Saturday, 24 November, 2012

PESHAWAR

APP

GROWERS, sugar millers inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Fridayreciprocated the decision offederal government for in-

crease in the support price of wheat andallowing the export of surplus sugar as astep forward towards bringing agricul-tural revolution and improvement in thesocio-economic conditions.

On the growing demand of bothgrowers and sugar milling industry, theEconomic Coordination Council (ECC)has decided 14.3 per cent increase in thesupport of price of 40-kilogram wheat ascompare to the price of commodity lastyear.

The support price of wheat, whichwas last year Rs.1050/- per 40 kilogramfor coming crop has been fixed Rs.1200/-. Similarly, the ECC has also allowed theexport of 400,000 tons of sugar.

The decisions of the democraticallyelected is attracting appreciations notonly from farmers and millers, but alsofrom common man, saying the measureswill encourage bringing maximum agri-cultural land under the cultivation ofwheat and sugarcane in the country.

In this connection, when APP con-tacted Murad Ali Khan, a leader of agrowers’ association in fertile districtCharsadda, appreciated the decisions,adding it will prove beneficial for bothgrowers and sugar millers. He said thatthe present government since cominginto power had consecutively increasedthe support price of wheat, which hadushered better results.

He said that due to the pro-farmerspolicies, the country which few yearsbacking was importing wheat and sugaris now exporting both commodities andearning foreign exchange for the country.

Murad Ali Khan said that increase inthe price of support price of wheat and al-lowing of sugar export will not only im-prove the socio-economic conditions offarmers, but will also stabilizes the finan-cial viability of sugar industry in thecountry.

Ameerullah Khan, another growersaid that the decisions will increase do-mestic production of both commoditiesand strengthen the national economy.

He said that the decision will helpbring maximum area under cultivationand the country will come into position ofexporting wheat and wheat products.

On contact, Talehmand Khan, a man-ager at Khazana Sugar Mills (KSM), Pe-shawar welcomed the decision ofallowing the export of 400,000 sugar,adding it will benefit both sugar mills andgrowers. He said that the decision willbring positive impact on the socio-eco-nomic conditions of farming communityand will guarantee sufficient supply ofsugar for domestic needs.

He said that last year, sugar mills500,000 ton sugar against domestic de-mand of 44,00,000 ton. He said that thesurplus sugar that was laying in thegodowns of sugar mills will now be ex-ported to earn foreign exchange.

He said that this year, the country islikely to produce 1.6 metric ton surplussugar. The export of sugar, he said willenable the mills to make payments togrowers on time.

ISLAMABAD

APP

Wheat growers have welcomed thegovernment’s new support price ofwheat for the year 2012-13 at the rateof Rs. 1200 per 40 kg saying it will en-courage the farmers to grow more cropfor the benefit of the country.

“The increase in the support pricefor wheat is good step of the govern-ment which will encourage the farmersgrow crop on maximum area”, saidMuhammad Nasir Sarwar, President ofKissan Welfare Association while talk-ing to APP.

He, however was of the view thatthe new price was not according tothe farmers’ expectation adding thegovernment did not increase thewheat support price for last threeyears but during this period pricesof agri inputs includingdiesel, urea and other ex-penses have gone upmarginally.

He demanded the gov-ernment to enhance thesupport price up to Rs.2000 per 40 kg andsuggested that theg o v e r n m e n tshould follow thestrategy of tar-geted subsidyon wheat forthe poor seg-ment of thecountry.

M e a n -while, ChiefA g r i c u l t u r ePolicy Insti-tute (API)Abdul

R a u fChaudhry toldthis newsagency thatsufficient in-puts like seed,water and fertilizers areavailable for the sowing of Rabicrops particularly major food cropof the season wheat.

