Thursday, 17 January, 2013

LAHORE

APP

LAHORE Chamber of Com-merce and Industry onWednesday expressed itsconcern over Indian ArmyChief’s remarks against Pak-

istan and suspension of day-old new visaregime by India and termed them a blowto trade normalisation process being pur-sued by the business community.

In a joint statement issued here, LCCISenior Vice President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh,Vice President Mian Abuzar Shad and Ex-ecutive Committee members said thatPakistani business community was con-tinuously working for improved trade re-lations with the entire world, especially

neighbouring countries, but it wouldnever compromise on national sover-eignty, dignity and interests. They ex-pressed deep concern at the abrupt actiontaken by the India in suspending the day-old new visa regime, adding that Indiandecision would damage the process ofbringing South Asian countries closer to-gether for establishing peace and eco-nomic prosperity in the region.

They said, “We have worked hardduring the last two years by way of en-hanced interaction and coordination ondifferent fronts including diplomatic one,and frequent visit of delegations by bothgovernment functionaries and privatesector, which has suffered a serious blowbecause of statements by various Indiangovernment functionaries.”

LCCI concerns over visa suspension by IndiaLAHORE

APP

SAARC Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry, an apex body of chambers in theregion, yesterday demanded the revivalof facility of visa on arrival in India toboost socio economic prosperity in thesouth asian countries which possess 24per cent of global natural resources.

Tracing the history while comment-ing on the suspension of visa on arrival toPakistanis by the Indian government,SAARC CCI Vice President Pak chapterand veteran trade leader Iftikhar AliMalik said that for promotion of eco-nomic co-operation in South Asia, freemovement of businessperson in the re-gion is crucial and India-Pakistan agree-ment on flexible visa policy will allowmultiple-entry on reciprocal basis.

He said that India and Pakistan twomost powerful members of the SAARCregion must come to enter a suitabletrade regime. He said we all have seenthat times have changed the concept andthe economic prosperity and membercountries have taken the lead which wasmuch needed so that we all could take fullbenefits of the regional power to elimi-nate the poverty and bring self relianceand prosperity in the region like other

global blocs of the world.He said that every SAARC country

had its unique characteristics as India isthe 4th largest economy, Pakistan washub of textiles, Bangladesh was centre ofgarments industry Nepal,Maldives andSri Lanka were emerging destination oftourists from all over the world.

He said that SAARC Charter demandsfirm resolve to work towards making itmore meaningful for our people, sincereefforts to end political confrontation and

act for socio economic prosperity work inunison to safeguard rich heritage and alsoto rise to face future challenges.

Iftikhar Ali Malik said that it wasunfortunate that the world developmentindicators present bleak picture of theregion on global economic fronts de-spite having enormous potential, thecontribution of SAARC countries inglobal GDP was less than 2 % and itsshare in export is only 1.5 % which doesnot reflect our potential.

SAARC CCI demands revival of visa on arrival in India

ISLAMABAD

APP

Tractors and trucks production duringlast five months of current financialyear registered growth of 83.50 percentand 15.47 percent respectively.

About 21,550 tractors wereproduced during first fivemonths of current financialyear as compared to 11,744 trac-tors during same period lastyear.

According to the data ofPakistan Bureau of Statisticsabout 732 trucks were pro-duced in first five months ofcurrent financial year ascompared to the 866 trucksproduction of same periodlast year.

Meanwhile, 257 busesand 45376 jeeps producedduring the period from July-November 2012-13 as comparedto the same period of last year.

The data re-vealed that 6165numbers of lightcommercial ve-hicles were

produced in first five months of currentfinancial year as compared to thesame period of last year.

A b o u t688492 num-bers of motorcy-cles were producedduring the period underreview as compared to the 691818 num-

bers production of same period lastyear.

During the month of November2012, about 4777 numbers of tractors

Were produced as compared to4017 numbers of tractors produc-tion in November 2011 where as 108

numbers trucks were produced ascompared to 134 numbers produc-

tion same month of last year.About 35 buses produced in

month of November 2012 ascompared to the production of48 buses of same month of lastyear.

Jeeps and car productionwas recorded at 8009 during

the months of November 2012as compared to the 10030 carsand jeeps produced in Novem-

ber 2011.Motorcycles production dur-

ing the month of November 2012 wasrecorded at 142497 as against the pro-

duction of 137825 motor cycles pro-duced in the month of November 2011.

