profitepaper pakistantoday 11th January, 2013
2
Friday, 11 January, 2013 ISLAMABAD INP T HAILAND has expressed its intention to sign a Free Trade Agreement with Pak- istan to further promote trade and economic rela- tions between the two countries. The intention was conveyed by Thai- land’s Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul during talks with Pak- istan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in Islamabad on Thursday. The two sides also discussed inaugu- ration of a Pakistan-Thailand Joint busi- ness forum to promote bilateral trade and investment. Later, addressing a joint news con- ference along with her Thai counterpart, Khar said a joint study has already been conducted for the feasibility of the FTA between the two countries. She said both the countries enjoyed excellent relations and trade volume had surpassed the one billion dollars mark last year. She said a joint trade committee had been tasked to speed up work on finalisation of the FTA which would be mutually beneficial for the two countries. She said both countries are commit- ted to institutionalising their relations and in this regard a joint economic com- mission of the two countries will meet next month. The commission’s meeting will discuss ways and means to further augment bilateral relations in areas of trade, defense and security. Khar said both countries are close to signing two agreements. One relates to the exemption of diplomatic visa while the other will be signed between the for- eign services academy of the two coun- tries. She said Pakistan and Thailand enjoyed historic cultural relations. “There is a dire need to evolve a mecha- nism for promoting people-to-people contacts between Pakistan and Thai- land,” Khar said. She said 56,000 Pak- istanis visited Thailand last year as tourists. The foreign minister said Thailand was an important country of ASEAN and Pakistan attached great importance to becoming a full dialogue member of this organisation. Describing his talks with Pakistani counterpart as fruitful, the Thai foreign minister said he was satisfied with the trade volume with Pakistan and wanted to further speed up the process in the fu- ture. He said his government wanted Thai investors to invest in areas of infrastruc- ture development, food processing, gem stones and auto parts development in Pakistan. He said the joint economic commission will meet soon to formulate concrete measures for the enhancement of bilateral economic and trade rela- tions. He said both countries had also agreed to enhance their security and de- fense cooperation. “We have agreed to enhance cooperation to combat terror- ism and other international crimes through increased intelligence sharing,” he said. The Thai foreign minister said Thai- land will soon host the third meeting on the security cooperation to discuss is- sues relating to terrorism and other crimes. Appreciating Pakistan’s con- structive role in the region, he said Thai- land was ready to work closely with Pakistan for the benefit of the region. He assured that his country will con- tinue to extend support to Pakistan in the social sector development. Thailand to sign FTA with Pakistan Certain stakeholders have reservations over MFN status to India: foreign secretary ISLAMABAD ONlINE Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani said while the federal cab- inet had already agreed on according Most Favorable Nation (MFN) status to India, certain stakeholders in the busi- ness fraternity had reservations on this count. “Cabinet has already agreed on giving MFN status to India, though certain stakeholders in Pakistan have ex- pressed reservations on this measure. Commerce secretaries of both Pakistan and India will soon meet to allay these concerns,” he said while talking to the media personnel after a PAC meeting on Thursday. He said bilateral trade ties between Pakistan and India were critical in the perspective of usual trade activities which were gathering momentum each passing day. Bilateral trade volume be- tween the two countries has surpassed 2 billion dollars, he pointed out. Hafeez invites General Electric to invest in Pakistan ISLAMABAD APP Federal Minister for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Thursday invited Gen- eral Electric Company (GE) to invest in Pakistan, particularly in sectors the com- pany had global expertise in- such as avi- ation, transport, railways, energy and alternate energy. A delegation led by GE Vice Chairman John Rice called on Shaikh and ex- pressed the company’s keen interest for investment in various sectors in Pak- istan, in particular supplying locomo- tives for Pakistan Railways and setting up of a wind energy projects apart from exploring other investment areas. The minister informed the delegation that Pakistan offered a favourable environment for foreign in- vestment and assured full support and facilitation of the