According to estimates of IndusRiver System Authority (IRSA)about 3.4 percent extra waterwould be available for sowingthe wheat crop during thecurrent season, said hereon Friday adding that theWater availability dur-ing the Rabi seasonhas been estimatedabout 30.4 Mil-lion AcreF e e t(MAF)

whcih is 3.4 percent higher than thelast year and up by 7 percent as com-pared to the last year 7 years. He in-formed that all the arrangements havebeen finalized for sowing the Rabicrops as the season starts from Octo-ber and continuestill March forsowing of dif-ferent cropsi n c l u d i n gw h e a t ,m u s t a r dand otherminor

cropsand veg-

etables tofulfill the do-

mestic require-ments.

About the fertiliz-ers and pesticides avail-

ability, he said that about2,996 thousand tons of urea

fertilizer are available throughout theseason with 684 thousand tons carryforward stocks of last year. Accordingthe estimates of National FertilizerDevelopment Company, out of thetotal required urea, 1900 thousandtons are domestic produce where as412 thousand tons are get by import,he added.

The estimated off-take of urea willbe about 3,000 tons thus the de-

mand and supply position up toJune 2013 is expected to remain

comfortable depending uponthe arrival of scheduled im-

ports, he added.He said that about 943

thousand tons of DAPwould be available for

Rabi 2012-13 with227 thousand tonsof opening stocks.

Out of the totalrequired quan-tum of the input

336 thousand tonsare domestic pro-duction where as

the remaining quan-tity will be fulfilled byimport.

Rauf Chaudhrysaid that the expectedoff-take is likely 785thousand tons duringthe current season for

sowing the wheatcrop. five years, he

added.Sufficient certified

wheat seed at affordablerates are also available as

country was receiving bumpercrop from last four years and to

control the herbicides attack onthe crop private sector was also

vigilant.It may be recalled that wheat crop

is cultivated over 75 percent areas inPunjab, 12 percent in Sindh, 8 per-cent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 4

percent area over Balochistan.Out of the total wheat out put

about 76 percent is produced in Pun-jab, while Sindh produce 16 percent,KP 5 percent and Balochistan pro-duces 3 percent of total wheat pro-duced across the country.

The API head informed that ac-cording the data received from theprovinces normal sowing of wheat wasrecorded across the wheat sowingareas, however he said that normalrainfall during the period from Janu-ary-March would help the country toachieve healthier crop. He further saidthat timely rainfall in the Potohar re-gion has helped the wheat crop sowingand the cultivated area under wheatcrop also witnessed increase.

Wheat growers welcome new support price

‘It’s a matter of age’

LAHORE

ONLINE

The Pakistan Association of AutomotiveParts and Accessories Manufacturers haswelcomed the Economic CoordinationCommittee (ECC) decision to bring downage limit of used imported cars from fiveto three years to support the local indus-try, which had been adversely affected bythe huge influx of used cars.

PAAPAM Chairman, Munir Bana,and Vice Chairman, Usman Malik, intheir joint statement on Friday, said thatthis decision would go a long way in stim-ulating the growth of the domestic indus-try and a flagging economy. DeputyPrime Minister/Senior Industries Minis-

ter, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, deserves ap-preciation for accepting the auto indus-try’s plea and moving a proposal forreduction in the age limit of used car im-ports.

“Deputy Prime Minister firmly be-lieved that jobs of 2 million workers ofthe auto industry must be saved. At PAA-PAM’s last annual function, he personallymade a commitment to raise his voiceagainst imports of used cars in the inter-est of domestic industry,” said PAAPAMChairman Munir Bana.

Appreciating Pervaiz Elahi’s services,PAAPAM’s Chairman said that thedeputy prime minister had also reducedgeneral sales tax on tractors from 17 % to5% last year, helping revive the tractor in-

dustry and its allied auto parts manufac-turing (APM) units.

PAAPAM chairman Munir Bana saidthat the auto industry was facing a steepdecline in production andcar assemblers & APMshad retrenched thou-sands of workersbecause of con-tinuing importsof used cars. Hesaid that countrieslike India, Thai-land, Malaysia andeven Japan protecttheir local industryby imposing heavyduties to discourage

imports. PAAPAM vice chairman UsmanMalik added that in order to protect theemployment of 2 million persons di-rectly/indirectly associated with the auto-

motive industry and to encourageforeign investment, it was es-

sential to provide fair protec-tion to local industry. Hefurther said that thatduring the period 2001-

2007, with the help ofstable policies of the gov-ernment, the automobileindustry went through aperiod of tremendous ex-pansion, with invest-ments of over Rs40billion and volumes going

up by over 500 per cent. These develop-ments made the auto industry one of thetop five industrial sectors of the countryin terms of contribution to tax revenue,acquisition of hi-tech manufacturing tech-nologies and generation of employment.

