Thursday, 6 December, 2012

SEOUL

ONLINE

PAKISTAN and SouthKorea Wednesday inkedtwo agreements for theMalakand Tunnel Con-struction Project and fordevelopment of water re-

sources infrastructure including dams.The agreement on Malakand Tunnel

Construction Project was signed duringmeeting of President Asif Ali Zardari withKim Yong-Hwan‚ Chairman Export Im-port Bank of Korea‚ who called on him atthe local hotel in Seoul.

Under the Malakand Tunnel LoanAgreement‚ an amount of US $78 millionwill be provided for the project. TheKorea Eximbank is an official exportcredit agency providing comprehensiveexport credit and guarantee programs tosupport Korean enterprises in conductingoverseas business.

Malakand tunnel will provide a shortroute not only to people of Dir‚ Malakandand Swat and adjacent localities butwould also be an easy access to centralAsian states‚ providing the market accessto the country for its products. MalakandPass lies between Dargai-Batkhela and issituated at an altitude of 470 metres and663 metres‚ respectively.

The South Korean governmentpledged the $78 million funding throughthe Economic Development Co-operationFund (EDCF) for the construction ofMalakand Tunnel project in KhyberPakhtunkhwa province. The 9.7 km proj-ect also includes approach roads on bothsides of the tunnel and three bridges. Theinitial feasibility study of the tunnel hasalready been completed by South Korean

consultants in collaboration with Na-tional Highway Authority Pakistan‚ whichis also the Project executing agency.

The President said that it was hightime for Pakistan and Korea to take its bi-lateral trade to new heights while explor-ing the true potential of trade andinvestment existing between the twocountries‚ urging the business commu-nity of the two countries to boost its tradevolume from current over $1.5 billion to$ 2 billion in the next three years.

He said that number of major Koreancompanies are doing business in Pakistanand have invested in major projects inPakistan including chemical plants‚ en-ergy and infrastructure projects andbuilding port facilities‚ adding that nowwhen the government has opened all sec-tors of economy open for investment‚ theKorean companies should avail the enor-mous opportunities and incentives‚ the

government offers for investment in Pak-istan. He reiterated that governmentwould provide fool proof security and onewindow operation to the Korean entre-preneur for investment in the SpecialEconomic Zones.

Later‚ President Asif Ali Zardari hadmeeting with Chief Executive Officer ofthe Korea water Resources Corporation(K-Water) Kim Keun-Ho. After the meet-ing‚ Memorandum of Understanding wassigned between the Korea Water Re-source Corporation - K-water and Waterand Power Development Authority ofPakistan (WAPDA). Under the MoU boththe sides will work for sustainable waterand power sector development and coop-erate in development of water resourcesinfrastructure‚ including dams‚ hy-dropower‚ flood control and canals.

Both the sides will also exchangetechnical expertise‚ have training of engi-

neers‚ technicians and conduct study onoperation and management of dams‚ hy-dropower‚ hydrology and sedimentation.

During meeting with delegation of K-Water‚ the President while highlting in-vestment potential in Pakistan energysector said that Pakistan was blessed withone of the largest coal reserves of over185 billion tones‚ which alone can pro-duce over 100‚000 MW of power for 100years besides huge potential in the hydal‚wind and solar power. He called uponKorean Companies to invest in energysector and help Pakistan meet the grow-ing energy requirements.

The two countries earlier also inked aMemorandum of Understanding betweenthe Board of Investment of Pakistan andthe Lotte Group of Korea‚ under whichthe Korean group will expand its businessin Pakistan and invest in infrastructureand power generation projects in Pak-istan and will conduct preliminary feasi-bility studies in projects as Mahl HydroPower and Azad Pattan Hydro PowerProject‚ besides expansion of their exist-ing business in Pakistan. The Koreancompanies during meeting with the Pres-ident appreciated the government of Pak-istan initiatives for attracting investmentand said that many Korean companiesare interested to invest in diverse areas.