government for invest- ment by GE in Pakistan. Rice expressed his gratitude towards the government and in particular the finance minister for providing attractive oppor- tunities of foreign investment in the country. He thanked Shaikh for his continuous support towards the private sector, at- tracting investment by guiding foreign investors and ensuring a business- friendly environment. AttARI ONlINE The Indian government is considering set- ting up a container depot close to the At- tari-Wagah border in order to facilitate trade between India and Pakistan, which has the potential to rise by 200 percent within a short span of time. “We have written to the Central Board of Excise and Customs, conveying that there is a demand for container trade through the Attari border. We have sug- gested setting up of a dry port somewhere near the integrated check post at Attari,” Amritsar Customs Commissioner KK Sharma said. “Finance Ministry has taken up the matter with Commerce Ministry,” he added. Imports from Pakistan through the Attari border land route in the period from April to December, 2012, in value terms stood at Rs 6,300 million- an 87 per- cent increase over the corresponding pe- riod in 2011. Besides, India’s export to Pakistan through this route stands at Rs 12,370 mil- lion in the April-December 2012 period, an increase of 54 percent over the correspon- ding period last year. Container Warehous- ing Corporation (CWC) could be entrusted with the task of building the storage facility for container trade, Sharma said, adding that if both rail and road routes work to full capacity, trade between the two countries could go up by as much as 200 percent. He said traders preferred the land route for exporting goods to Pakistan. Earlier, trade was allowed through head-load at the border but from October 1, 2007, both the governments have agreed to allow transportation of goods through trucks. At present, the goods coming from Pakistan through trucks are unloaded at the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Attari, situated at a distance of 32 km from Amrit- sar and 28 km from Lahore. At the same time, Indian trucks can enter Pakistan and unload near the Wagah border. Sharma said customs officials manu- ally clear around 200 truck loads of goods for Pakistan everyday and the department is in the process of securing a scanner by the end of 2013 for speedier clearance of goods. The Pakistan side has already in- stalled a scanner at the border to check the trucks. Sharma said setting up a container freight station somewhere between Wagah and Attari border would ensure speedier clearance of goods and facilitate trade be- tween the two neighbours. “We also have to start rail interchange movement again. If both rail and ICP func- tion at full capacity, trade will go up sub- stantially,” he added. INDIA MULLS SETTING UP DRY PORT AT ATTARI TO PROMOTE TRADE WITH PAKISTAN Pakistan Auto show 2013 begins today KARACHI INP The Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers (PAA- PAM) is holding Pakistan Auto Show 2013 at the Expo Centre, Karachi, from Friday (today), which will showcase the achieve- ments of Pakistan’s automotive industry and auto parts manufacturing sectors. “This mega event will be visited by a large number of visitors and buyers from around the world, while over 150 multinational and national companies will display their prod- ucts at the exhibition,” said PAAPAM Chair- man Munir Bana. He said this exhibition would be a thor- oughfare of the true engineering and manu- facturing diversity of Pakistani companies, thus providing an opportunity to forge new alliances and business ventures. He also called upon the government to play a part in organising such mega exhibitions, adding that this show had been financed com- pletely by PAAPAM and the automobile in- dustry of the country. Bana strongly urged the government to en- sure adequate and exclusive export promo- tions for the engineering sector. “We expect that the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) would support our initia- tives, both locally and abroad, for these ef- forts are geared towards our national interest, with the aim of promoting exports and introducing new technologies,” Bana said. In Pakistan, the local industry assem- bles cars, motorcycles, tractors, and heavy vehicles such as trucks and buses, and also hosts major original equipment manufac- turers (OEMs) such as Toyota, Honda, Suzuki and Massey Ferguson. PAAPAM Vice Chairman Usman Malik further said that Germany, with the col- laboration of its government, holds the world’s largest auto exhibition every year in which only a dozen companies from Pakistan participated, while hundreds of firms from our neighbouring countries displayed their products in the show. Malik further said with steady growth in the automotive parts manufacturing in- dustry in the region, the 2013 exhibition in