Re: Good news…
http://www.paklinks.com/gs/showthread.php?t=211405
:jhanda:
Re: Good news....
oops. mods. feel free to delete.
Re: Good news....
Yes, certainly nice to hear the economy is doing better, though everyone would like to see ground level results.
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
nice article, thanks for sharing, i’m glad to see pakistani ecomnomy faring better :k:
[quote=Silly Billy]
Critics argue that growth-spawned inflation, which hit a high of 11 percent one year ago and is running this year at 8.5 percent, is a big reason the poor are not benefiting from the boom. “Inflation is clearly eroding the purchasing power of the poor,” says a foreign banker in Islamabad. This year the price of sugar is up by 26 percent; wheat and potatoes, by 15 percent.
[
BUT, it’s the same everywhere…gettin richer is allways made at someone’s expenses: the poorest!:(](“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11902379/site/newsweek/”)
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
Yeah he was brought from Citibank and I guess so far he has done a good job but he must be watched carefully as elections are close by… 1 year aint sufficient- you have to show progress consistently
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
Wonderful news.
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
**$28b export target by 2010: Shamshad Akhtar **
The governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Dr Shamshad Akhtar Friday said Pakistan would be able to achieve $28 billion export target by 2010. Addressing the opening session of investment conference “Pakistan export trends and structure and issues of competitiveness”, organised by the Export Promotion Bureau in connection with the on-going Expo 2006, she said the current account and trade deficits would be little higher than projected, but would remain in the range of 4 percent by the year end. She said the higher trade deficit, if looked through the figures of investment and import of raw material, turns healthy, as it would result in enhanced production vis-à-vis more exports. She said with comfortable level of reserves, the country could afford this deficit, which ultimately helps the economy grow further. “We will see how we can finance this deficit”, she added. She said the imports were growing by 40 percent, which is instrumental in inflating the current account deficit, but “it is not worrisome till we can afford it.” She categorically turned down the demand of the industrial sector to subsidise financing and said it would not be in favour of the country in the long run. She said small and medium enterprises (SME) sector is the backbone of the economy and was not properly looked after before. She said the central bank has now taken appropriate measures to ensure that the sector gets due financing facilities for its fast growth.
Dr Akhtar said the SME sector needs development of management skills and establishment of chain of value addition so that it could play its due role in strengthening the economy. She said the commercial banks were now re-positioning themselves as SME banks. Talking about higher interest rates for the SMEs, she said the sector was earlier paying even higher rates. She said the export refinance would continue to be linked with the T-bills. “It seems tough at present but consequently would result positively by bringing the real interest rates down due to tightening of the monetary policy”. She said the interest rates were low due to relaxed monetary policy, which resulted in high inflation, leading to price hike.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\04\01\story_1-4-2006_pg5_10
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
Pak seems to be doing ok.
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
More and more Pakistani people are now paying their taxes. The federal treasury is expected to collect a historic $12 billion in taxes this year.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\04\01\story_1-4-2006_pg5_3
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
**Moody’s lifts outlook on debt for Pakistan **
Pakistan’s credit rating outlook was raised Wednesday to “positive” by Moody’s Investors Service, citing economic growth and remittances from overseas workers. Moody’s raised its outlook on Pakistan’s sovereign B2 foreign currency debt rating, which is five rungs below investment grade and the same as Indonesia’s, from “stable.” “We remain encouraged by the strong pick-up in GDP growth and the continuing decline in the domestic and external debt burdens,” the Moody’s statement said. Further declines in sovereign debt and a more stable domestic and regional environment could improve the country’s rating, the statement added. Pakistan’s $100 billion economy is forecast to expand 7 percent in the year to June 30 after growing 8.4 percent in the previous 12 months, the fastest pace in 20 years.
A rating increase would allow the government of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, which is planning to float foreign currency bonds later this year, to sell the debt at lower cost and use the proceeds to finance the government spending needed to spur growth. “This is good news, which means we are now ready for a further upgrade,” Ashfaque Hasan Khan, an economic adviser to the Pakistani government, said in an interview. “This shows the rating agency’s confidence in the Pakistan economy and now we will get a good response when we go to international markets.” Pakistan’s foreign currency bond issue will be the country’s third such debt sale in more than two years. It will market the issue to investors in United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Khan said. Pakistan’s government also intends to sell an additional 15 percent share in Oil & Gas Development, the nation’s biggest state-owned energy explorer, to overseas and domestic investors in 2006. Standard & Poor’s raised its outlook on Pakistan’s B+ foreign currency debt rating, or its fourth non-investment grade, to “positive” from “stable” in November. The increase in the nation’s ratings outlook will improve Pakistan’s overseas image and help the government to sell foreign currency bonds, analysts said. “Pakistan is becoming more attractive to overseas investors,” said Mohammed Sohail, director of research at Jahangir Siddiqui Capital Markets in Karachi. “Despite a high inflation rate and global oil prices, the economy is maintaining its growth momentum.”
