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Pakistan has taken a significant step towards strengthening digital ties with Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Building a Cross-border E-commerce Platform.
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ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has emphasized to reduce the prices of cement as the industry is of paramount importance due to its backward and forward integration with the construction sector as a whole.
The finance minister held a meeting with the representatives of cement manufacturers at the Finance Division on Tuesday.
Federal Minister for Industries and Production Makhdum Khusro Bakhtiar, Secretary Ministry of Industries & Production, Secretary Finance Division and other senior officers participated in the meeting.
Secretary, Ministry of Industries and Production briefed the participants about the prevailing cement prices.
He also drew a comparison about changes in the price of cement per bag over the last three years particularly amid COVID-19 pandemic.
He highlighted the important role being played by the cement industry in stimulating economic growth during testing times.
In his remarks, the Finance Minister underscored the importance of cement as a building block of the Construction Industry.
He lauded the valuable contribution of the cement industry which has triggered a V-shape economic recovery during Coronavirus pandemic in the country.
He underlined various stimulus measures taken by the Government to support the construction industry that led to a strong rebound in economic activity during the ongoing pandemic, he added.
While speaking on the occasion, the Finance Minister stressed the need to provide industrial inputs such as Cement and Steel at affordable prices to carry forward the momentum of economic recovery amid COVID-19 as well as in post-COVID-19 scenario.
He emphasized to reduce the prices of Cement as the cement industry is of paramount importance due to its backward and forward integration with the Construction sector as a whole.
The representatives of cement manufacturers also presented their perspective on the occasion. They were of the view that the recent escalation in the prices of cement are driven by the rise in input costs.
Also the overall profitability in the cement sector is still the lowest as compared to other countries in the region.
In his concluding remarks, the Finance Minister urged the representatives of the Cement Manufacturers to hold a consultative session with relevant stakeholders and present a firmed-up proposal regarding sustainable pricing mechanism for cement sector in order to boost the overall Construction Industry by providing industrial inputs at a reasonable cost.
The Finance Minister affirmed full support and facilitation to the cement industry on the occasion.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has registered an increase in the exports to seven regional countries by 20.50 per cent in the first month of the financial year (2021-2022) as compared with the corresponding month of the last year.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reported that the countries in the seven regional countries including Afghanistan, China, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.
These countries account for a small amount of $282.020 million which is only 12.49 percent of Pakistan’s overall exports of $2257.042 million in July 2021-22.
China tops the list of the countries in which Pakistan exports goods to its neighboring countries except for Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
There is an increase observed in the exports from Pakistan to China with a growth of 55.26 percent to $165.878 million in July 2022 from $106.775 million in July 2021.
On the other hand, there is also an increase in the exports of Pakistan to Bangladesh by 5.66 percent from $5t51.033 million to $48.297 million.
Yet the exports of Pakistan to Afghanistan have dropped by 38.57 percent to $38.557 million this year from $62.774 million. The exports of the country with India also plunged by 87.81 percent to $0.054 million from $0.443 million because of the suspension of trade relations by the government with Pakistan.
The exports to Nepal also declined by 39.86 percent to $0.273 million from 0.454 million. However, the exports to the Maldives also fell by 1.21 percent to 0.325 million from 0.329 million.
The exports of Pakistan with Sri Lanka increased by 68.55 percent to $235.991 million from $15.420 million in the previous year.
However the imports of Pakistan from seven regional countries have increased by 19.36 percent to $1350.535million during July 2022 as compared to $1131.427 million in July 2021.
BEIJING: Pakistan has a huge potential to enhance rice export to several countries especially China and Pakistani rice export is likely to cross one million tons within two years with increased demand from the Chinese market, said Badar uz Zaman, Commercial Counselor of Pakistan Embassy in China.
“Last year our rice exports to China was 475,000 tons and in quantity wise we are the third largest country while in amount or money wise we are fourth largest rice exporter to China,” he added.
Last year, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Thailand were the top three rice exporters to China, with export of 787,538 tons, 911,231 tons, and 324,642 tons respectively.
China had appeared as one of the top destinations for Pakistani rice with 59 per cent increase of broken rice in last year while semi/wholly milled rice and IRRI-6 and IRRI-9 are the main top two rice varieties imported by China amounted to around $259 million last year.
Badar uz Zaman said the number of registered rice exporters has increased to 53 and within the last two years as 18 new Pakistani rice companies were registered by the General Administration of Customs, China, which shows the huge demand for Pakistani rice in the Chinese market. These companies fully meet the Chinese standard.
He said that IRRI-6 and IRRI-9 types of rice have special Chinese consumer taste, while all commercial sections in China are trying B2B marketing to promote all kinds of Pakistani rice types, and also the products of quality are in demand here.