Karachi will play a crucial role in the eco- nomic development of Pakistan’s automo- bile-related market, both locally and internationally. The show will be a perfect place to approach a potential buyer and meet existing customers, he underlined. KARACHI STAFF REPORT The Pakistanis working abroad remitted over $7.116 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year, from July to De- cember 2012. A central bank report on Thursday showed an increase of 12.51 percent in this regard compared to the correspon- ding period of FY 12. The State Bank pointed out that the remittances received through banks amounted to $6.421 billion (90%), through exchange companies $640 mil- lion (9%) and through Pakistan Post $56 million (1%). The inflow of remittances during the period under review from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman), and EU countries amounted to $1.960 billion, $1.460 billion, $1.155 billion, $1.005 bil- lion, $811.18 million and $188.77 million, respectively. In FY 12 these figures stood at $1.661 billion, $1.412 billion, $1.150 billion, $726.35 million, $721.19 million and $189.14 million from the respective destinations. The remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries dur- ing the first half of the current fiscal year (July- December FY13) amounted to $ 534.68 million as against $463.61 million received in the first half of the last fiscal year. The monthly average remittances for July-December 2012 period comes out to $1.186 billion as compared to $1.054 million during the corresponding period last year. An amount of $1.134 billion was re- mitted by overseas Pakistanis in Decem- ber, 2012 as against $ 1.085 billion in the same month of the last fiscal year (De- cember 2011) depicting a growth of 4.54%. In December (2012), the inflow of remittances from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries, and EU coun- tries amounted to $351.17 million, $220.28 million, $161.97 million, $159.15 million, $134.49 million and $27.61 million respectively as compared with an inflow of $297.53 million, $ 245.67 million, $175.12 million, $132.05 million, $121.15 million and $28.88 mil- lion respectively in December, 2011. Re- mittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during the sixth months of the current fiscal year (Decem- ber FY13) amounted to $79.99 million as against $84.95 million received in the sixth months of the last fiscal year. The central bank attributes this growing trend to the Pakistan Remit- tance Initiative (PRI). “The continued growth in worker remittances is the re- sult of efforts made by Pakistan Remit- tance Initiative (PRI) in collaboration with other stakeholders to facilitate both overseas Pakistanis and their families back home,” the regulator said. Since its inception, the PRI had taken a number of steps to enhance the flow of remittances through formal channels which include preparation of national strategies on re- mittances, taking all necessary steps to implement the overall strategy, playing an advisory role for financial sector in terms of preparing a business case, rela- tionship building with overseas corre- spondents, creating separate efficient remittance payment highways and be- coming a national focal point for overseas Pakistanis through a round the clock call- centre with toll free lines, separate web site etc, the state bank said. Remittances grow by 12.5pc to $7.1b in first half of FY13 PRO 11-01-2013_Layout 1 1/11/2013 5:19 AM Page 1
-
Upload
profit-epaper -
Category
Documents
-
view
216 -
download
0
description
profitepaper pakistantoday 11th January, 2013
Transcript of profitepaper pakistantoday 11th January, 2013
Friday, 11 January, 2013
ISLAMABAD
INP
THAILAND has expressedits intention to sign a FreeTrade Agreement with Pak-istan to further promotetrade and economic rela-
tions between the two countries.The intention was conveyed by Thai-
land’s Foreign Minister SurapongTovichakchaikul during talks with Pak-istan’s Foreign Minister Hina RabbaniKhar in Islamabad on Thursday.
The two sides also discussed inaugu-ration of a Pakistan-Thailand Joint busi-ness forum to promote bilateral tradeand investment.
Later, addressing a joint news con-ference along with her Thai counterpart,Khar said a joint study has already beenconducted for the feasibility of the FTAbetween the two countries. She said boththe countries enjoyed excellent relationsand trade volume had surpassed the onebillion dollars mark last year. She said ajoint trade committee had been taskedto speed up work on finalisation of theFTA which would be mutually beneficialfor the two countries.
She said both countries are commit-ted to institutionalising their relationsand in this regard a joint economic com-mission of the two countries will meet
next month. The commission’s meetingwill discuss ways and means to furtheraugment bilateral relations in areas oftrade, defense and security.
