Pakistan Economy: News & Discussion

[Neo]

Netherland marks three sectors for investment in Pakistan


Thursday, March 13, 2014 - Lahore—The Dutch Vice Minister for Foreign Trade Simon J.H.Smits has said that the Netherlands government has shortlisted three key sectors for developing investment and joint venture opportunities in Pakistan. The sectors are Food Security, Water Management Technologies and Dairy & Livestock. He expressed these views during his visit to Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) office.

The Dutch Vice Minister was accompanied by Marcel de Virk, Ambassador of Netherlands, Cees H.M Ruijgrok, Managing Director Friesland Campina export, Drs. Godfried Hijl, Director Training and Consulting, Robert Dresen, First Secretary/Head Economic Affairs, Nicolette Koopman, Senior Policy Officer and Tariq Rehman Hon. Counselor for Netherlands.

The Chairman PBIT Syed Maratib Ali and the Director General Projects, Dr. Ali Naveed Pirzada, welcomed the delegation. The Dutch Vice Minister also specifically mentioned the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), which would focus on investing and developing the capability and the productivity of SME's in developing country with or without a Dutch JV partner. The fund, which will have approximately 700 million Euros at its disposal, will be launched from the 1st of July 2014. During negotiations, emphasis was also laid on developing and managing perceptions on both sides in order to further develop bilateral business ties.

Director General Dr. Ali Naveed Pirzada gave a presentation to the delegation about PBIT and its interactive role in bridging the public and private sector in Pakistan, with special focus on developing linkages with the international community.

Netherland marks three sectors for investment in Pakistan

 

[IBSA]

Pakistan all set to import electricity from India
By Zafar Bhutta Published: March 20, 2014

ISLAMABAD: As the World Bank (WB) has offered to finance the feasibility study and transmission line to import 1,200 megawatts (MW) of power from India, Pakistan has sent the draft of the initial power trade deal to its eastern neighbour despite opposition from various quarters.

Sources told The Express Tribune that a pre-feasibility study was completed to identify the routes for electricity import.

"Now, the World Bank has also offered to finance a feasibility study along with the (installation of) transmission line to import 1,200MW power from India," a senior government official said, adding that a draft of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was handed over to Indian authorities in a recent meeting held in New Delhi.

He said India would respond to Pakistan after going through the draft of initial deal. Pakistan would import 500MW of power initially, to be enhanced to 1,200MW at a later stage. The plan could be implemented within a year by laying a transmission line, he added.

"The estimates of required finance will be known once a feasibility study is done," he said, adding that only the route of transmission had been identified in the initial study.

Different quarters in Pakistan criticise the proposed deal with India which had dragged Pakistan into international courts over water issues.

At a time when the international court allowed India to divert water from the Neelum-Jhelum River for the Kishanganga Dam in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Pakistan was going to sign an initial deal for import of electricity from New Delhi to overcome a crippling power crisis.

It must be noted that the Kishanganga Dam is likely to hurt the 900MW Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project being set up in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

New Delhi had told Islamabad that it faced problems in interconnection of power; however, Pakistani officials insisted such issues would be resolved later and the two sides were now set to sign an MoU for electricity trade, he added.

Sources said preliminary discussions with India were underway and tariff matters still needed to be finalised. "However, the MoU will be an initial commitment to India," the official said, adding the government of Pakistan was also working on other power import projects like Casa-1,000MW and electricity purchase from Iran.

Pakistan is currently importing 35MW of electricity from Iran to meet requirements of Gwadar, while work on increasing it by 100MW is going on. The two sides signed an agreement on the project in 2007.

Pakistan also has another project in the pipeline for import of 1,000MW of electricity from Tajikistan under Casa-1000 programme. Feasibility report of the project has been finalised and work is expected to be completed by 2016.

The country's power production ranges between 10,000MW and 16,000MW against total installed capacity of 21,000MW. Globally, most countries generate 80% of their power requirements from their installed infrastructure, but Pakistan's generation capacity only meets 65% of the needs due to old plants, poor maintenance and circular debt.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20th, 2014.

Pakistan all set to import electricity from India – The Express Tribune

 

[Blackwater]

Pak- Stan is importing things since 1947

 

[Glint]

And why exactly will India provide electricity? Why don't they deal with their own problem?

India would provide electricity so they can train terrorists during the night too

 

[Blackwater]

And why exactly will India provide electricity? Why don't they deal with their own problem?

India would provide electricity so they can train terrorists during the night too

deal is to make pakis depended on you, just like they forgot Kashmir, and it has gone back stage, tom they will forget siachen and sir creek ,

make them involve in their own internal mess

 

[Pulkit]

We will be needing that electricity for our own domestic needs why sell it to Pak?

 

[bennedose]

Informal, irregular and irrational - Harris Khalique

Karachi, where every tenth Pakistani lives, is inhabited by no less than 18 million people and continues to grow at five percent per annum. A city the size of Islamabad's night population is added to Karachi every single year. In its estimated 4,700 shanty towns – katchi abadis – ten million people live in subhuman conditions. It is all informal, unregulated and substandard housing developed by land mafias.