According to a report released by China-Pakistan Agricultural and Industrial Information Platform (CPAIC), Pakistan has already become one of the top rice producers and exporters in the world.
The rice grown in Pakistan is mainly divided into Basmati rice and non-Basmati rice. Basmati rice, with slender and elongated grains, aromatic taste, and soft and fluffy texture when cooked, is one of the most favored high-end rice varieties in the international market.
Pakistan is the most important growing area of Basmati rice besides India and Bangladesh.
Hybrid rice breeding assisted by China is elevating Pakistani rice yield to a new height.
Honglian hybrid rice developed by Wuhan University and harvested in eight demonstrative plots in Pakistan has demonstrated ability to raise production by two times.
A rice variety bred by China’s Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Co., Ltd. in collaboration with Guard Agriculture Research and Services are anticipated to double the rice production in Pakistan from 2 tons per acre to 4 tons per acre.
Last year, a total of 500 tonnes of hybrid rice seeds from a seed company in east China’s Jiangsu Province landed in Pakistan to help ensure the country’s grain yield.
It may be mentioned here that China permitted imports of Pakistani rice in January 1, 2006. In February of the same year, the first batch of rice shipped from Pakistan.
KARACHI: The current account balance has posted a deficit of $773 million during first month of the current fiscal year, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Friday.
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: Pakistan’s liquid foreign exchange reserves recorded a modest uptick, reaching $24.668 billion by the week ending August 13, 2021, according to the latest data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday.
(more…)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.
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ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $235 million to Pakistan on Thursday to enhance national highway in country.
A statement issued by ADB stated that the project will focus on expansion of 222-kilometer Shikarpur-Rajanpur section of National Highway into four lane carriageway from a two lane road.
The expansion is part of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Corridor 5 which links the ports of Karachi and Gwardar in southern Pakistan with national and international economic centers to the north.
The Transport Specialist in ADB said that the project will increase space of the busy highway section that travels through the busy economic centers in Sindh and Punjab.
They further said that the project will ensure the road safety so that the users can travel easily and smoothly. They will also construct the bus stops and emergency response centers to facilitate the people. The first tranche of the loan of $180 million was issued in September 2017 for the improvement of 143 kilometers of Highway in province of Sindh and Khyber PakhtunKhwa.
ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Monday approved continuation of subsidy on supply of gas and electricity to export sector.
Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin presided over the ECC meeting. The ministry of commerce gave a detailed presentation for continuation of reduced rates of electricity and RLNG to export oriented sectors.
Secretary commerce briefed the Committee that extension of concessional rates of electricity and RLNG is important for sustained increase in exports by providing energy at regionally competitive rates.
After due deliberations, the committee approved the continuation of electricity and gas subsidy for export-oriented sectors to support the momentum of growth in exports during the FY 2021-2022.
The finance minister emphasized the need to incentivize export-oriented sectors in order to take our exports to the next level. He also stressed the need to rationalize usage of energy inputs. For this purpose, the ECC constituted a sub-committee comprising Minister for Energy, Minister for Industries & Production, Advisor on Commerce, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Additional Secretary (CF) Finance Division and other relevant officials for presenting a plan to resolve the issue of continued use of gas by some units for power generation and non-cooperation in audit of such use.
The sub-committee was directed to present its recommendations before ECC within 30 days for further deliberation.
The ECC considered and approved a summary presented by the Power Division for extension of incremental consumption package for K-Electric industrial consumers of X-WAPDA DISCOs & K-Electric and application of incremental consumption package for BI(Non ToU) consumers of X-WAPDA DISCOs and K-Electric at the rate of Rs.12.96/kwh from 1st July 2021 to 31st December 2021.
The cabinet committee approved another summary by the Petroleum Division regarding NOC for issuance of the Parent Company Guarantees/Corporate Guarantees by each of the consortium companies, on a joint and several basis, in favour of ADNOC and SCFEA to pursue international exploration and production opportunity in Abu-Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Federal Minister for Privatization Muhammad Mian Soomro, Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research Syed Fakhar Imam, Federal Minister for Industries and Production Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Federal Minister for Energy Muhammad Hammad Azhar, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Division Omar Ayub Khan, Adviser to the PM on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser to the PM on Institutional Reforms and Austerity Dr. Ishrat Hussain, SAPM on Finance and Revenue Dr. Waqar Masood, SAPM on Power & Petroleum Tabish Gauhar, Federal Secretary Finance, Secretary M/o Industries and Production, Secretary M/o NFS&R, Secretary Power, Secretary Petroleum, Chairman FBR and other senior officers participated in the meeting, Governor SBP Dr. Reza Baqir also participated through video link.
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Thursday reaffirmed the government’s strong commitment to the expansion and facilitation of the e-Commerce sector in Pakistan, viewing it as a key driver of future economic growth and digital transformation.
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