Khar said both countries are close tosigning two agreements. One relates tothe exemption of diplomatic visa whilethe other will be signed between the for-eign services academy of the two coun-tries. She said Pakistan and Thailand
enjoyed historic cultural relations.“There is a dire need to evolve a mecha-nism for promoting people-to-peoplecontacts between Pakistan and Thai-land,” Khar said. She said 56,000 Pak-istanis visited Thailand last year astourists.
The foreign minister said Thailandwas an important country of ASEAN andPakistan attached great importance to
becoming a full dialogue member of thisorganisation.
Describing his talks with Pakistanicounterpart as fruitful, the Thai foreignminister said he was satisfied with thetrade volume with Pakistan and wantedto further speed up the process in the fu-ture.
He said his government wanted Thaiinvestors to invest in areas of infrastruc-ture development, food processing, gemstones and auto parts development inPakistan. He said the joint economiccommission will meet soon to formulateconcrete measures for the enhancementof bilateral economic and trade rela-tions. He said both countries had alsoagreed to enhance their security and de-fense cooperation. “We have agreed toenhance cooperation to combat terror-ism and other international crimesthrough increased intelligence sharing,”he said.
The Thai foreign minister said Thai-land will soon host the third meeting onthe security cooperation to discuss is-sues relating to terrorism and othercrimes. Appreciating Pakistan’s con-structive role in the region, he said Thai-land was ready to work closely withPakistan for the benefit of the region.
He assured that his country will con-tinue to extend support to Pakistan inthe social sector development.
Thailand to sign FTA with Pakistan Certain stakeholders
have reservations over
MFN status to India:
foreign secretary ISLAMABAD
ONlINE
Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary JalilAbbas Jilani said while the federal cab-inet had already agreed on accordingMost Favorable Nation (MFN) status toIndia, certain stakeholders in the busi-ness fraternity had reservations on thiscount. “Cabinet has already agreed on givingMFN status to India, though certainstakeholders in Pakistan have ex-pressed reservations on this measure.Commerce secretaries of both Pakistanand India will soon meet to allay theseconcerns,” he said while talking to themedia personnel after a PAC meetingon Thursday. He said bilateral trade ties betweenPakistan and India were critical in theperspective of usual trade activitieswhich were gathering momentum eachpassing day. Bilateral trade volume be-tween the two countries has surpassed2 billion dollars, he pointed out.
Hafeez invites
General Electric to
invest in PakistanISLAMABAD
APP
Federal Minister for Finance Dr AbdulHafeez Shaikh on Thursday invited Gen-eral Electric Company (GE) to invest inPakistan, particularly in sectors the com-pany had global expertise in- such as avi-ation, transport, railways, energy andalternate energy.A delegation led by GE Vice ChairmanJohn Rice called on Shaikh and ex-pressed the company’s keen interest forinvestment in various sectors in Pak-istan, in particular supplying locomo-tives for Pakistan Railways and settingup of a wind energy projects apart fromexploring other investment areas.The minister informed the delegationthat Pakistan offered afavourable environment for foreign in-vestment and assured full support andfacilitation of the government for invest-ment by GE in Pakistan.Rice expressed his gratitude towards thegovernment and in particular the financeminister for providing attractive oppor-tunities of foreign investment in thecountry. He thanked Shaikh for his continuoussupport towards the private sector, at-tracting investment by guiding foreigninvestors and ensuring a business-friendly environment.
AttARI
ONlINE
The Indian government is considering set-ting up a container depot close to the At-tari-Wagah border in order to facilitatetrade between India and Pakistan, whichhas the potential to rise by 200 percentwithin a short span of time.
“We have written to the Central Boardof Excise and Customs, conveying thatthere is a demand for container tradethrough the Attari border. We have sug-gested setting up of a dry port somewherenear the integrated check post at Attari,”Amritsar Customs Commissioner KKSharma said. “Finance Ministry has takenup the matter with Commerce Ministry,”he added. Imports from Pakistan throughthe Attari border land route in the periodfrom April to December, 2012, in valueterms stood at Rs 6,300 million- an 87 per-
cent increase over the corresponding pe-riod in 2011.