Those who were present during themeetings included among othersMakhdoom Muhammad Amin Fahim‚Commerce Minister‚ Ch. AhmadMukhtar‚ Minister for Water and Power‚Nawabzada Malik Amad Khan‚ Ministerof State for Foreign Affairs‚ Mr. Muham-mad Arif Azam‚ Secretary Railways‚ S.Anjum Bashir‚ Secretary BOI‚ Mr. RaghibAbbas Shah‚ Chairman WAPDA‚ Mr.Shaukat Ali Mukadam‚ Pakistan’s ambas-

sador in Korea and other senior officials.Meanwhile a delegation of Korean

company Echo One headed by its ChiefExecutive Officer Zhin Ensok also calledon President Zardari. They discussedprospects for the business and invest-ment opportunities in Pakistan.

Light at the end of the tunnel…Pakistan‚ Korea ink deal for Malakand Tunnel project‚ development of water resources

SBP, Bank ofKorea signaccord to boostcooperationKARACHI: Governor State Bank ofPakistan (SBP), Yaseen Anwar, and theGovernor Bank of Korea (BOK),Choong Soo Kim signed a Memoran-dum of Understanding (MoU) on Coop-eration and Technical Assistancebetween the two central banks in Seoul,Korea. Signing of this MoU coincideswith the visit of the President of Pak-istan, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari to the Repub-lic of Korea, says a statement issued bythe Pakistani central bank. The MoUstipulates that the two central bankswill share experiences and providetechnical assistance in their conduct ofcentral banking business, includingmonetary management, the paymentand settlement systems and foreign ex-change reserve management. The MoUlays down the foundations of close coop-eration between the two central banksin all areas of mutual interest. The MoUwill make a significant contribution instrengthening the close relationship be-tween the two countries. ONLINE

SINGAPORE

ONLINE

Pakistan State Oil is set to import325,000 tonnes of gasoline and jet fuelfor delivery over December to March,about 28 per cent less than it had ini-tially requested, industry sources werequoted as saying on Wednesday.

PSO will likely buy six cargoes ofabout 50,000 tonnes each of 87-octanegasoline for delivery over Jan. 15 toMarch 15 and a 25,000-tonne jet fuelcargo for delivery on Dec. 20-31, accord-ing to a foreign news agency.

PetroChina had the lowest offers forfour of the six gasoline cargoes at premi-ums ranging from $72.20 to $84.40 atonne and Trafigura had the lowest of-fers for the other two cargoes at a pre-mium of $79.88 a tonne.

PetroChina will likely load the car-goes from Fujairah where it has leasedstorage for gasoline recently, an industrysource said. For jet fuel, Glencore hadthe lowest offer of $4.73 a barrel aboveMiddle East quotes. The tender closedon Dec. 3 and is valid until Dec. 11.

This is the first time the company isseeking 50,000-tonne lot sizes for gaso-line instead of its usual 35,000-tonnecargo sizes, industry sources said.

The company has in-creased tankage space forgasoline in its Ke-mari port in Karachiby 15,000 tonnesto satisfy in-creased do-m e s t i cdemand.

Iran to boost trade

with PakistanISLAMABAD

ONLINE

Tehran is to review trade policies relatedto Pakistan later this month in a confer-ence to hammer out all issues hamperingtrade and boost bilateral trade, a top offi-cial of Iran said.Pakistani business community shouldparticipate in the moot to help formulateappropriate trade policy for ensuringsustainable trade between the two coun-tries, said head of the visiting Iraniandelegation Alaeddin Broujedri, ChairmanNational Security and Foreign PolicyCommittee.Speaking to business community atFPCCI Capital Office, Broujedri said thatall the issues being faced by Pakistanibusiness community will be forwarded toParliament for swift resolution.Senator Mushahid Hussain, VP FPCCIMirza Abdul Rehman, Iranian Ambassa-dor Alireza Haghighian, Chairman Coor-dination Atif Ikram Sheikh, formerpresident FPCCI Mian Habibullah, for-mer VP FPCCI Zubair Ahmed Malik,Chairman Media and Diplomatic AffairsFPCCI Malik Sohail, VP RCCI Ch. PervazAhmed Waraich, Adnan Iqbal PresidentGujrat Chamber and Presidents and VicePresidents of ACCI, IWCCI and tradersof Blue Area and other markets were alsopresent on the occasion.Borojourdi said that Iran was committedto the gas pipeline with Pakistan and alsooffered to help constructing the pipelinein Pakistan as well by providing a total of$500 million dollars.We are looking forward to the visit ofPresident Asif Ali Zardari to Tehran onDec 07 to finalised key agreement on themulti-billion dollar gas pipeline, he in-formed. He said that once Iran gas startsflowing in Pakistan; it will settle theproblem of energy scarcity in Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD

AGENCIES

December 5th 2012: Members of theNational Assembly visited PSO Houseon Wednesday for a briefing on thenational energy giant’s performanceover the past year and the employ-ment opportunities the company of-fers to the people hailing fromdifferent areas of the country.

