Tag: Sector

FAISALABAD - A Faisalabad-based textile exporter has claimed that the textile sector has the potential to pay off all foreign debts of the country within three years if the federal government ensures uninterrupted electricity and gas supplies to the Punjab.
Renowned cotton yarn exporter Syed Faheem Mahmood Shah, the Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association (Punjab and KPK zone) chairman, in his exclusive interview to Pakistan Today, has expressed his deep concern over the federal

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has taken steps for the development and welfare of the doctors, nurses and other officials working in health sector and on his directions the Health Department has regularised about 5,000 doctors besides, promoting hundreds of medical officers, said Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad on Thursday.
He was chairing a meeting to review measures taken for the health sector development and doctors' welfare. He said 1,135 medical officers

LAHORE - Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) organised a three-day training of trainers titled 'Empowering the activists to defend women workers' rights'. As many as 35 Muslim and Christian participants including working women and representatives of civil society organizations actively participated in the training held at Dar-ul-Kalam.
The purpose of the training was to equip trainees in order to promote and protect human rights of working class. The

ISLAMABAD - The legislators in the lower house Tuesday underlined the need to take immediate steps to ensure food security by providing various incentives to the farming community.
MNA Nighat Parveen Mir moved a motion and asked the house to discuss the steps being taken by the government to improve agriculture in the country. She stressed the need to adopt a more encompassing approach in finding solutions to the problems being faced by farmers. She suggested that small farmers

LAHORE - United Nation's Fund for Population Affairs (UNFPA) will cooperate for improving health facilities in Punjab's rural areas and will provide financial assistance for making the rural health centres functional. These views were expressed by the members of a delegation of UNFPA while talking to the Punjab Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad in a meeting on Wednesday.
The delegation comprised of UNFPA representatives; Rabbi Royan, Provincial Head Dr Jameel and Project

LAHORE - Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has stressed the need to develop a National Construction Sector Development Strategy and removal of regulatory hurdles and complexities to harness the true potential of the construction sector in the country.
Global Perspective: In recently conducted research, LCCI has pointed out that the construction industry is a big global industry worth $7.5 trillion, which employ over 100 million people and contribute 13.5 percent to

LAHORE - Provincial Minister for Mines and Minerals Dr Tanvir-ul-Islam has said that all necessary steps will be taken for the development of the mineral sector to harness the natural resources of Pakistan.
He was addressing a meeting after assuming office of the department. Secretary Mines and Minerals Shahid Mehmood, Additional Secretary Rao Ghulam Hussain, Chief Inspector Mines Tahzeeb-ul-Hassan Ansari and other senior officers were also present. The minister was given a

ISLAMABAD - The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has still not hired a contactor for the development of sector I-15 allotted in 2006 to meet the housing needs of low-income groups working in the federal capital.
According to a CDA official, there are 13,500 housing units in the allotted sector having 5,500 plots each measuring 5-7 marlas and 8,000 flats each to be built on 1,300 square feet area. He said the civic body allotted these housing units under a quota system giving

DASKA - PML-N MNA Khawaja Muhammad Asif said on Friday the industrial sector of the Punjab was confronting multiple problems due to unavailability of gas and electricity.
He alleged the federal government was intentionally imposing the crisis of electricity on Punjab whereas 700megawatts electricity was being supplied to Karachi at Rs 3 per unit. Asif said the government was 'inventing' new modes of corruption but PML-N would close all doors of corruption and malpractices with

ISLAMABAD - The private sector can import both raw and white sugar during the current season, it has been officially learnt. According to official sources, the government has encouraged the private sector to import sugar in the current sugar season. Sources added that the private sector has opened LC's for 1, 53,000 tonnes of both white and raw sugar. It may be recalled that the 25 percent import duty on raw sugar has been removed to facilitate the private sector, while the duty on

ISLAMABAD - The government has decided to start implementing revenue and power sector reforms by doing away with all exemptions under the general sales tax and subsidies on power tariff and petroleum products from February 1.
Official sources said the political leadership made the decision after the economic team informed it in clear terms that the national exchequer was left with no fiscal space to continue bearing Rs 20 billion per month in power tariff differential subsidy and

KARACHI - Despite the government's efforts to improve the employment opportunities available to women, access to employment remains limited in most of the trades. Pakistan still remains lags in terms of gender gap and except for a few professions; women have very limited access to employment.
This was the consensus reached by participants of a seminar assessing gender inequality in the workforce. It was jointly organised by Sustainable Development Programme Institute (SDPI) and

KARACHI - The bourse continued to surprise local investors as the benchmark index soared, climbing by 240 points during the day. However a slight correction in the closing hours brought the index down to 12,323 level. The KSE-100 index gained 183 points at the close of the day, with volumes of 144 million shares.
Energy companies led the charge with POL emerging the star performer in response to reported prospect of a discovery in the Tal block. The KSE 100 index closed at

ISLAMABAD - The Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Citibank, and MCB have announced completion of a landmark trade transaction that would help boost the local textile industry.
A statement issued by ADB has said that the four banks provided trade finance coverage of up to Euro 110 million for Ibrahim Fibers Limited to import German machinery.
This would help produce polyester staple fiber and polyester chips. The additional 650

KARACHI - Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), on the back of its fixed line infrastructure, continues to hold the largest share in Digital Subscribe Line (DSL) market segment, as its share has grown from 76 percent in Financial Year 2009 to 88.5 percent in FY10 as its customer base more than doubled to reach 422,000.
Moreover, the company under Universal Service Fund (USF) was allocated a project to provide 64,000 new DSL connections in the rural areas of Southern

ISLAMABAD - International Financial Institutions (IFI) have again advised the government to introduce professional management in power sector entities to curtail the burgeoning circular debt in the power sector, official sources revealed.
The government had dissolved the board of directors of all the power distribution, generation and transmission companies on November 22. However, installation of new boards has been delayed for the previous 40 days; this delay has perturbed

KARACHI - The federal government appears all set to sustain its dependence on private sector borrowings for meeting its budgetary requirements during the third fiscal quarter, despite warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the State Bank of Pakistan.
The central bank has set a target of Rs 1.060 trillion, to be raised form the open market, through issuance of Government Ijara Sukuk (GIS), Government Market Treasury Bills (GMTBs) and Pakistan Investment Bonds