Unfortunately, due to import of usedvehicles and other adverse policy factors,our industry is now suffering from excesscapacity, he added.

Immediate past Chairman SyedNabeel Hashmi whilst expressing his de-light at the development thanked thedeputy prime minister and also calledupon the industry as a whole to respondto the government gesture immediatelyby further enhancing and speeding upproduction and local content”.

Cut in used cars age limit to spur auto sector growth: PAAPAM

Growers, millers jubilant on ECC decisions

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02

Saturday, 24 November, 2012

Major Gainers

COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVERUnilever Food 3780.00 3960.00 3960.00 3960.00 180.00 20Rafhan Maize Prod. 3550.00 3700.00 3600.00 3700.00 150.00 300Bata (Pak) XD 1352.50 1420.12 1350.01 1420.00 67.50 1,150Island Textile 716.97 752.00 681.13 750.00 33.03 1,300Indus DyeingXD 538.91 560.00 550.00 555.00 16.09 300

Major LosersColgate Palmolive 1300.00 1250.00 1250.00 1250.00 -50.00 50Wyeth Pak Limited 945.00 930.00 925.00 926.00 -19.00 150Siemens Pakistan 750.00 787.50 720.00 731.15 -18.85 9,000Millat Tractors Ltd. 568.24 570.90 552.00 555.85 -12.39 23,200National Foods 287.94 290.00 280.00 283.15 -4.79 8,700

Volume Leaders

Fauji Cement 6.97 7.19 6.81 6.97 0.00 61,735,500Maple Leaf Cement 15.24 15.59 14.26 15.47 0.23 31,636,000Byco Petroleum 10.52 11.24 10.50 10.69 0.17 11,360,000Pervez Ahmed 2.73 3.73 2.79 3.73 1.00 8,569,500Dewan Motors 2.85 3.35 3.06 3.23 0.38 6,660,500

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 96.0508UK Pound 153.0474Japanese Yen 1.1694Euro 123.7423

Dollar EastBUY SELL

US Dollar 96.40 96.90Euro 124.06 125.54Great Britain Pound 153.45 155.25Japanese Yen 1.1576 1.1712Canadian Dollar 96.12 97.75Hong Kong Dollar 12.21 12.43UAE Dirham 26.10 26.38Saudi Riyal 25.58 25.83Australian Dollar 99.62 102.24

Business

PIA’s post-hajj operation

continues satisfactorily

KARACHI: So far 60521 hajjis has been brought back toPakistan through 143 Hajj flights and flights are operatingnow on schedule time, PIA Spokesman said here on Thurs-day. The airline has brought back 8,753 hajjis to Karachithrough 18 post hajj flights, 11,496 through 23 flights to Is-lamabad, 10,038 through 20 flights to Lahore and 10836 Ha-jjis to Peshawar through 33 post hajj flights.PIA carried back9,397 hajjis to Quetta by 29 Post-Hajj flights, 6,510 Hajjis toMultan by 13 flights and 3,491 Hajjis to Sialkot by 07 Post-Hajj Flights.

Nespak wins dam project in Nigeria

LAHORE: NESPAK in joint venture with H. P. Gauff Inge-nieure GMBH & Co. Germany has won engineering supervi-sion of Obudu Dam Rehabilitation work in Nigeria.Obudu dam is in Cross River State in the south east of Nige-ria. It is an Earthfill structure with a height of 18m, totalcreast length of 425m and storage capacity of 4.2 millioncubic meters. It is a multipurpose dam and was commis-sioned in 1999 for use in farm irrigation, fishing, potablewater supply and also for recreational and tourism purposes.

