BEIJING: Pakistan and other countries have cooperated in the initiative of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) besides exploring the Digital Silk Road, which reaped fruitful benefits.
Li Yikai, Deputy Director of Centre for International Economic and Technological Cooperation had a 2021 Online Silk Road Conference at Yinchuan, the northwest city of China.
The Deputy Director said, “From 2019 to 2020, there are notable achievements in digital development in BRI countries. For example, the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) was deployed in Pakistan’s airports, providing accurate timing services for the operations.”
Pakistan and China have cooperated for the satellite navigation system across a major area between both of the countries.
Pakistan has signed a contract with China’s Wuhan Landing Medical High-tech Co., Ltd. To introduce their artificial intelligence (AI) for screening cervical cancer in Pakistan.
In the 18 years of experience in the IT sector of Ericsson (China), Shoukat told CEN, “From 2019 to 2020, there are notable achievements in digital development in BRI countries. For example, the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) was deployed in Pakistan’s airports, providing accurate timing services for the operations.”
He further said, “Pakistan has a lot of potential in the IT sector. When Pakistani IT talents have the opportunity to venture abroad and work in countries like China, they will definitely bring very good results.”
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has announced a strategic move to upgrade its technology infrastructure, necessitating a temporary shutdown of its website for four hours daily until August 30, 2021.
In a statement on Sunday the company clarified that:
No cargo from long-term supply contract in September has been dropped or canceled by PSO as reported by certain media outlets. As per the Annual Delivery Plan (ADP) agreed with all stakeholders, 04 cargoes were to be supplied under the long-term contract in the month of September and 02 spot deliveries were planned.
PSO’s long-term contract for 60 cargoes a year is not equally divided over 12 months. PSO prudently planned winter (Jan-Feb & Nov-Dec) in advance, when spot prices are usually higher, and arranged 28 cargoes instead of 20 under the long-term contracts -24 cargoes from the existing long-term contract and 4 additional cargoes from the recently executed long-term contract commencing in January 2022 by exercising contractual rights. This has been planned to meet the ever-increasing gas demand in winters at the lowest possible rates.
PSO has enabled considerable savings through effective planning and contract management by reducing the number of spot cargoes from 12 to 6 this year using contractual flexibilities available while maximizing long-term cargoes through contracts from 60 to 70.
As far as the timing of the tenders is concerned, awarding cargoes ahead of the required delivery windows or awarding a strip of cargoes in one go does not suit PSO since the company has certain contractual flexibilities available under long-term contracts and spot purchases are very few in a year as mentioned above. For e.g. due to the unplanned Dry Dock activity of FSRU in Jun-Jul and uncertain situation in September considering scheduled FSRU replacement, had PSO awarded July and September spot cargoes in advance, the company would have had to either drop much cheaper contractual cargo or face Take or Pay penalty. Therefore, spot purchases are finalized after carefully seeing the demand-supply dynamics and market conditions.
The bids received against the required deliveries in September 2021 are yet to be awarded by PSO. As per procedure, the received bids will be presented to the company’s Board of Management along with the supply/demand situation & global price trends and a decision will be arrived at accordingly.
Considering that 2021 has seen exceptionally high LNG prices in international market, the planning and management of contract done by PSO will not only absorb the impact of higher spot prices but also result in potential savings. As the national flag bearer, PSO is committed to safeguarding national interest and leaves no stone unturned to fuel the country’s progress.
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday strongly rejected the claims of news report about using pirated software for tax system.
The FBR issued a clarification on the news aired by a leading news channel regarding use of pirated software by FBR for its systems.
The revenue body clarified that IT services for Federal and Provincial tax authorities such as FBR, SRB, PRA etc are being provided by PRAL which also includes maintaining the data centers.
In the data centers there are numerous software products which are being used to perform different functions such as cyber security, virtualization, firewall, etc.
Key companies whose products are being utilized include Oracle, Microsoft, VMware, Kaspersky etc.
FBR has clarified that the licensed versions of these softwares have been procured. FBR has added that the original license of the product remains intact, if the support to the software expires.
However, at times support for these services may not get renewed in a timely fashion due to unavoidable circumstances.
FBR has clarified that in year 2019, issue of VMware licensing was raised by US Government, which was addressed by procuring the requisite licenses after following relevant procedures as laid down in PPRA rules.
For over a year no such issue regarding VMware has cropped up, FBR added.
The SBP released Balance of Payment (BOP) statistics. The data revealed that the current account was in surplus of $583 million in July 2020.
However, the current account deficit has been narrowed in July 2021 when compared with $1.619 billion recorded in June 2021.
The balance of trade in goods has posted a deficit of $3.139 billion in July 2021 when compared with the deficit of $1.672 billion in the same month of the last year.
The export receipts have increased to $2.257 billion in the first month of the current fiscal year 2021/2022 when compared with $1.88 billion in the same month of the last fiscal year.
The import bill also recorded significant growth to $5.396 billion in the month under review when compared with $3.557 billion in the same month of the last year.
The inflow of workers’ remittances recorded at $2.707 billion in July 2021 when compared with $2.764 billion in the same month of the last year.
KARACHI: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Friday said that the Universal Self Assessment Scheme (USAS) has been reintroduced. This scheme will facilitate taxpayers in declaring income and assets.
KARACHI: The Pak Rupee (PKR) depreciated by 10 paisas against the dollar on Friday. The local currency fell due to dollar demand pressure for import payments.