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/15/bloomberg/sxcredit.php
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
Awesome thread, all the best to Pakistan on its road to prosperity and progress and special thanks to silly billy for keeping us updated.
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
Pakistan’s privatization push boosts its image among investors, creditors- Wall Street Journal
NEW YORK, Apr 17 (APP) - The success of Pakistan’s programme to privatize its biggest companies has burnished the country’s image among investors and creditors and is brightening prospects of it’s economy, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Monday. The programme has also allowed Pakistani leaders to showcase the government’s progressive economic management, and assert that its transparent approach “gives us moral authority,” according to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. The WSJ, a prestigious international newspaper for business and financial executives, interviewed Mr. Aziz during his recent visit to New York to co-chair a high-level panel on UN reform in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and environment. The prime minister said that the process has been open and fair and has drawn top investment advisors. Goldman Sachs group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & co. have advised the government on the Pakistan Telecom privatization, while Citigroup Inc.’s Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. has been involved in the Pakistan Steel Mill privatization. “There’s lots of interest from investment banks knocking our door, he was quoted as saying. “We get the best in the business. No winks and nods.”
In a dispatch from Islamabad, the Journal said, “the nation’s fast-track approach to privatizing its biggest companies has attracted billions of dollars of foreign capital - at a time when the government is trying to boost the economy and enlarge a politically moderate middle class to help check the spread of extremism. “Islamabad’s efforts to open up the state-dominated corporate sectors are making it relatively fast and easy for private investors to buy a piece of the action. The country is moving the privatization programme into high gear even as similar drives in India, China and Latin America have reversed, slowed or stalled. Since 2003, Pakistan has raised $5 billion through auctions of state-owned companies. This year, it aims to raise an additional $3 billion by selling off major oil, gas and steel assets…” The newspaper said, “Pakistan has become the world’s most sellers of state assets, it has put 90 percent of its banking assets into private hands, and in the past three years, has privatized 26 state companies. The move has raised the confidence of creditors who might otherwise be put off by a nation confronting terrorism. Other policy changes, such as an overhaul of tax system, have supported the economy. The government wants to maintain rapid growth, in part to encourage a prosperous middle class and put the country on a political moderate path. That is a goal Islamabad shares with the Bush administration”. “As Pakistan’s economy has opened up, rating companies Moody’s investors Service and Standard & Poor’s have lifted their sovereign credit rating, prompting Pakistan to return to the credit markets three times since 2004, following a six-year hiatus,” the dispatch said.
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
While we privatize the large assets, we must focus on overhauling draconian tax laws. Pakistanis in USA should realize that CBR (Pak equivalent of IRS) never returns money if you overpay your taxes. You have to wait for many years (end of statute of limitation) and evern then, you can only adjust many years old overpayment agasint your current tax liabilities.
We also need to attract big construction companies or banks to finance toll roads throughout Pakistan. We need 2500 miles of motorways. This will provide huge amounts of construction jobs and once complete, will create tourism industry.
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
Ringtones herald Pakistan telecom investment boom
(Reuters) - Thieves on Karachi’s crime-ridden streets usually take two things from victims – their wallet and their mobile phone. It is not the endorsement that Pakistani telecom companies would want, but in a poor country where income levels have begun to rise rapidly, the trend highlights that mobile phones, if not the next best thing to cash, are high on consumers’ wanted list. “Why shouldn’t I keep a mobile phone when I can have it for less than 200 rupees ($3.5) a month,” said Mohammad Akram while tending to his vegetable stall on the roadside of a middle-class Karachi neighborhood. “If nothing else, I can at least be in touch with my family through SMS (short messaging service),” he said. “I can easily afford to spend 5 rupees a day on messages.” Data compiled by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority shows the number of fixed and mobile phones per 100 people – so-called teledensity – has risen from just over four two years ago to nearly 22 in March. Most of the growth has been in the mobile sector, which for the past year has been adding over a million customers a month, and billions of dollars in new investment are expected over the next five years. Pakistan’s six mobile service providers now have a customer base of over 27 million – more than double the nearly 13 million subscribers at the start of the fiscal year.
**Thanks to Pakistanis’ rising incomes, which have doubled to over $800 per annum in the last six years, and increased competition, the teledensity rate is expected to go over 35 percent in the next couple of years, according to officials and analysts. **“There is still a lot of untapped market, and with good economic conditions prevailing in the country and purchasing power increasing, there is no reason we won’t see further growth,” Information Technology and Telecommunications Minister Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari told Reuters.