Thai hosts IATA conference

KARACHI: Thai Airways International hosted the Interna-tional Air Transport Association (IATA) Integrated Settle-ment Week conference at the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel inBangkok. This year, IATA brings together major groups tothe same venue under one umbrella: the IATA ClearingHouse User Group Meeting (ICHUG), the First & Final Gen-eral Meeting (F&F), the Inaugural Simplified Interline Set-tlement Meeting (SIS) and the Revenue Accounting GeneralMeeting (RAGM). In addtition, THAI hosted the airlines ofthe IATA conference on a session titled ‘Crisis Communica-tions in the Age of Social Media”. Attendants were aviationprofessionals, media experts and guest speakers at the Sofi-tel SO Bangkok. The conference focused on five mainthemes: how social media is changing the news business, theimpact of social media on the aviation industry, how socialmedia can be used as a tool for families after an incident, de-veloping best practices for the aviation industry, and how todevelop an effective social media programme.

CORPORATE CORNER

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

A delegation of businessman fromEgypt visited Islamabad Chamberof Commerce and Industry (ICCI)for B2B meetings with Pakistanientrepreneurs having common in-terest in various fields.

These delegates were on visitto Pakistan for attending four-day8th summit of the Developing 8Muslim countries. The Egyptiandelegation comprising of TamerSafwat, EECA’s consultant for Ex-ternal Exhibitions, Mrs.ImanAbdel Maksoud Shaltout, Directorof Egyptian Pavilion,May SamiAhmed Hussain, Home Textile Ex-ports Council,Ahmed Hamdy abdoHendy from Chemical andFerlilizers export Council,OmerHafez El Hawwam fromTextile ex-

port Council,M.Mostafa andMuhammad Amen from BedJansen and Shehab Eldin Faridfrom Egyptian Beverages.

The Egyptian delegates ex-pressed interest in promotingtrade and economic relations andstressed the need for close cooper-ation between the business sectorsof the two countries. They saidthat the aim of their visit to ICCIwas to explore the possibilities ofinvestment potential in the fieldsof agriculture, food processing,textiles, engineering, chemicals,pharmaceuticals and building ma-terials.

They said that both the sidesshould share information abouttrade exhibitions and fairs whichcould be the most feasible optionfor strengthening mutual eco-nomic, cultural and trade ties be-

tween Egypt and Pakistan.Speaking on the

occasion,Zafar Bakhtawari, Presi-dent ICCI said that Pakistan at-taches great importance to itsrelations with Egypt as it is theland of great heroes, adding thatboth the countries have lot of sim-ilarities and deep rooted in sharedfaith and values.

He said that it was quite disap-pointed on cancellation of visit ofEgyptian President MohammedMorsi, who was also scheduled toattend the D8 summit and addressthe parliamentarians in Pakistan.Mr.Bakhtawari was of the viewthat Egyptian President shouldhave to visit Pakistan because hiscurrent visit to Islamabad could bea landmark in the traditional andfriendly relations between the twomajor Muslim countries as there

was no visit of any Egyptian Pres-ident since 1983 while there werea number of visits from Pakistanside.

He said Pakistan was locatedat a strategic location and Egyptcould enter Central Asian marketsby developing better economic re-lations with Pakistan. PresidentICCI emphasized on the need ofchannelizing the trade related in-formation and cooperation in var-ious sectors through regularexchange of business delegationsand holding B2B meetings.

To accelerate the trade activi-ties between the two countries,direct flights from Islamabad toCairo, should be started whichwould definitely improve the bi-lateral relations between Pakistanand Egypt, Bakhtawari main-tained.

Egyptian businessmen looking for joint ventures

HONG KONG

AGENCIES

ASIAN markets were mostly upFriday following a rally in theprevious session, while dealersawait another meeting onGreece’s bailout and the resump-

tion of talks on the US fiscal cliff.Trade was subdued with Japanese markets

closed for a public holiday and the UnitedStates celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday.

Hong Kong added 0.21 percent, Sydneywas flat, Shanghai added 0.60 percent andSeoul was 0.30 percent higher.