Besides, India’s export to Pakistanthrough this route stands at Rs 12,370 mil-lion in the April-December 2012 period, anincrease of 54 percent over the correspon-ding period last year. Container Warehous-ing Corporation (CWC) could be entrustedwith the task of building the storage facilityfor container trade, Sharma said, addingthat if both rail and road routes work to fullcapacity, trade between the two countriescould go up by as much as 200 percent.
He said traders preferred the landroute for exporting goods to Pakistan.
Earlier, trade was allowed throughhead-load at the border but from October1, 2007, both the governments have agreedto allow transportation of goods throughtrucks. At present, the goods coming fromPakistan through trucks are unloaded atthe Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Attari,
situated at a distance of 32 km from Amrit-sar and 28 km from Lahore. At the sametime, Indian trucks can enter Pakistan andunload near the Wagah border.
Sharma said customs officials manu-ally clear around 200 truck loads of goodsfor Pakistan everyday and the departmentis in the process of securing a scanner bythe end of 2013 for speedier clearance ofgoods. The Pakistan side has already in-
stalled a scanner at the border to check thetrucks. Sharma said setting up a containerfreight station somewhere between Wagahand Attari border would ensure speedierclearance of goods and facilitate trade be-tween the two neighbours.
“We also have to start rail interchangemovement again. If both rail and ICP func-tion at full capacity, trade will go up sub-stantially,” he added.
INDIA MULLS SETTING UP DRY PORT AT ATTARI TO PROMOTE TRADE WITH PAKISTAN
Pakistan Auto show
2013 begins today KARACHI
INP
The Pakistan Association of AutomotiveParts and Accessories Manufacturers (PAA-PAM) is holding Pakistan Auto Show 2013at the Expo Centre, Karachi, from Friday(today), which will showcase the achieve-ments of Pakistan’s automotive industryand auto parts manufacturing sectors.“This mega event will be visited by a largenumber of visitors and buyers from aroundthe world, while over 150 multinational andnational companies will display their prod-ucts at the exhibition,” said PAAPAM Chair-man Munir Bana.He said this exhibition would be a thor-oughfare of the true engineering and manu-facturing diversity of Pakistani companies,thus providing an opportunity to forge newalliances and business ventures. He alsocalled upon the government to play a part inorganising such mega exhibitions, addingthat this show had been financed com-pletely by PAAPAM and the automobile in-dustry of the country.Bana strongly urged the government to en-sure adequate and exclusive export promo-tions for the engineering sector. “We expectthat the Trade Development Authority ofPakistan (TDAP) would support our initia-tives, both locally and abroad, for these ef-forts are geared towards our nationalinterest, with the aim of promoting exportsand introducing new technologies,” Banasaid. In Pakistan, the local industry assem-bles cars, motorcycles, tractors, and heavyvehicles such as trucks and buses, and alsohosts major original equipment manufac-turers (OEMs) such as Toyota, Honda,Suzuki and Massey Ferguson.PAAPAM Vice Chairman Usman Malikfurther said that Germany, with the col-laboration of its government, holds theworld’s largest auto exhibition every yearin which only a dozen companies fromPakistan participated, while hundreds offirms from our neighbouring countriesdisplayed their products in the show.Malik further said with steady growth inthe automotive parts manufacturing in-dustry in the region, the 2013 exhibition inKarachi will play a crucial role in the eco-nomic development of Pakistan’s automo-bile-related market, both locally andinternationally. The show will be a perfectplace to approach a potential buyer andmeet existing customers, he underlined.
KARACHI
STAFF REPORT
The Pakistanis working abroad remittedover $7.116 billion during the first half ofthe current fiscal year, from July to De-cember 2012.
A central bank report on Thursdayshowed an increase of 12.51 percent inthis regard compared to the correspon-ding period of FY 12.
The State Bank pointed out that theremittances received through banksamounted to $6.421 billion (90%),through exchange companies $640 mil-lion (9%) and through Pakistan Post $56million (1%).
