports of services during October 2012 increased by 11.18 percent.
EU approves deals to bolster trade with Latin America
BRUSSELS AGENCIES
EU lawmakers approved free-trade accords with Colombia, Peru and six Central American nations on Tuesday, giving them permanent access to the EU’s 500 million consumers and offering the EU’s stagnant economy new markets for its cars and luxury goods. Setting aside doubts about Colombia’s human rights record, the European Parliament in Strasbourg voted to allow the deals to come into force next year, building on the eight countries’ separate free trade agreements with the United States. “At a time when our economy is struggling, it is vital that the EU forges stronger links with emerging economies,” said Catherine Bearder, a British liberal lawmaker who voted for the pacts. With global trade talks stalled, the European Union is trying to sign free-trade deals with fast-growing economies in Asia and Latin America, as well as with developed countries including Japan and the United States, to revive its economy. For Latin America, the accord means most of the region’s Pacific economies now have trade pacts with both the European Union and the United States. That deepens a divide between these nations and Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela on the Atlantic, which have been more reluctant to drop barriers to trade. The accords, signed in June, mark another step in Colombia and Peru’s efforts to modernise their economies after decades of guerrilla- and drug-related violence. They join Chile and Mexico as major Latin American economies seeing trade as their best chance to achieve sustained economic growth. “This is our bet,” Colombia’s ambassador to the European Union, Rodrigo Rivera, told Reuters. “It’s been a difficult debate at home, but we believe free trade is the way forward.”
US helping small farm businesses increase profits ISLAMABAD ONLINE
Alex Thier, assistant to the USAID Administrator, Wednesday, said that the US government had announced to help 45,000 farmers in the fruit, vegetable, dairy, and livestock sectors increase their profits. According to Alex the training and modernisation supported by USAID will enable small farmers to deliver higher quality products and increase their profits. “These programmes would increase incomes and create jobs for farmers, agricultural sector processors, and exporters,” said Alex Thier at a meeting of NGOs working with USAID on this initiative. Farmers would work with US-funded non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to form over 3,000 small farmers’ groups and will receive specialised training to improve their products and sales. Twelve Pakistani NGOs signed cooperative agreements with the US Agency
for International Development’s (USAID) Agribusiness Project today in Islamabad to provide training to farmers. Pakistan’s fruit, vegetable, dairy, and meat farmers have great potential, but many small agriculture-based businesses lack the tools to deliver the quality, variety, and quantity of goods that local and international markets demand. The twelve Pakistani NGOs helping rural farm communities include the Aga Khan Rural Support Program, the National Rural Support Programme, the Sarhad Rural Support Program, the Society for Human and Natural Resources Development (Lasoona), the Hashoo Foundation, the Punjab Rural Support Program, the Rural Community Development Society, the Jinnah Welfare Society, the Roshni Development Organisation, the Sindh Agricultural Forestry Workers Coordinating Organisation, the Taraqee Foundation, and the World Wide Fund for Nature.
The Agribusiness Project is one of the many initiatives that the United States and Pakistan are carrying out together to create jobs and increase incomes. The United States and Pakistan are expanding irrigation by 200,000 acres to spur agricultural activity near the Gomal
Zam and Satpara dams; constructing more than 1,000 km of roads to connect communities and facilitate trade; modernising dairy farms in Punjab; and launching investment funds that will provide capital to help small and medium businesses grow.
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Business 02 Europe seeks to end discord over banking union BRUSSELS
Asian shares rise, Fed outcome pressures dollar
AGENCIES
An impasse over plans for the European Central Bank to supervise banks, the European Union’s most ambitious financial reform, takes centre stage at a finance ministers’ meeting on Wednesday. France and Germany, traditionally leaders in such integrationist moves, are at loggerheads over parts of the plan, and there is little time left for the EU to meet a commitment to complete the framework for banking union by the end of the year. Critical questions remain unanswered, such as how many banks the ECB should directly supervise and whether the central bank gets longer than one year, as planned, to fully take on its role. After three years of piecemeal crisisfighting measures, agreeing on a banking union would lay a cornerstone of wider economic union and mark the first concerted attempt to integrate the bloc’s response to problem lenders.
