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‘Pak-Malaysia trade to touch new heights’
LAHORE: The trade volume between
Pakistan and Malaysia is likely to touch new peaks as a number
of Malaysian companies and businessmen have shown readiness to
initiate joint ventures with Pakistani counterparts.
It was hoped during LCCI
delegation's meetings at various Malaysian chambers and trade
bodies.
The LCCI delegation had a
meeting at Malay Chamber of Commerce & Industry where the
President of Malay Chamber of Commerce & Industry Mr. Dewn
Perniagaan Melayu gave a detailed briefing to the LCCI
delegation headed by former LCCI Senior Vice President Sohail
Lashari.
The delegation also visited
MATRADE Exhibition and Convention Center. During the visit the
delegates had meetings with counterparts arranged by MATRADE
and Pakistan Commercial Counsellor.
During one to one meetings
business opportunities were discussed, particularly in textile,
auto parts, rice, agricultural implements, recreational
activities and steel sector.
It is worthwhile to mention that
the meetings remained very fruitful and it is hoped that exports
opportunities would be availed by some delegates.
During the meetings, Sohail
Lashari informed these chambers and trade associations about the
delegation purpose, business, investment opportunities and law
and order in Pakistan. - APP
KSE ends almost flat; rupee firmer
KARACHI:
Karachi Stock Exchange ended
almost flat on Friday as cautious investors sold shares above
the 10,000-point level ahead of the weekend, dealers said.
The Karachi Stock Exchange's
benchmark 100-share index edged 6.94 points, or 0.07 percent,
lower to end at 10,000.93 on turnover of 123.63 million shares.
"The market stayed flat as
investors sold above 10,000 points and with no immediate
catalyst, they shied away from holding onto positions over the
weekend," said Asad Iqbal, managing director at Ismail Iqbal
Securities Ltd.
Dealers also said there had been
a slowdown in foreign buying the previous day which compounded
the caution.
Foreign investors bought shares
worth a net $361,854 on Thursday compared with $13.73 million on
Wednesday, according to official data.
Dealers said investors were also
cautious because of a delay in an International Monetary Fund
board meeting to approve the fifth tranche of a $1.2 billion
loan for Pakistan.
Pakistani officials had earlier
said the IMF board meeting was due on March 24. But a Finance
Ministry official said on Friday it had been rescheduled for
March 31. The official did not give a reason.
In the currency market, the
rupee ended firmer at 84.10/20 to the dollar compared with
Thursday's close of 84.20/30 amid a lack of import payments,
dealers said. The rupee has firmed 0.24 percent against the
dollar this year after losing 6.17 percent last year, and a
22.12 percent slide in 2008.
In the overnight market,
short-term money rates ended flat at top levels at 12.40
percent, unchanged from Thursday's close because of tight
liquidity in the interbank market.
Dealers said there were no
scheduled inflows or outflows on Friday.
The next outflow is scheduled
for Saturday, of 60 billion rupees, and the next inflow is
scheduled for March 25 of 65 billion rupees.- Reuters
Karachi Chamber urges implementation of TOO-2007
Karachi:
Trade Organisations Ordinance-2007 should be validated and
implemented for the sake of economy of the country as its
implementation puts an end to the irregularities in the process
of registration of trade bodies, Siraj Kassam Teli, Chairman
Businessmen Group and former President-KCCI, said on Friday.
While defending the Trade
Organisations Ordinance (TOO-2007), Siraj Teli, asserted
implementation of TOO-2007, and said it was the fulfilment of
long standing demand of the Business & Industrial Community to
change the outdated Trade Ordinance of 1961 through which
mushroom growth of many bogus and non representative trade
bodies had taken place.
''Since this TOO-2007 was made
with the consensus of all the Business and Industrial Community
for the betterment of the trade bodies, therefore, it is only
fair that this Ordinance should not be allowed to lapse nor any
changes be made in isolation without consulting all the Business
and Industrial Community of Pakistan,'' Siraj Teli added.
Siraj Teli said that all the
rules and regulations laid in the Ordinance should be followed
in toto in the light of the recommendations of Justice (R)
Saleem Akhtar.