The inflow of remittances during theperiod under review from Saudi Arabia,UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries (includingBahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman), andEU countries amounted to $1.960 billion,$1.460 billion, $1.155 billion, $1.005 bil-lion, $811.18 million and $188.77 million,respectively. In FY 12 these figures stoodat $1.661 billion, $1.412 billion, $1.150billion, $726.35 million, $721.19 millionand $189.14 million from the respectivedestinations. The remittances received
from Norway, Switzerland, Australia,Canada, Japan and other countries dur-ing the first half of the current fiscal year(July- December FY13) amounted to $534.68 million as against $463.61 millionreceived in the first half of the last fiscalyear. The monthly average remittancesfor July-December 2012 period comesout to $1.186 billion as compared to$1.054 million during the correspondingperiod last year.
An amount of $1.134 billion was re-mitted by overseas Pakistanis in Decem-ber, 2012 as against $ 1.085 billion in thesame month of the last fiscal year (De-cember 2011) depicting a growth of4.54%. In December (2012), the inflow ofremittances from Saudi Arabia, UAE,USA, UK, GCC countries, and EU coun-tries amounted to $351.17 million,$220.28 million, $161.97 million,$159.15 million, $134.49 million and$27.61 million respectively as comparedwith an inflow of $297.53 million, $245.67 million, $175.12 million, $132.05million, $121.15 million and $28.88 mil-lion respectively in December, 2011. Re-mittances received from Norway,Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan
and other countries during the sixthmonths of the current fiscal year (Decem-ber FY13) amounted to $79.99 million asagainst $84.95 million received in thesixth months of the last fiscal year.
The central bank attributes thisgrowing trend to the Pakistan Remit-tance Initiative (PRI). “The continuedgrowth in worker remittances is the re-sult of efforts made by Pakistan Remit-tance Initiative (PRI) in collaborationwith other stakeholders to facilitate bothoverseas Pakistanis and their familiesback home,” the regulator said. Since itsinception, the PRI had taken a number ofsteps to enhance the flow of remittancesthrough formal channels which includepreparation of national strategies on re-mittances, taking all necessary steps toimplement the overall strategy, playingan advisory role for financial sector interms of preparing a business case, rela-tionship building with overseas corre-spondents, creating separate efficientremittance payment highways and be-coming a national focal point for overseasPakistanis through a round the clock call-centre with toll free lines, separate website etc, the state bank said.
Remittances grow by 12.5pcto $7.1b in first half of FY13
PRO 11-01-2013_Layout 1 1/11/2013 5:19 AM Page 1
02
Friday, 11 January, 2013
Major Gainers
COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVER
Bata (Pak) 1298.99 1335.00 1335.00 1335.00 36.01 400
Exide (PAK) 280.00 290.00 290.00 290.00 10.00 1,400
Clariant Pak 260.33 273.34 259.02 269.49 9.16 183,200
Gillette Pak 102.42 107.54 102.42 107.54 5.12 1,500
Siemens Pakistan 615.00 618.90 606.10 618.90 3.90 650
Major Losers
UniLever Pak 10080.77 10000.00 9952.00 10000.00 -80.77 520Millat Tractors Ltd. 596.08 600.00 585.00 585.47 -10.61 33,000Shezan Inter. 400.00 390.00 390.00 390.00 -10.00 100MCB Bank Ltd. 209.41 211.99 201.60 203.03 -6.38 1,220,000Philip Morris Pak. 125.00 119.10 118.75 119.04 -5.96 600
Volume LeadersP.T.C.L.A 16.91 17.20 16.30 16.39 -0.52 12,157,000Fauji Cement 6.39 6.57 6.31 6.46 0.07 10,854,000Maple Leaf Cement 15.76 15.77 15.06 15.31 -0.45 5,198,500Jah.Sidd. Co. 15.05 15.05 14.68 14.74 -0.31 5,082,500Byco Petroleum 13.33 13.63 13.14 13.21 -0.12 5,050,000
Interbank RatesUS Dollar 97.3095UK Pound 156.0552Japanese Yen 1.1039Euro 127.3489
Forex RatesBUY SELL
US Dollar 98.20 98.90Euro 128.51 130.65Great Britain Pound 156.80 159.35Japanese Yen 1.0999 1.1172Canadian Dollar 98.27 100.52Hong Kong Dollar 12.39 12.71UAE Dirham 26.58 26.97Saudi Riyal 26.03 26.41Kuwaiti Dinar 344.78 349.59
Business