Dollar briefly up against yen after N Korea launch TOKYO AGENCIES
The dollar briefly jumped against the yen in Asian trading Wednesday after North Korea launched a rocket seen by many in the international community as a disguised ballistic missile test. The greenback rose to 82.63 yen from 82.51 yen in New York late Tuesday, while it slipped against the euro to $1.3006 from $1.3003. But the greenback quickly settled back to 82.52 yen shortly after Pyongyang’s much-criticised launch. “The market appears to be reacting to the news, but I doubt the sustainability of the rally,” Mizuho Securities forex strategist Kengo Suzuki told Dow Jones Newswires. Regional share markets were unmoved by the news from North Korea, with almost every bourse in positive territory. The launch comes as Japan prepares to hold weekend elections widely expected to see Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s government toppled by main opposition leader Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party. The yen has been weakening recently on speculation that Abe would follow through on vows to pressure the Bank of Japan into launching more aggressive easing measures to boost the world’s thirdlargest economy.
TOKYO
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Pak Services Exide (PAK) Blessed Tex. Attock Petroleum Ltd IGI Insurance
ONLINE
Leader of the House Senator Jahangir Bader, Wednesday, said that the government was making sincere efforts to provide maximum
Lotte PakPTA Jah.Sidd. Co. Byco Petroleum Maple Leaf Cement Colony Sugar Mills
ONLINE
Sterling held near a five week high against the dollar on Wednesday ahead of an expected expansion by the Federal Reserve if its asset purchase scheme, potentially weakening the U.S. dollar broadly. The Fed’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) is expected to announce a fresh round of bond buying as part of its efforts to support a fragile economic recovery threatened by political wrangling over the government’s budget. Traders said the pound could extend gains to hit early November highs of $1.6176 and even higher if the Fed opts for a more aggressive quantitative easing than the $45 billion a month of asset purchases most economists are expecting. Investors, however, will also look to UK jobs data due at 0930 GMT for signs of weakness in the economy after the Olympics fillip, potentially weakening the pound. A Reuters fore-
LOW 4800.00 4200.00 238.00 233.75 266.00
CLOSE CHANGE 4900.00 100.00 4200.00 62.00 251.72 11.84 236.97 6.97 272.72 6.66
TURNOVER 180 20 183,600 53,100 8,200
187.00 302.09 120.00 518.11 111.55
177.65 303.50 115.00 518.11 113.00
177.65 291.88 114.00 512.17 105.98
177.65 293.42 114.75 513.07 106.73
-9.35 -8.67 -5.25 -5.04 -4.82
200 4,600 2,000 13,200 44,000
7.65 17.26 10.77 13.79 6.08
8.05 17.47 11.25 14.20 7.08
7.56 16.95 10.80 13.65 6.29
7.85 17.09 10.92 13.84 6.79
0.20 -0.17 0.15 0.05 0.71
11,447,000 6,388,000 4,684,500 4,428,500 3,926,500
Interbank Rates may have finally succeeded in putting a satellite into space, the stated aim of what critics say is a disguised ballistic missile test. Japan’s Nikkei share average rose 0.5 percent after hitting a 7-1/2-month high earlier, led by gains in tech shares and other exporters on the weak yen. The dollar remained broadly under pressure on expectations the Fed will take further monetary easing step, pushing the currency down to a three-month low against the Australian dollar. The euro popped back above $1.3000, pulling away from a two-week low of $1.2876 plumbed Friday.
facilities to the Rice Exporters Association (REA). While talking to a 14 member REA delegation headed by its Chairman Javed Ghori, here at Parliament House, Bader assured his cooperation in resolving their issues. Secretary commerce was also present on the occasion. The delegation requested the Secretary Commerce to resolve their problems regarding QRC and to restore Reap Mandatory Membership. Secretary assured the delegation that mandatory membership will soon be revalidated through STP 2012-15. The delegation also raised concern over QRC related matter. They said that since the role of QRC has shifted from Quality Assurance Facilitator to Quality Control Inspection. It is creating hurdles in export shipments. The delegation requested Secretary Commerce that QRC control may be shifted to REAP. REAP carries complete quality control mechanism through pre-shipment. QRC which over the period has helped increase exports exponentially. Since the QRC the control is shifted to TDAP, export are at continues decline. Secretary Commerce assured delegation that the points.