During the course of the meeting,Mr. Naeem Yahya Mir-C E O & M D - P S Othanked the NAmembers forvisiting PSOas it wasunder theirguidanceand di-

r e c t i o nthat the company

was striving to serve theenergy needs of the country.

Speaking further, the MD apprisedthe parliamentarians that PSO was ded-icated to serving all segments of thecountry in a fair and equitable manner.Elaborating on this, the MD explainedthat the company had initiated multiple

development projects in different areasacross the country including Balochis-tan. This included the upcoming estab-lishment of a new deep sea mooringpoint and storage facility at Hub. Thisnew facility would provide employmentopportunities for the local people andserve to enhance the national oil storagecapacity by 10-14 days while reducingcongestion at the Fotco and Keamari jet-ties. He also spoke on the Memorandumof Understanding (MoU) signed with the

provincial government forestablishment of a 5,000acre bio-diesel planta-

tion located at Uthal,

Balochis-tan. This plantation would serve asan agricultural and technological hub forthe development of bio-fuels in Pakistanand act as a pilot project for commercialinvestors nationwide.

The MD also pledged that PSOwould provide further employmentopportunities to the youth ofBalochistan and ensure a 7-8 % em-ployment quota for the inhabitants ofthe province. In the future the com-pany would also entertain the re-sumes of engineering and technicalgraduates at its depots in order toprovide greater convenience to the in-habitants of these areas. Additionally,as part of the company’s commitmentto provide uninterrupted fuel suppliesto all corners of the country, he prom-ised to re-open the Khuzdar depot inorder to get rid of any product dry-outsituations at PSO retail outlets in

Quetta and its surround-ing areas.

T h eA s s e m b l ymembers commended theMD for his proactive strategiesand assured him of their sup-port for his future plans. PSOin its role of being both a pub-

lic sector as well as the largest en-ergy company in Pakistan today iscommitted to meeting the fuel needsof the country in a timely and respon-sible manner.

PSO to answer the Baloch question?g Assures commitment to development in Balochistan

PSO set to import 325,000t gasoline, jet fuel

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Thursday, 6 December, 2012

Major Gainers

COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVERUniLever Pak 9805.00 9900.00 9700.00 9803.56 -1.44 12,020Mithchells Fruit 350.00 367.50 359.99 367.50 17.50 4,000Shezan Inter. 440.00 459.00 430.00 446.96 6.96 4,600Salfi Textile 116.81 122.65 122.65 122.65 5.84 500Engro Foods Ltd. 86.96 91.30 87.88 91.30 4.34 6,741,500

Major LosersIndus Dyeing 620.00 590.00 590.00 590.00 -30.00 100Bhanero Tex. 275.00 265.55 265.30 265.50 -9.50 500Exide (PAK) 319.00 317.90 310.00 310.00 -9.00 3,000Blessed Tex. 117.00 111.20 111.15 111.15 -5.85 1,000Sanofi-Aventis Pak 375.00 380.00 356.25 357.00 -18.00 51,600

Volume Leaders

P.T.C.L.A 17.91 17.40 16.91 17.01 -0.90 27,187,500Jah.Sidd. Co. 18.47 19.29 18.35 18.77 0.30 23,922,500Lotte PakPTA 7.19 7.48 7.21 7.23 0.04 16,663,500Fauji Cement 6.91 6.97 6.80 6.82 -0.09 14,216,500Byco Petroleum 10.12 10.80 10.15 10.67 0.55 8,254,000

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 96.6587UK Pound 155.5625Japanese Yen 1.1753Euro 126.5359

Dollar EastBUY SELL

US Dollar 96.90 97.40Euro 125.34 126.88

Great Britain Pound 154.45 156.31Japanese Yen 1.1621 1.1761Canadian Dollar 96.27 97.94Hong Kong Dollar 12.25 12.46UAE Dirham 26.16 26.45Saudi Riyal 25.66 25.90Australian Dollar 99.92 102.58