KARACHI: United Bank Limited (UBL) Pak-istan on Thursday announced its partnershipwith Etisalat, UAE’s premier telecomprovider, to receive e-Commerce PaymentGateway platform or EPG services in Pakistan.This partnership with Etisalat marks UBL’sentry into a new market segment, enablingPakistan-based merchants and corporates toserve their Pakistan based and internationalclients for e-Commerce transactions, usingUBL as the local acquiring bank. This part-nership was finalised in an agreement signingceremony held at Etisalat Tower, Dubai onJanuary 7, 2013. The ceremony was attendedby officials from Etisalat’s e-Commerce divi-sion, including Mr. Abdulla Ebrahim AlAhmed, SVP Business, Mr. Faisal M Omar,Manager E-Commerce, Mr. Nabeel Mohd AlHassan, Sales Manager – Enterprise Sales andMr. Enrique Beza, Senior Manager – MobileCommerce. UBL was represented by Mr.Aameer Karachiwalla, Group Executive - Re-tail Bank, Mr. Najeeb Agrawalla, Group Head– Marketing & Product Management – RetailBank, Mr. Faisal Qazi, Head – Alternate De-livery Channels and Mr. Haroon Mahmood,Head – Business Development, UBL Interna-tional. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. AameerKarachiwalla, Group Executive - Retail Bank,
UBL said, “The EPG’s growing popularity andsuccessful track record in the UAE means thatEtisalat is well equipped to deal with the chal-lenges that may be presented in other mar-kets, including Pakistan. We are confidentthat this partnership will benefit both our cor-porate and individual customers in Pakistanand allow them to conduct e-Commerce trans-actions securely”. Najeeb Agrawalla, GroupHead – Marketing, UBL said, “UBL has alwaysbeen committed to providing innovative prod-uct solutions. We are happy to be partnerswith Etisalat, which has an impeccable trackrecord of payment solutions in UAE and otherregion. We are confident that the new Elec-tronic Payment Gateway will provide a robustand secure platform for our customers in Pak-istan and will foster e-Commerce and paymentsystems in the country. “ “The increasingnumber of transactions made using multipleelectronic devices across markets has made itcrucial for vendors and payment institutionsto be linked using a secure payment gatewaythat is flexible and versatile,” said Mr. Ab-dulla Ebrahim Al Ahmad, SVP Business, Eti-salat. “The EPG offers a perfect blend ofsecure and efficient online payment servicethat merchants can use as a daily (or 24/7)online payment option for their customers. In
this regard, our partnership with UBL is im-portant which enables us to authorize transac-tions in Pakistani markets using UBL as thelocal acquiring bank. This partnership bringsa total of six banks connected to our Paymentplatform”. PR
LG cinema 3D Smart TV
recognized for stability
LAHORE: LG Electronics (LG) announcedthat its CINEMA 3D Smart TV’s (55LA6900)Environment Product Declaration (EPD) hasbeen certified by UL (Underwriters Laborato-ries) and has received a Sustainable ProductCertification (SPC). An internationally respected technology testingcompany, UL certifies manufacturer-producedEPDs and products which meet strict environ-mental performance and sustainability criteria.“LG is proud to have its ongoing efforts to de-velop and manufacture sustainable productsrecognized by UL,” said Havis Kwon, Presidentand CEO of the LG Electronics Home Enter-tainment Company. “The LA6900 embodies our desire and commit-ment to create products that protect not onlythe health of the environment, but the healthof the consumer as well. We will continue todeliver market leading products capable ofmeeting, and in many cases exceeding industrystandards.” PR
NAB arrests BoP defaulters
LAHORE: NAB Punjab arrested Javed Iqbaland Abdul Hameed, both directors of Pak HeroIndustries (Pvt.) Ltd. in case of willful default ofloan of Rs 483.399 million of The Bank of Pun-jab. M/s Pak Hero Industries (Pvt.) Ltd. was de-faulter since 2008 and the State Bank ofPakistan on the complaint of The Bank of Pun-jab had filed reference against the company andits directors under Section 31-D NAO 1999 withthe NAB chairman. PR
LAHORE: Energy Secretary Jehanzeb Khan, Rao
Elahi, Farhana Mehmood and other guests at the
launch of a solar panel at BNU Campus on Raiwind
Road. StaFF Photo
Guests at the third convocation of Virtual University.