Sterling holds 5-week high vs dollar LONDON
HIGH 4900.00 4200.00 251.87 238.90 277.89
Volume Leaders
Govt to provide maximum facilities to REA: Bader
ISLAMABAD
OPEN COMPANY Nestle Pakistan Ltd. 4800.00 Unilever Food 4138.00 Pak.Int.Cont. SD 239.88 AL-Ghazi Tractors 230.00 National Foods 266.06
Major Losers
AGENCIES
SIAN shares rose on Wednesday buoyed by strength in global equities markets, firmer economic sentiment in Germany and hopes of a deal from U.S. budget talks, while the dollar came under pressure ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy decision. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.5 percent to a 16month peak. The index has hit successive 16month highs since Dec. 5. Australian shares were up 0.4 after touching a nearly 17-month high on the back of Wall Street gains and higher iron ore prices. “Definitely the momentum is to the upside,” said Stan Shamu, a market analyst at IG Markets. “Everyone seems to be pricing in a fairly positive outcome to the fiscal cliff negotiations as well.” South Korean shares inched up 0.2 percent, shrugging off news of North Korea’s rocket launch, but profit-taking on large caps limited gains. “North Korea is no longer an economic match for the South, so, short of a full-scale conflict, the North’s actions will have little impact on the KOSPI,” Im No-jung, chief economist at IM Investment & Securities, said of the Seoul stock market. North Korea launched the second rocket this year on Wednesday just before 10 a.m. and
Major Gainers
cast shows the unemployment rate is expected to be unchanged at 7.8 percent. “The Fed has to deliver a lot for the dollar to get a durable weakening, a more dovish position (than $45 billion) could see sterling head back towards the (September high) around the $1.63 level in the coming weeks,” said John Hardy, FX strategist at Saxo Bank. Sterling was flat on the day $1.6105, off a 5-week high of $1.6131 hit last week, with charts showing support around the 55- and 50-day moving averages at $1.6024 and $1.6032 respectively. Against the euro, sterling held flat at 80.74 pence. The euro hit a near three-week low of 80.35 pence on Monday on political turmoil in Italy. Near-term support was seen at the 55-day moving average at 80.57 pence. With the euro zone struggling with a sharper slowdown than the UK and austerity and fiscal tightening likely to weigh on growth for years, BNP Paribas said model suggested a short euro/sterling position. “We have initiated a quant-based euro/sterling short trade recommendation at 80.65 pence, targeting 79.15 pence and with a stop at 81.40 pence,” they said in a note.
US Dollar UK Pound Japanese Yen Euro
97.1912 156.8957 1.1732 126.5429
Dollar East BUY US Dollar Euro Great Britain Pound Japanese Yen Canadian Dollar Hong Kong Dollar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal Australian Dollar
SELL
97.40 126.03 155.83 1.1621 97.81 12.36 26.38 25.87 101.56
97.90 127.47 157.58 1.1751 99.41 12.56 26.65 26.10 104.15
CORPORATE CORNER C3A, NUST conduct workshop on ‘Dealing with Difficult People’
ISLAMABAD : The Centre for Counseling and Career Advisory, NUST, conducted a workshop on ‘Coping with Difficult People’ at workplace. It focused on developing strategies and skills to cope with difficult people and improve one’s own attitude. The workshop was held at C3A Conference Room on December 12, 2012, initially for the senior management of NUST. The Director, Mr. Ubric Cornelius and senior Psychologist, Ms. Naila Mir highlighted how to identify difficult people and how to alter our behavior so that we are better equipped to handle them. They focused on the fact that instead of tangling with difficult people and generating conflicts, one should focus on their job, believe in their abilities and be honest in communication.
Faisal Mushtaq wins Arabia 500 fastest growing organisation award ISLAMABAD: Chaudhry Faisal Mushtaq CEO Roots Millennium Schools wins the prestigious Arabia 500 fastest growing organization award at a ceremony held at Dubai Trade Convention Center presided by H.E the Deputy Prime Minister of UAE and Minister of Economy on December 10, 2012. Roots Millennium Schools, Pakistan was named the fastest growing organization at Arabia 500 Awards which was attended by many dignitaries, successful businessmen and Entrepreneurs from all over the world. The Arabia500 companies, led by dynamic men and women, represented the leading edge of a new approach to competitiveness. The All World Arabia 500 is the largest collaboration of growth entrepreneurs in the world. All World systematically identifies Entrepreneurs and Private growth companies ranks the fastest growing for the Arabia 500, Africa 500, Asia 500, Eurasia 500, and Latin America 500. Being on an All World ranking puts companies on the world map, drawing the market to them - what we call Visibility Economics.
Thursday, 13 December, 2012