Pakistan’s economy expanded by 8.4 percent last year – only China grew faster among major economies – and the government is hoping for growth of around 7 percent this year. Leghari said he expects service providers to focus on a virtually untapped rural market to fuel growth over the next couple of years. “**The appetite in the rural agricultural community is growing, as their economic conditions are improving rapidly,” he said. “When they can afford to have a motorcycle, a tractor, then why not a phone.” **A few years ago, a mobile phone was considered a symbol of status in Pakistan, but now they are common. Analysts attribute this change to the deregulation in the sector, as well as the increased affordability of the lower income groups. “There has been a rise in the affordability of the lower income group, which is a direct impact of the economic growth in recent years,” said Asif Qureshi, head of research at brokers Invisor Securities. “Plus, the telecom sector has witnessed a massive growth, and the entry of new players has pushed down the costs, thus increasing the number of customers,” he said.
ARAB AND NORDIC INVESTORS
In Pakistan’s mobile sector, the market leader is Mobilink, run by Egypt-based regional telephone operator Orascom Telecom (ORTE.CA: Quote, Profile, Research), followed by Ufone – a wholly owned subsidiary of Pakistan Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (PTCA.KA: Quote, Profile, Research). Dubai-based Emirates Telecommunications (Etisalat) <ETEL.AD> took over management control of PTCL last week, having agreed to pay $2.6 billion for a 26 percent stake. Last year, Norway’s Telenor (TEL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) launched a service in Pakistan, followed by Warid Telecom, owned by the Abu Dhabi Group of the United Arab Emirates. The two other mobile operators are Paktel and Instaphone, both owned by a private Pakistani group in partnership with Sweden’s Millicom International Cellular. Pakistan began deregulation of its telecoms industry in 2003, ending the monopoly of the PTCL, and last year the industry accounted for more than 32 percent of all foreign direct investment. **The government expects investment of $5-$8 billion in its mobile and fixed-line phone sector over the next five years. **Qureshi said the teledensity number might be a bit inflated due to the multiple phones owned by people. “Still, my conservative estimates are that the number would cross at least 35 percent in two years.”
http://today.reuters.com/business/NewsArticle.aspx?type=
businessIndustry&storyID=
2006-04-18T091858Z_01_ISL45511_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPROIND-
TELECOMS-PAKISTAN-DC.XML
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
:D Keep it up SillyBilly :)
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
I remember the days when big businessmen and waderos used to carry around huge mobile phones as status symbols in public and talk loudly on them. Now every other massi has a compact one. :D
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
yeah khehkeshan,
remember the days of the three 'P’s:
Paktel, Pajero, Philipino maids 
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
now its Mobilink, Mercedes and simple plain Maids
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
I am not a professor of economics but i see some very worrying factors in the pak economics developments. If pak is to maintain high growth it needs new industries to be established. As it is now the foreign investments have been in very few sectors such as telecom, oil and gas and steel. What about basic industries such as food processing ( which has the potentiel to become a multibillion dollar business), different kind of industries such as production of electronic products, biotechnology, chemicals etc.
If pak only rely on export of textiles and leather goods then it will be disapointed very soon because there is a naturel limit of such items and also a very tough competition from China, India and Bangla Desh.
Last week i read some articles that perhaps pak was to sign a deal with SA about selling Al-khalid tanks for a net sum of 600 million USD. What happent to that? Pak should not rely or focus on few sectors because the economy would be very volatile to foreign competition.
Its very important to set up new industries as pak has a huge potentiel in alll most every field (IT, electronics, food, tourism, defence, construction etc).
If pak decided to provide all urban citizens with basic needs such as clean water, sewer system, energy supply and other basic infrastuctures then millions could have jobs and income for the next many decades (imagine how many could get a job if government decided to build a sewer system, cleaning of disposible water, water plants, good roads, effective transportation systems such as metro etc.) It would create so many opportunities for people and undersuppliers that it inself could become a longlasting growth potentiel.
I fully agree that pak have had a quite impressive growth for the last 5 years but the danger is it has been concentrated on very few sectors. We need investments both local and foreign in a much more varited industries and sectors otherwise the rise in economics will stop or decrease within a short period of time.
As it is now most pakistanies invest there capitel in land and property because the return is so high and can be kept secret (black money) from CBR. The goverment should adopt policies that encourage people to invest in other than property. It can be done by giving the same benefits to local investors as the foreign investers receives such as tax extemptions for a number of years. Maybe im wrong about all this but im sure i will be corrected if so.
Re: Pakistan: A most surprising success story - Newsweek (Merged)
Your not alone in being nervous… The generally optomistic Shahid Javed Burki has also said that Pakistans economy might be over heating.. Imports outpace exports, high inflation, low tax to GDP ratio, and low savings all add up to a volatile situation. Pak govt has to make some important reforms.