The Nation : Business News

UAE to give Pakistan another 300 MW plant

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

The 320 MW thermal power plant gifted by UAE to Pakistan will reach in August while the UAE government will give Pakistan another thermal power plant of 300 MW. Chairman Abu Dhabi Water and Electric Agency Shahzada Sheikh Diyab Bin Nahyan stated this during a meeting with Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf. He said the preparation for the shipment of 320 MW plant to Pakistan will soon completed and that another such plant of 300 MW will also be presented to

WB to provide $50m IDA credit to Pakistan

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

ISLAMABAD (APP) - The World Bank has approved a US$50 million IDA credit to Pakistan, designed to improve water resource management and enhance agricultural productivity in Sindh Province.
According to World Bank, about half of Sindh�s 35 million people live in rural areas, and 70 percent who are landless, derive almost 60 percent of their income from agriculture.
The additional financing for the Sindh On-Farm Water Management Project aims to improve the efficiency,

Farmers term water shortage a conspiracy

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

KARACHI - Farming community of Sindh has risen in protest against shortage of irrigation water and termed it a conspiracy to destroy the agrarian economy of the province.
Growers� bodies have termed shortage of water as mismanagement and miscalculation on the part of Sindh irrigation department.
In Larkana, the hometown of slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, growers held a demonstration on Friday against acute shortage of water in Ghar Wah and its offshoots and blocked

Above 600MW to be added to system by mid July

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

ISLAMABAD (APP) - Three new power generation plants currently on test generation would start contributing 600mw power in the system in the mid of current month said, Managing Director Pakistan Electric Power Company Tahir Basharat Cheema on Saturday.
Talking to a private TV channel, he said, �New power generation plants Atlas, Orient and Technoone in Lahore are on successful test generation nowadays.� He was of the view that only July and August are difficult month for consumer

Weekly inflation up by 10 per cent

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

ISLAMABAD - Over all inflation soared up by 10 per cent during the last week ended on July 2 in comparison with the corresponding period of the last year.
Experts believe that hike in prices of petroleum products is the main reason for increase in the inflation.
Federal Bureau of Statistic released the latest inflation figures, measured through Sensitive Price Index, here on Saturday showing a growth of 9.92 per cent in inflation over the year. However, the prices swelled by

Body on commerce to be confided on trade policy, says Amin Fahim

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

ISLAMABAD - Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim Saturday said that the Standing Committee on Commerce would be taken into confidence before announcement of new trade policy.
In a statement issued here, the minister said the committee was apprised of all major developments regarding the formulation of trade policy through briefings and presentations.
He said that it happened for the first time that all senior officers of the ministry along with secretary commerce

Power being managed thru coordinated plan

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

ISLAMABAD (PPI) - Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) has said that it was tackling the most critical electricity situation through a multi pronged strategy based on a well coordinated plan to equate the demand and supply of electricity, energy management and conservation.
PEPCO operations have been reorganized to make it fully functional in terms of energy conservation, load management, load monitoring and to regulate and coordinate the generation, distribution and load

Commodity markets stumble on US economic woes

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

LONDON (AFP) - World commodity markets were rocked this week by weak data in the United States, a leading consumer of raw materials, which cast doubt on the prospect of a global economic recovery.
Data released Thursday showed US job losses surged to 467,000 in June, pushing the unemployment rate to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent. Since the recession began in the United States in December 2007, the world�s biggest energy user has lost 6.5 million jobs and the jobless rate has

Pak traders asked to invest in Indonesia

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

LAHORE - Indonesian Ambassador Ishak Latuconsina has invited Pakistani business companies to take the initiative and invest in various economic sectors in Indonesia as Pakistani products have a good market there and the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry should motivate its members to pay attention to enhance trade with Indonesia.
The Ambassador was speaking at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Saturday. LCCI President Mian Muzaffar Ali, former Presidents Shahzada

Karachi Port considers reduction in charges

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

KARCHI - Karachi Doc Labour Board is an undying problem for KPT but it cannot be made defunct all at once since it might cause law and order situation and any such step might also discontinue the ongoing projects on the port, said Nasreen Haque.
She also said that the numbers of workers on port are being reduced to 1500 from 3,000 and negotiations are also underway with World Bank for golden handshake.
In addition, KPT is considering decrease in port charges and an important

Palm Oil cultivation proves a success

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

KARACHI - After hectic efforts and long await, one of the most important project in the agricultural sector, the cultivation of palm oil has been proved a success as Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Mohammad Gondal performed the foundation stone laying ceremony of the first palm oil mill in Thatta, the other day.
The palm oil mill will be constructed at a cost of Rs59.743m over an area of 300 acres by the Pakistan Oil Development Board near Ghulamullah town, some

Pakistan suffers from �brain drain� alarmingly

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

LAHORE - Hardly any country has suffered more from the �brain drain� than has Pakistan. Nearly 3,500 graduates of country�s medical colleges remained jobless annually and most of them go abroad.
This was stated by the Chairman Denmark Pakistan Chamber of Commerce (DPCC) and a research economist Abid Ali Abid while delivering a lecture on the subject impact of brain drain on Pakistan�s economy to the members of Lahore Economic Journalist Association (LEJA).
President Leja

Siemens to pay $100m to fight corruption

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

WASHINGTON - The World Bank on Thursday announced a comprehensive settlement with German industrial giant Siemens in the wake of the company�s acknowledged past misconduct in its global business and a World Bank investigation into corruption in a project in Russia involving a Siemens subsidiary.
The settlement includes a commitment by Siemens to pay 100 million dollars over the next 15 years to support anti-corruption work, an agreement of up to a four-year debarment for Siemens�

No hike in tariff until outages end

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

ISLAMABAD (APP) - Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance, Shaukat Tarin, has said that the government would not increase electricity tariff until the loadshedding problems is resolved.
�It would not be logical to enhance electricity rates at a time when people are facing the loadshedding problems,� he said while talking to newsmen after inaugurating a conference �Privatisation with Public Private Partnership� here on Friday.
He said that Pakistan would be negotiating with

Rice output target unlikely to be achieved

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0600

KARACHI - The target of rice output is unlikely to be achieved in current Kharif season of 2009-10 due to acute water shortage in the country, agriculture experts told The Nation.
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has set production target of 5.949 million tons of rice from an area of 2.529 million hectares for the Kharif season 2009-10, which is over one million tons less than the production of 6.954 million from 2.962 million hectares of kharif season 2008-09.
The