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profit.com.pk
Wednesday, 14 December, 2011
Finance Ministry agrees to release Rs4.6b to HEC ISLAMABAD INP
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Dam has storage capacity of about eight million acre feet g Projected electricity generation expected at 4,500MW ISLAMABAD
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AMER SIAL
SiAn Development Bank (ADB) has stressed that government should focus on addressing issues of affected population, environmental impact and revenue sharing between the contesting territories for the smooth execution of the mega hydel power project of Diamer Bhasha Dam. Talking with a select group of reporters, Head of Energy Division of ADB Rune Stroem, along with Country Director Pakistan Werner Liepach said boundary dispute between GilgitBaltistan (GB) and KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP) threatens to derail the Diamer-Bhasha dam project. KP
government is disputing ownership of 18 kilometer long belt with GB government in a bid to get a share in income from power generation. GB legislative assembly has passed the resolution against the KP claim. if the dispute is not amicably resolved it may end up in court that may delay initiation of the project that government plans to under take from next year. Stroem is fully aware that there will be strong debate on revenue sharing. We can give advice but at the end the issue will have to be decided by the Council of Common interests. He said ADB will play its role as senior lender, co-financer and will be the financial advisor to Pakistan on the project. He said both parties will review draft of Memorandum of Under-
standing next week that will clearly define the role of ADB in project execution. He said Wapda will evaluate bids for the project but ADB will also review to ensure transparency. ADB has strong anti-corruption policies and the agency’s involvement will give more credit to the project. Stroem said success of the project hinges on the satisfaction of local people. The resettlement work has been done but still there are gaps where government needs to bring in improvement as per international standards. He said environment issues and social safeguards with respect to resettlement are extremely critical for successful completion of the project. Diamer-Bhasha dam, with a storage capacity of about eight million acre feet
and projected electricity generation of 4,500MW will be built on River indus near Chilas in Diamer district of Gilgit Baltistan. Estimated cost of the project is $11.2 billion and will take more than eight years to build. He said project could not be donordriven as government is the primary driver. ADB was helping government to structure the project and make it bankable. it is the most complex and the most comprehensive project ADB has ever financed. Werner Liepach said ADB has not yet framed clear views on dam financing requirements but export credit will be major source of financing. Other than export credit international Financial institutions and commercial financing would also be availed to complete the project.
Gilani reviews restructuring of Pak Steel Mills g
Directs early appointment of CEO g Calls upon stakeholders to encourage search for collaboration with partners including Russia ISLAMABAD
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STAFF REPORT
meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani at the PM House yesterday in which the Ministry of Production gave briefing on the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) revival plan on a sustainable basis. The Prime Minister called upon the stakeholders to encourage the search for collaboration with partners including Russian Government’s offer made by the Russian Prime Minister Putin during Pakistan’s Prime Minister recent visit to the country to attend SCO Summit in Saint Petersburg. He was briefed on efforts of CCOR to undertake reforms and restructuring in PSM including commercial and business preferences in the aftermath of losses incurred during 2008-09. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani directed the Cabinet Committee on Restructuring (CCOR) to immediately recom-
mend names of candidates for appointment as Chief Executive Officer to operationalise business plan of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM). He said the CCOR was with holding name of short listed candidates forwarded to it by the PSM board a few weeks back. The source said former managing director of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited Faizullah Abassi is most likely to be appointed CEO of PSM, as he fulfills required criteria for the post. He holds a PhD in Metallurgy. The source said appointment of CEO is required to move forward the revival of steel mills. Government has recently approved providing sovereign guarantee to banks for providing Rs6 billion to PSM. The financial injection will help keep the company operational, the source said adding that the one ship load of raw material was being imported with plans to import two more in coming months. Approval of the financial package will allow complete revival of the company in next few months. PSM was operating profitably till 2002-2008 period but has incurred massive losses
for the last four years. The meeting was informed that CCOR had adopted a series of measures to ensure that PSM begins to achieve recovery and financial rehabilitation. These measures included reconstitution of Board of Directors with professionals, separation of the post of chairman and CEO and appointment of the chairman from the independent board members. The short listing of CEO, preparation of Business Plan by
PSM, and other measures to identify international collaboration and basic capital required for achieving higher rate of capacity utilisation of the Mills were discussed. The meeting was attended by the Minister for Finance, Minister for Production, Secretary Production, Secretary Privatization and other senior officials of the relevant Ministries.
HE Ministry of Finance has agreed to release Rs4.6 billion to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in order to run its scholarship programmes and other projects in the current financial crunch. Official sources in HEC told media that a meeting was held between the HEC and the concerned authorities of the Ministry of Finance two weeks back where it was agreed that the ministry would provide Rs4.6 billion to resolve financial issues being faced by HEC. “We have not received any letter regarding the disbursement of funds to the commission by the Ministry of Finance,” official sources explained. The World Bank had approved a grant of 300 million dollars in three years under World Bank Tertiary Education Support Project (TESP) to HEC. “During a meeting between HEC and the Ministry of Finance it was decided that the total amount of Rs4.6 billion that would be provided by the Finance Ministry would include funds from the World Bank too,” official sources added. The federal government under the 18th amendment intended to devolve HEC but after a hue and cry was raised by the opposition parties, vice chancellors (VCs) of the universities as well as civil society in favour of keeping it in the centre the government was forced to backtrack. The Finance Ministry will release funds subsequent to the short order of the Supreme Court in which it directed the government not to devolve HEC’s responsibilities without bringing in new legislation, an official of HEC revealed. He said that those students who have gone for higher studies abroad through HEC funding are getting the scholarship amount on a regular basis while HEC was facing financial problems in sending the new selected students on merit scholarships abroad. According to sources, the total allocated budget for HEC for the current fiscal year 2011-12 was Rs40 billion including recurring budget of Rs26 billion and development budget of Rs14 billion; but if the commission completes all its ongoing projects then it would require Rs53.11 billion for the current fiscal year and, according to an estimate, the financial requirement for the commission would be around Rs62.28 billion for 2012-13, Rs70.55 billion for 201314 and Rs81.99 billion for 2014-15 while for the financial year 2015-16 the requirement might reach Rs91.38 billion. According to a recent international human development report released by the United nationals Development Programme (UnDP), Pakistan’s adult literacy rate in the second half of the last decade was 55 percent, a far cry from the 74.04 percent in neighbouring india while the report ranked Pakistan in terms of adult education at 145 out of 187 countries examined, lower than india, South Africa, Bhutan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, indonesia, and even Palestine and iraq. According to a report, roughly one in ten of the world’s primaryage children who are not in school live in Pakistan, placing Pakistan second in the global ranking of out-of-school children. With approximately 40 per cent of the population under the age of 15, Pakistan faces an education crisis which threatens to have profound human, social and economic consequences. According to Amir Hamza Jilani from the Research School of Economics at the Australian national University “The Pakistan Education Statistics handbook, most recently available for 2007-2008, notes that only 29 million of Pakistan’s 70 million children under the age of 15 are enrolled in school. This means that nearly 41 million kids are out of school, representing 60 per cent of the youth.”