Business

Silverstone Construction unveils vision for 1st food boulevard, mall

KARACHI: Silverstone Construction Co hosted acurtain raiser event at a local 5 star Hotel in La-hore for their new venture “THE PALM”. Theproject is situated in the heart of the city in Sad-dar on the prestigious Mall Road, Rawalpindi.The 1500 Sq.Yards commercial complex with acovered area of 18000 Sq.ft per the plan providesa complete dine-in facility. The latest offering bySilverstone is the new landmark of Rawalpindiand offers a one of a kind dining experience in theheart of Rawalpindi. The event was well attendedby the restaurant owners and top business com-munity of Lahore and adjoining cities of Sialkot,Gujranwala, Gujrat, Faisalabad and Multan.“The Palm” is an initiative of Silverstone Con-struction Co that will not only provide entertain-ment to the residents of Rawalpindi andIslamabad, but will also support tourism and com-municate a soft image of Pakistan.

Acumen, JS host selection conference for fellows programme

KARACHI: Acumen Fund, a pioneering non-profit global venture firm addressing povertyacross Africa and in South Asia, held a selectionconference today in Karachi as part of the processto identify the inaugural class of Pakistan Fellows.In partnership with JS Bank, Mahvash & JahangirSiddiqui Foundation and the Edmond de Roth-schild Foundations, Acumen is working to developthe next generation of social change leaders whoare building innovative businesses and strong in-stitutions across Pakistan.The first cohort of Acumen Fund Pakistan Fellowswill include 20 individuals who are actively drivingsocial change initiatives in Pakistan to participatein the year-long fellowship. Fellows then directlyapply learnings from the fellowship to the workthey are doing as social entrepreneurs and leaderswithin the private, NGO and government sectors.“This new program is designed to support a new

generation of Pakistani leaders who see opportuni-ties where others see only challenges,” said Far-rukh Khan, Country Director, Acumen FundPakistan. “It is invigorating to see the amount ofinterest we have received, both in number andquality of applicants from across Pakistan. We aregrateful for the overwhelming support from ourpartners and local communities. Through this col-laboration, we are broadening the community ofleaders with financial skills, operational excellenceand moral imagination to address pressing socialand leadership issues faced by Pakistan today..”

PTCL holds customerawareness drive

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan TelecommunicationsCompany Limited (PTCL) held a special customerengagement and product awareness drive in Is-lamabad. As part of this drive, PTCL organizedone day stalls and distributed brochures of PTCLwire-line and wireless products amongst the pub-lic. Visitors were also given firsthand experienceof PTCL products and services by courteous PTCLstaff. Recently, PTCL also installed a PICO BTS ata local restaurant situated here in Pir Sohawa, so

that customers can experience its wireless serviceson the go. This new BTS supports all EVO prod-ucts and Vfone services of PTCL. The campaigncovered major commercial areas of the city includ-ing Pir Sohawa. Customers also placed orders tak-ing advantage of this marketing campaign.

JWT Pakistan conducts comprehensive research on youthKARACHI: The door-to-door survey was con-ducted between June 7 to June 18, 2012, across 8key cities of Pakistan , including Karachi, Hyder-abad, Lahore, Islamabad, Multan, Faisalabad,Quetta and Peshawar. Please find attached fullpresentation of the survey and its summary in theform of a press release. I am sure you will find itvery interesting and will surely loves to share thiswith your readers. The survey is also available ononline at www.jwt.com/atimeforchange . Pleasefeel free to contact if you have any queries/ques-tions related to this survey.

ISLAMABAD:Dr Asim Hussain Advisor to PM on Petroleum

and Natural Resources and M Moin Raza Khan Chairman

Annial Technical Conference 2012 addressing in the

inaugural session of ATC-2012

CORPORATE CORNER

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

THE constant valuedepreciation ofrupee against dollarhas raised the Inter-national Monetary

Fund (IMF) loan by 20 to 22percent, say sources.

The government has so farpaid back a total of $2.52 billionto IMF from the foreign currencyreserves held by the State Bankof Pakistan (SBP).

Finance Ministry official toldthat at a time when country en-tered in a Stand-by Arrangement(SBA) facility with the IMF inNovember 2008 dollar valued

about Rs79, which has by nowjumped to Rs.96.