PReSS ReleaSe
CORPORATE CORNERUBL partners with Etisalat to launch internet based acquiring in Pakistan
Imported cars outpace
locally-manufactured
in terms of salesKARACHI
STAFF REPORT
The first half of FY13 saw the sales of locallyproduced cars, including LCVs, Vans andJeeps, sliding by 30 percent. According tomarket observers, car sales during FY13dipped to 57,540 units from 81,944 unitsout during the corresponding period inFY12.The official figures for the sales of importedcars, however, are yet to be released.A monthly account shows that the locallymanufactured car sales slid to 8,448 unitsin December (2012), down by 8 percentcompared to 9,154 units in November. Thisshows a 25% decline compared to 11,217 inthe same month last year.“Plunge in the sales is on account of highimports of used imported CBU’s prior to re-striction on imports, termination of NonEURO-II compliant cars (‘Alto’ and ‘Coure’)and absence of taxi scheme,” said ZeeshanAfzal, an analyst at Topline Research.Among the individual companies, PakSuzuki’s (PSMC) sales declined by 32% to34,324 units during the first six months ofFY13 compared to 50,718 units last year.However, on a monthly basis, PSMC’s salespicked up to 5,987 units in December, 2012,up by 7%, compared to 5,584 units in No-vember 2012 on account of increased salesof cargo vehicles ‘Bolan’ and ‘Ravi’. IndusMotors’s (INDU) sales came down by 39%to 14,699 units during FY13 as compared to24,066 units in the first six months of FY12.“Decline in sales is primarily contributed by38% decline in Corolla sales which stood at12,429 units in the first half of FY13,” saidAfzal. INDU’s sales, on monthly basis, de-clined to 1,571 units in December, a 26% de-crease compared to 2,125 units inNovember 2012 and 50% decrease as com-pared to 3,134 units in November 2011.
ISLAMABAD
APP
THE enforcement department of theSecurities and Exchange Commissionof Pakistan (SECP) penalised a num-ber of companies, their directors andstatutory auditors for non compliance
with the corporate laws and applicable accountingstandards in December 2012. As a part of its man-date to monitor the listed and unlisted companiesto safeguard the investors’ interest, the departmentinitiated 39 show-cause proceedings against direc-tors and auditors of listed and unlisted companiesthat failed to comply with applicable provisions oflaw. According to a statement from SECP, the en-forcement actions were taken in view of the breachesof statutory requirements noticed by the regulatoryauthority relating to misuse of powers by directorsof the companies, misstatements of facts or infor-mation in the statutory returns or documents, im-proper circulation of financial statements and latesubmission of quarterly accounts.
During the month, the department concluded24 proceedings against companies, either by warn-
ing or by penalising identified defaulters.The department resolved 17 complaints by in-
vestors. These complaints pertained to sharehold-ers who were deprived of their statutory rights toreceive annual audited accounts, dividend warrantsor bonus shares, or unverified transfer deeds. In ad-dition, the SECP during the month allowed a com-pany to change the place of its annual generalmeeting and issued a designation letter for grouptaxation to another company for the purpose of tax-ation benefit. Two listed companies were accordedapproval to appoint their cost auditors under theCompanies (Audit of Cost Accounts) Rules, 1998.
Furthermore, one company was directed tohold its overdue annual general meeting while an-other company was directed to ensure compliancewith certain provisions of applicable reportingstandards. With regards to raising capital, a listedcompany was granted approval for issuance ofpreference shares.
Meanwhile, in three separate requests, compa-nies were facilitated by granting relaxation fromthe requirements of 1996 Companies (Issue of Cap-ital) Rules, and exemption from preparation ofconsolidated financial statements.
SECP acts against directors,auditors for breaching law
PRO 11-01-2013_Layout 1 1/11/2013 5:19 AM Page 2