Alfalah & UnionPay join

hands for a strategic

cards allianceKARACHI: The Bank Alfalah Limited(BAFL) has signed an agreement withUnionPay International (UPI) to acceptUnionPay cards in Pakistan. An an-nouncement here yesterday said that thispartnership was a major milestone forboth companies and also marks a break-through in forging business links betweenfinancial institutions in China and Pak-istan. It said that the Bank Alfalah wasaiming to implement the acceptance ofUnionPay Cards on POS terminals inPakistan in early 2013 followed by ac-ceptance of UnionPay Cards on ATMsthereafter. To date, the total number ofthe UnionPay Card issued had exceeded3.4 billion. The UnionPay Card’s networkhad been extended to all the cities andrural areas in China as well as 135 coun-tries and regions, it was further stated.Bank Alfalah’s President and CEO AtifBajwa expressed pleasure to be enteringinto an alliance with UnionPay Interna-tional to facilitate the acceptance of theircards in Pakistan. He was optimistic that“our widespread presence and footprint,with over 21,600 POS terminals country-wide, will go a long way in assistingUnionPay Card holders to conduct theirtransactions with enhanced efficiency,convenience and ease.” APP

China now world’stop SmartphoneproducerBEIJING: Chinese shipments of Smartphones totalled 224 million units in 2012,making the country the world’s largestsmartphone producer, official data showedWednesday. In 2012, over 730,000 Chi-nese apps were launched on the iPhone,iPod Touch and iPad platforms, and thenumber of apps in China Mobile’s onlineMobile Market approached 150,000, ac-cording to a statement from the ChinaAcademy of Telecommunication Researchunder the Ministry of Industry and Infor-mation Technology. Beijing-based researchfirm, Analysts International predicted thatChina’s mobile Internet market will reach429.6 billion yuan in 2015, a news agencyreported APP

PAKISTAN POSTS INCREASE IN VEHICLE PRODUCTION

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

The Pakistani stock market closed higher on Wednesdayafter a steep fall the previous day.

Investors bought cautiously although uncertainty re-mained over the resolution of a anti-corruption demon-stration in the capital.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark100-share index ended 0.46 per cent, or 73.58points, higher at 16,181.47.

Investors who bought stocks inoil, cement and fertilizerhelped the index to gain 73points. Volumes remainedlow with activity remained con-fined towards mid cap stocks, saiddealer Samar Iqbal at Topline Securities.

“We expect the market to be politically driven inthe upcoming days and better than expected results in theupcoming result season should also provide support to the

index,” said a dealer at JS Global Capital Ltd.Fauji Cement rose 1.8 per cent to 6.78 per

share while Byco Petroleum was up3.67 per cent to 12.99 per share.

Maple Leaf Cement dropped0.28 per cent to 14.28 per share andAskari Bank fell 0.34 per cent to17.76 per share.

Over Rs130 billion had beenwiped out from market capitalisationon Tuesday when the KSE-100 fell by525 points — the worst single-day de-cline in over four years since May2008.

In the currency market, the Pak-istani rupee ended weaker at97.58/97.64 against the dollar, com-pared to Tuesday’s close of97.40/97.45.

Overnight rates in the money mar-ket remained flat at 9.40 per cent.

OGRA raises

wellhead gas prices

KARACHI: Oil and Gas Regulatory Au-thority (OGRA) has announced wellheadgas prices for all the fields raising the pur-chase prices in the range of 0.57 % to 9.49%, effective from July2012. According tomarket sources here yesterday, the rise inthe gas prices will improve profitabilityand share prices of PPL, OGDC and POL.KASB Research Senior Analyst HussainYasar said that highest increase of 9.49percent was recorded in the wellhead priceof Sui gas field, rising from Rs 195.50 permillion British Thermal Unit (mmbtu) toRs 214.06 per mmbtu, followed byKandhkot field with 9.03 percent rise. APP

Slight recovery in Pakistanistocks following steep fall

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Thursday, 17 January, 2013

Major Gainers

COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVER

Abbott Lab. 198.23 208.14 206.00 207.43 9.20 1,100

Siemens Pakistan 603.00 610.00 609.95 610.00 7.00 400

Attock Petroleum 483.20 497.00 480.00 489.80 6.60 2,800

UniLever Pak 9993.46 10000.00 10000.00 10000.00 6.54 60

Ismail Industr 140.00 145.98 145.98 145.98 5.98 500

Major Losers

Bata (Pak) 1270.00 1270.00 1260.00 1260.00 -10.00 100Gatron Ind. 154.90 149.00 149.00 149.00 -5.90 500Pak Gum & Chemical 155.12 154.00 147.37 149.55 -5.57 3,300Indus Dyeing 595.56 590.00 590.00 590.00 -5.56 400Gillette Pak 124.41 124.41 120.00 120.00 -4.41 1,500