It is similar, with varying degrees, in all urban centres of Pakistan. People with limited means in these cities have no other choice but to live in informal housing without clean drinking water and proper sanitation due to the absence of state-provided fundamental housing or municipal services. Likewise, low-quality private schooling is offered to the children of these residents. Else, they send their children to religious madressahs run by local clerics that are mushrooming in such localities. The state of Pakistan decidedly does not side with its poor and dispossessed citizens.

Health is worse than education. A third of the income of our poor is spent on caring for the sick in their households. The whole world is scared of us spreading polio when a quarter of a million children die every year due to easily avoidable and treatable diseases like diarrhoea, respiratory infections, jaundice and, above all, malnutrition.

Who do we really challenge in this world? What is there in our armoury that will make other nations fear us? That we have 100 million living below poverty line, 2.5 million children dying before they reach the age of five, 75 mothers dying in child birth every day or us exporting polio virus? We have to come out of our hypocrisy and inefficiency as a people. It is now or never. We are left with no choice but to radically change our ways. History waits for no one.

 

[BridgeSeller]

Apologies if posted before:

PR has cut deficit first time in 4 decades: GM

The Pakis are trying to import Coal engines per this article. What is this the 1800s? They are galloping towards the golden age of Islam; the 6th century. Godspeed dear neighbors, godspeed!

 

[Kaalapani]

UK: Heroin hoard found in carpets from Pakistan - Hindustan Times


UK: Heroin hoard found in carpets from Pakistan

 

[cobra commando]

Exports slip in May amid energy shortages - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

 

[Neo]

Dasu dam construction is forecast to boost cement industry growth

Monday 30 June 2014
Pakistan: The inauguration of the Dasu dam has reinforced optimism in the local cement industry, which has been banking on the continuous increase in local demand owing to mega construction projects.

The Dasu dam, one of the mega dam projects, is expected to increase cement demand in Pakistan by 1Mt/yr for the next five years. The 4320MW dam will be completed in two phases at an estimated cost of US$4.8bn. Since the Dasu dam is located in the north, the cement for the project will most likely be procured from nearby cement plants. Cement companies like Maple Leaf, Fecto, Bestway, Cherat, DG Khan, Fauji are the most likely to benefit from the dam construction.

Analysts say the construction of big dams like Dasu and Basha will supplement the already improving cement demand in Pakistan. "Dasu dam will add an additional 1Mt/yr of cement demand, which will be significant for the local industries," said BMA Capital analyst Sajjad Hussain. "It will increase the already escalating cement demand in the country."

"The launch of the Dasu dam is important for the cement industry in northern region of the country," said Standard Capital Securities analyst Saad Hashmi. "Other major infrastructure projects that are expected to start soon will further increase cement demand and it may jump 5% in fiscal year 2015."

 

[BridgeSeller]

AoA!!!

Diamer Basha Dam completion date has been announced!

2037, here they come!

 

[Neo]

AoA!!!

Diamer Basha Dam completion date has been announced!

2037, here they come!

Hahahaha, not everything takes as long as LCA

 

[ladder]

Hahahaha, not everything takes as long as LCA

Here it is related to topic? Mr. Genius. From where did you produce it? The orifice that releases the Pindi chana gas?

Why cry wolf in the other thread when you yourself indulge in the same unprovoked.

 

[Neo]

Here it is related to topic? Mr. Genius. From where did you produce it? The orifice that releases the Pindi chana gas?

Why cry wolf in the other thread when you yourself indulge in the same unprovoked.

Because I din't take trolls seriously and give them a matching reply. They are not here to contribute in a contructive manner and you know it.

 

[Neo]

In french there's a saying which translates into something like "its the tones that make the music"

 

[BridgeSeller]

Hahahaha, not everything takes as long as LCA

Well, unfortunately we prefer to build our planes from scratch and this will involve, like any new project, delays and other setbacks, what we will develop in the process is Intellectual capital. Any ayesha in the morning can ask her sugar daddy for a bunch of planes to paint green and call it pindigenously developed AoA!!! But at night Ayesha will have to repay the favor :taunt1:

30 years to build a dam is something to be proud of?

 

[Neo]

Well, unfortunately we prefer to build our planes from scratch and this will involve, like any new project, delays and other setbacks, what we will develop in the process is Intellectual capital. Any ayesha in the morning can ask her sugar daddy for a bunch of planes to paint green and call it pindigenously developed AoA!!! But at night Ayesha will have to repay the favor :taunt1:

30 years to build a dam is something to be proud of?

Good for you, now go and spread you legs for daddy Russia, USA, France, UK or Israel and do some good tricks. Maybe this time you'll actually get some TOT you want.

On a serious note, if you have nothing constructuve to contribute, stay away from the thread.

 

[BridgeSeller]

Good for you, now go and spread you legs for daddy Russia, USA, France, UK or Israel and do some good tricks. Maybe this time you'll actually get some TOT you want.

On a serious note, if you have nothing constructuve to contribute, stay away from the thread.

Not a single original thought. This is a specimen of what we are up against? I can sleep easy at night.

On a serious note, I can do what I want here until the mods tell me otherwise.

On an even more serious note, out of work bekaar mill workers threaten to not do any work if their demands are not met (in typical paki style) enjoy!

 

[Neo]

Go ahead, troll till you weigh an ounce, I don't care.