The official said the coun-try’s foreign exchange reserveswill also continue to face pres-sure due to re-payment of IMFloans in the next more thanthree years as Pakistan is likelyto go to the International Mone-tary Fund in fresh loan in cur-rent fiscal year 2012-13 to seekloan for the retirement of IMF’sStand-by Arrangement (SBA) fa-cility.

Pakistan will repay its obtain$7.6 billion to the IMF till theend of fiscal year 2014-15. The$11.3 billion SBA program hadexpired on September 30, 2011and the last two trenches of $3.7

billion could not pay to Pakistanby IMF following Islamabad’sfailure to pursue key reformsas well as the emergenceof the revenue fig-ures fiasco.

Pakistan hadenter into a $11.3billion programme in2008 with IMF andgot disbursements ofabout $7.6 billion, butfailed to get the remaining$3.7 billion due to slippagesin performance criteria, lead-ing to suspension of the pro-gramme in May 2010 and wasended unsuccessfully onS e p t e m b e r30,2011.

Is PakIstan PayIng 20% more to ImF?

TOKYO

AGENCIES

ASIAN shares werelittle changed onWednesday, withprices capped bycontinuing con-

cerns over whether the UnitedStates can avert an economicslump as lawmakers struggle tobreak a budget impasse by yearend.

Investors will look at a privatesurvey of China’s growing servicessector due around 0145 GMT onWednesday for more signs theworld’s second-largest economy isrecovering from lows.

MSCI’s broadest index ofAsia-Pacific shares outside Japanwas nearly flat, with a 0.4 percentgain in Australian shares and a 0.1percent drop in South Koreanshares. Japan’s Nikkei stock aver-age opened down 0.6 percent.

“The market lacks news thatcould add to the momentum seenin late November. Investors’ focus

will remain on whether U.S.politicians will unravel the fiscalcliff problem,” said Kim Hyeong-ryeol, an analyst at Kyobo Securi-ties.

U.S. stocks slipped on Tues-day as investors worried about

Washington’s ability to avoid

a year-end budget crisis, whichthreatens to push the economyback into recession, but a Greekplan to buy back debt pushed theeuro to a seven-week high of$1.3109 on Tuesday.

The pan-European FTSEu-rofirst 300 closed flat, off a 17-

month intra-day high, possiblypausing before a renewed chal-lenge on technical resistance lev-els into the year-end.

Commodities struggled asweak U.S. manufacturing dataand uncertain U.S. budget talksraised further concerns about theworld economy.

The White House and Repub-licans remain at odds on how toavoid a $600 billion “fiscal cliff”of budget cuts and tax increasesset to take effect on Dec. 31.

President Barack Obama dan-gled the possibility on Tuesday oflowering tax rates in 2013 with abroad U.S. tax code revamp, butstood firm on insisting rates forthe wealthiest must rise as part ofa budget deal with Congress.

“He was relatively concilia-tory, proposing a two stage ap-proach of a short-term gain forboth sides, then deal with the bulkof the problem in 2013,” SebastienGaly, currency strategist at Soci-ete Generale, said in a note toclients.

Asian shares lacklustre, capped by US budget worries

Rupee depreciation hikes up IMF loan value by 20-22%

Oil prices up in Asian tradeSINGAPORE: Oil prices were higher in Asian trade onWednesday as the euro strengthened against the dollar butsentiment was weighed by uncertainty over untangling a grid-lock in US budget talks. The euro extended gains as marketscheered the European Union’s extension of Greece’s deficit tar-gets and concerns over the US economy drove investors towardthe single currency. A stronger euro makes dollar-priced oilcheaper, boosting demand and leading to higher prices. NewYork’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in Januarywas up 40 cents to $88.90 a barrel in afternoon trade andBrent North Sea crude for January climbed 23 cents to$110.07. Analysts said however that sentiment was weigheddown by the budget impasse in Washington. They fear that theUS economy — a key engine for global growth — will lurch backinto recession if no deal is reached between the Republicansand Democrats to avert the year-end “fiscal cliff” of significanttax increases and spending cuts. “We continue to think thatmore pressure is needed for both parties to reach a solution.That is why we do not expect to get better visibility on theshape of a potential deal until much closer to the end of theyear,” Dutch bank ABN Amro said in a market note. AGENCIES

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