Volume LeadersTRG Pakistan Ltd. 5.91 6.37 5.80 6.27 0.36 8,041,000Fauji Cement 6.66 6.89 6.65 6.74 0.08 7,437,000Jah.Sidd. Co. 14.13 14.40 14.00 14.11 -0.02 6,616,500Byco Petroleum 12.53 13.10 12.60 12.98 0.45 6,513,500Maple Leaf Cement 14.32 14.65 14.06 14.30 -0.02 4,710,000

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 97.6352UK Pound 156.4116Japanese Yen 1.1092Euro 129.6791

Forex RatesBUY SELL

US Dollar 98.90 99.60Euro 130.17 132.22Great Britain Pound 156.72 159.14Japanese Yen 1.1059 1.1223Canadian Dollar 99.01 101.19Hong Kong Dollar 12.48 12.79UAE Dirham 26.77 27.14Saudi Riyal 26.22 26.58Australian Dollar 103.00 106.07

Business

Servis Sales Corporation Head of Communications

Shahzad Khalid hands over the trophy to Pakistani

contestant Nabeel Shaukat Ali who was crowned the

winner of the Indo-Pak musical contest — Sur Kshetra. PR

Etihad Airways to launch Abu

Dhabi-Amsterdam flights

KARACHI: Etihad Airways, the national airlineof the United Arab Emirates, will launch dailyflights between Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam, thecapital of the Netherlands. The new EY77 andEY78 services will begin on Wednesday, 15 May2013, and carry the KL code of Dutch nationalcarrier, KLM. The daily flights will complementKLM’s current service between Amsterdam andAbu Dhabi which will increase to daily from the

summer and carry Etihad Air-ways’ EY code, ensuring that the two airlines canoffer a combined double daily service. JamesHogan, President and Chief Executive Officer ofEtihad Airways said: “We are delighted that Ams-terdam will become a part Etihad Airways’ globalnetwork from 15 May. The Dutch capital joins agroup of 17 leading European cities that EtihadAirways flies to including Brussels, Dublin, Frank-furt, Geneva, London and Paris. The double dailyservice between Amsterdam and Abu Dhabi willbenefit passengers looking to travel from theNetherlands to Abu Dhabi and beyond to destina-tions like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia.” PR

Centaurus Luxury Mall set to

throw its gates open

ISLAMABAD: The Centaurus Mall, Pakistan’smega shopping and entertainment destination, isall set to open its doors by the middle of nextmonth, says a press release. “We are all set to makea soft launch. Quite a few brands have confirmedtheir readiness by the date we have communicatedto them, and others are working day in and day outto make sure they don’t miss out on this opportu-nity,” the release stated. The Centaurus Mall, lo-cated at the heart of federal capital, is amulti-facility complex featuring a deluxe megashopping mall (covering 400,000 sq. ft), 5-screenCineplex, a state-of-the-art kids entertainment area,and food court offering a variety of cuisines. PR

Tameer Bank strikes

the Gong at KSE

KARACHI: Tameer Microfinance Bank Limited(TMFB) announced the successful listing of itsTerm Finance Certificate (TFC) by the name of“Tameer Sarmaya Certificate (TSC)” on theKarachi Stock Exchange. Tameer Sarmaya Certifi-cate is the first of its kind retail Micro Finance TFCto be launched in the Pakistan Market with a mini-mum investment ticket of PKR 5,000/- (RupeesFive Thousand only), with purchase of certificatein Multiples of PKR 5,000. The TFC has been of-

fered for a period of 1 Year (13 Months) at a rate of12% and 2 years (24 Months) at a rate of 12.50%,with a monthly profit payment mechanism. TheTFC aimed to raise PKR 1 billion (Rupees one Bil-lion) and has been partially secured through theMicrofinance Credit Guarantee Facility providedby the State Bank of Pakistan. TFC 1 (1 Year) andTFC 2 (2 Years), has an issue of PKR 500 Million(Rupees Five Hundred Million) each respectivelyand has been assigned a Rating of “‘A”‘ by JCR-VIS, which denotes very high credit quality. PR

Intel Pakistan signs MoU with

HED to train 2,000 students

KARACHI: With a goal to dramatically acceler-ate the pace and scale of entrepreneurship in thecountry, Intel Pakistan is piloting a new initiative,titled Intel Youth Enterprise under its Intel Entre-preneurship program umbrella. This was signedin an MoU with Higher Education Department

(HED), Government of Punjab (GoP) for conduct-ing trainings and implementing the Entrepreneur-ship Basics Course for the students in theprovince of Punjab. Under this pilot, Intel Pak-istan aspires to train 2,000 students till December2013, of the institutions under HED, GoP. The Intel® Youth Enterprise: EntrepreneurshipBasics program is a training program targeted atunemployed youths and adults who are interestedin setting up their own businesses but are lackingmost of the basic skills required by an entrepre-neur. The overall objective of this training pro-gram is to provide the student entrepreneurs withthe necessary skills and knowledge to allow themto identify a business opportunity and to then setup and successfully manage a business. The cur-riculum aims to deliver a wide range of skills in-cluding developing a business plan, improvingcommunication and negotiation skills, and the useof technology in business. This training programis designed to be delivered through a blendedlearning approach, with instructor-led and e-learning components. PR