One dealer said jitters would likely have setin over upcoming negotiations between De-mocrats and Republicans to hammer out a dealon the fiscal cliff of tax hikes and spending cutsthat comes into effect on January 1.

“I think next week the market will face thereality that there’s still a lot of work to do onthe fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling,” said ChrisWeston, chief market strategist at IG Marketsin Australia.

Global markets have soared over the pastweek on hopes that a compromise will be foundin Washington that will avert the fiscal cliff,which will likely send the economy into reces-sion if it comes into effect.

The euro was holding onto recent gainsagainst the dollar as dealers remain confidenteurozone finance ministers will agree to release

the next batch of bailout cash to Athens whenthey meet Monday, after a hold-up in talks thisweek.

The single currency bought $1.2881 inearly Tokyo trade, compared with $1.2875 inLondon on Thursday while it was also at106.06 yen from 106.22 yen. The dollarfetched 82.35 yen, from 82.42 yen. Trad-ing on foreign exchange markets was quietowing to Japan’s public holiday, but the yenwas still under pressure on expectations thecountry’s central bank will unveil a new roundof monetary easing next month.

Investors began selling the unit last weekafter the man likely to become prime minister

after a December 16 general election said hewould push for unlimited loosening monetarypolicy by the bank.

Regional traders were also drawing supportfrom Thursday’s release of preliminary data byHSBC showing Chinese manufacturing activitygrew for the first time in 13 months in Novem-ber.

On oil markets New York’s main contract,light sweet crude for delivery in January shed59 cents to $86.79 a barrel and Brent NorthSea crude for January delivery fell 19 cents to$110.36.

Gold was at $1,729.60 at 0210 GMT com-pared with $1,729.27 late Thursday.

Asian markets mostlyup in quiet trade

BRUSSELS

AGENCIES

European leaders voiced pessimism Friday onreaching a deal on a trillion-euro EU budget, asgruelling talks pushed into a second day withlittle prospect of bridging bitter divisions.

The summit talks in Brussels were sus-pended overnight after less than an hour and ahalf, having already begun hours late on Thurs-day due to the vast differences on the need forcuts between the bloc’s have and have-not na-tions.

The negotiations were scheduled to resume

at 1100 GMT on Friday once delegates from the27 member nations have had time to examinenew proposals on the 2014-2020 budget sub-mitted by EU president Herman Van Rompuy.

But with an increasingly eurosceptic Britainthreatening to wield its veto, and splitsthroughout the EU over the level of spending,German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned thatany deal may have to wait.

“I think we’re advancing a bit, but I doubtthat we will reach a deal,” Merkel said as sheand her fellow leaders left the first session oftalks.

French President Francois Hollande alsowarned that failure to reach a deal was increas-ingly likely.

“It’s what everyone has in mind,” Hollandesaid as he left for the night, due back hours laterto try to breach the divisions.

But giving “time to time to reach a deal” will“most likely be the wise choice,” he said.

The first round of talks followed a tough dayof face-to-face meetings between Van Rompuyand each of the bloc’s leaders, followed by aflurry of backroom bilaterals.

“Maybe this meeting will be long and com-plicated,” Van Rompuy said as the two-day talksopened. “Fortunately this issue only comes upevery seven years,” he added.

eU leaders warnbudget deal far off

Mandviwala briefs

PM on status of

implementation

of decisions

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

Prime Minister Raja Prevez Ashraf, Fri-day, said that D-8 Charter adopted in the8th Summit was a major achievement forthe Organization as it would improve in-teraction and cooperation among theMember States. The Prime Minister wastalking to Chairman BOI/MOS Finance,Mr. Saleem H Mandviwala who called onhim at the PM’s House on Friday. He saidthat the hosting of D-8 Summit affordedan opportunity to interact with the D-8leaders both during the Summit and at bi-lateral level. Mr. Salim H Mandviwalaalso briefed the Prime Minister on the sta-tus of implementation of decisions takenby him when he visited the office of Boardof Investment (BoI) last month.

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