The Provisions of TOO-2007 are
serving as cordon against the registration of the fake and
paper-based trade bodies and it has constrained the mushroom
growth of fake and paper-based trade bodies which remained a
huge problem that necessitated the promulgation of the Trade
Organisations Ordinance-2007. - PPI
LSM registers 2.34pc growth
Statesman Report
ISLAMABAD: After tough days in
2009, Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) registered substantial
growth of 7.46 percent in January over the corresponding period
last year.
The strong performance of the
sector in January also pushed up the overall growth figures of
the current financial year as in July to January 2009-10, it
grew 2.34 percent over the corresponding period of last fiscal
year.
The break-up of industrial
sector showed that the petroleum sector continued performing
dismally and Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) index
recorded fell immensely 9.16 percent in January and 6.49 percent
in first seven months of this fiscal year.
Analysts pointed out that the
number of issues are still impeding the growth in the industrial
production like high financing cost, growing prices of utilities
and above all the prolonged power outages in the industrial hubs
of the country are giving a severe blow to industries.
China tells
Washington to cool yuan pressure
BEIJING: China is sending a
Cabinet official to Washington in a bid to defuse trade
tensions, the government said Friday, as it called on U.S.
leaders to cool the "politicisation and emotionalisation" of a
currency dispute.
A deputy commerce minister,
Zhong Shan, will go to Washington on Wednesday to meet with
American trade, commerce and Treasury officials and members of
Congress, the Commerce Ministry said. It said they would discuss
the Sino-U.S. trade gap and trade disputes.
Beijing faces demands by some
U.S. lawmakers for President Barack Obama to have China declared
a currency manipulator in a Treasury Department report due out
next month. That could set the stage for possible trade
sanctions.
Critics say China's yuan is
undervalued by up to 40 percent, giving its exporters an unfair
advantage and swelling its trade surplus.
"A lot of problems can be
properly solved so long as we can avoid politicisation and
emotionalisation," a Commerce Ministry official, He Ning, told
reporters. "It should not be one side pressing the other side."
He warned that dialogue with
Washington might be harmed by "external disturbances" such as
this week's letter from 130 American lawmakers calling on Obama
to take action.
Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday
denied the yuan is undervalued and other officials have
dismissed complaints that exchange-rate controls are the cause
of China's multibillion-dollar trade surplus.
Wen promised reforms but said
the yuan will be kept at a "stable and balanced" level.
Analysts expect Beijing to allow
the yuan to rise gradually this year but say Chinese leaders
might be reluctant to act if they might be seen as giving in to
U.S. pressure.
Also Friday, China tried to put
a human face on its resistance, warning that exporters might be
driven out of business if the yuan rises further.
At a news conference organised
by a state-authorised trade group, managers of four companies
pleaded for Washington to back down.
"We are facing great pressure to
survive," said Bai Ming, deputy general manager of Zhejiang
Mingfeng Car Accesories Co., which employs 950 people and
exports car covers to the Americas, Europe and South Korea. - AP
Google to leave
China April 10: state media
SHANGHAI: US Internet giant
Google will close its business in China next month and may
announce its plans in the coming days, Chinese media reported on
Friday, after rows over censorship and hacking. The China
Business News quoted an official with an unidentified Chinese
advertising agency as saying Google would go through with its
threatened withdrawal on April 10, but that Google had yet to
confirm the pull-out.
The agency is a business partner
of Google, the report said.
The report did not specify
whether Google would close all or part of its operations in the
country.
The newspaper quoted an
unidentified Google staff member as saying the company may
announce on Monday the details of its exit from China and
compensation for its local staff.
Google China spokeswoman Marsha
Wang declined to comment on the report, telling AFP only that
there had been "no update" on the company's situation.
The report was the latest in a
series of clues to emerge recently indicating Google planned to
leave China, which has the world's largest population of online
users, at 384 million.
Google has cried foul over what
it said were cyberattacks aimed at its source code and the Gmail
accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The Financial Times
reported last week that Google was "99.9 percent" certain to
abandon google.cn, citing an unnamed source.
Chinese media said Wednesday
that Google sent a notice to clients saying google.cn could
close at the end of March. - AFP
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