CORPORATE CORNER

KARACHI: Consul General of Switzerland Dibier inaugurates Move N Pick Ice Cream parlour in Defence. MD Move N Pick

Imran Jofa and Nadia Hussain are also seen in the picture. Staff Photo

ISLAMABAD

APP

STATE Bank of Pakistan GovernorYaseen Anwar has impressed uponthe top management of banks to de-velop a more robust and focusedstrategy for meeting the banking

needs of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). “This will lead to better and improved bank-

ing solutions for SME customers”, he said thiswhile delivering his keynote address at theRoundtable on `SME Banking’ organized by theState Bank and International Finance Corpora-tion (IFC) at SBP Learning Resource Centreyesterday.

He said: “I hope that when you walk outafter this roundtable, a voluntary commitmentto increase lending to this sector will be forth-coming. This prudent decision will be in the in-terest of both the banking sector and theeconomy”.

The SME development plays a key role inthe economic development of a country, hesaid, adding that the SME sector in Pakistancontributes 30 percent towards Gross DomesticProduct (GDP), employs more than 70 percentof the non-agricultural workforce and generates25 percent in export earnings.

“The sector has huge potential in generatingemployment and poverty alleviation in thecountry. Therefore, SBP is actively promotingSME finance under the broader agenda of in-creasing Financial Inclusion in Pakistan”, Mr.Anwar added. Both SBP and commercial banksneed to play a proactive role in improving ac-cess to finance for SMEs, he said, adding thatthe State Bank had already taken a number ofimportant initiatives for improving access tocredit for SME sector.

“These measures include provision of spe-cialised Prudential Regulations (PRs) for SMEs,Refinance Schemes for SMEs, Credit GuaranteeScheme for Small and Rural Enterprises andcluster development surveys”, he added.

Anwar further said that SBP had been as-sisting banks through a holistic IFC technicalassistance and capacity building initiative en-compassing areas of Strategy Formulation,Product Development, Risk Management andHR Development etc. for SME lending.

“Presently, Bank Alfalah Ltd. is being sup-ported for capacity building to boost SME bank-ing, while many other mid-tier banks are beingconsidered for similar IFC technical assistance.IFC is in direct dialogue with a number ofbanks. We hope that the project will revitaliseSME lending by participating financial institu-tions and will be a prototype for other financialinstitutions which could see financing to SMEsas profitable business ventures”, he added.

The SBP governor said that despite the im-mense significance of the SME sector in Pak-istan, it remains largely financially excluded, asreflected from the declining trend in SME fi-nance over the years, constituting only 8% ofthe banks’ total advances as of June 2012, downfrom 16% in June 2007.

SBP governor calls upon banks to developrobust strategy for SMEs

TUSDEC joins hands

with CNP-WCCIISLAMABAD

APP

Capitalising on its vision of empoweringwomen through their socio-economic as-cension, TUSDEC (Technology Upgrada-tion and Skills Development Company)has joined hands with the Central andNorth Punjab Women Chamber of Com-merce and Industry.“The collaboration has been substantiatedin an MoU (Memorandum of Understand-ing) signed recently binding both partiesto cooperate on the issues of women em-powerment by arranging for their voca-tional trainings and formal employmentopportunities” said a statement issued bythe company here. The MoU signing ceremony was held atTUSDEC Head Office in Lahore. TUSDEC CEO Basit Maqsood Abbasi ap-prised the guest congregation about thevarious interventions made by TUSDEC inthe sphere of technology up gradation andskills development.CNP-WCCI President Qaisra Shiekh high-lighted the soaring need of imparting in-dustry demand driven trainings to thewomen belonging to marginalised com-munities in order to enable formal earningprospects for them.According to a company spokesperson,TUSDEC will be imparting free of costtrainings to the marginalised women ofPunjab in various conventional and un-conventional areas identified by CNP-WCCI.The company spokesperson furthershared that TUSDEC had also joinedhands with Dar ul Aman Lahore, Sialkotand Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Centre forWomen Development in order to identifythe target beneficiaries for the vocationaltraining courses.The MoU also seeks collation of both par-ties for the mentoring of modest womenthereby encouraging them to effectivelyparticipate in the country’s economic os-cillation. According to a senior official of TUSDEC,various paid employment opportunitieswill also be identified for the skilledwomen or they may be linked with micro-finance institutions to consummate theirpotentials of self-employment.

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