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business

BThursday, 11 April, 2013

Ranking of Pakistani products in international markets needs to

be improved to portray a better image of our produce. – Federal

Minister for Industries & Production Shahzada Ahsan Ashraf

6TH POWER GENERATION MOOT(

(

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

ExPERTS have empha-sised the need for intro-ducing moreindependent power pro-ducers (IPPS) to curbprolonged and unan-

nounced power outages in the country.Speakers expressed these views at the

6th International Power Conference andExhibition on Emerging Energy Mix forSustainable Power Generation. The SindhYouth Affairs Department and NationalForum for Environment and Health(NFEH) organised the event.

“The independent power producers(IPPs) can generate more energy with moreefficiency as compared to public sector,however, government’s facilities and en-couragement is required in this regard,”they added.

Abdullah Yusuf, IPPs Advisory Coun-cil chairman, said that the power shortagehad become a big issue as the country’spopulation had increased at a high pace. Hesaid it is the need of the hour that effectivesteps should be taken to produce alternativepower like wind and solar energy.

He said that power producers were fac-ing several problems like high cost of gen-eration, governance issue, fuel adjustment,adding that the government should provide

incentive to IPPs for generating power inpeace. India, China and Russia are generat-ing huge quantity of alternative energy butPakistan is still lagging behind in this regard.

“Coal power generation in the countryshould be boosted as it is inexpensive.There is also a need to revise the NEPRAtariff, while subsidies and bill collection is-sues are also hitting the power sector hard,”he said. Whole system should be restruc-tured to boost power sector, he added.

He called for creation of energy min-istry to resolve power crisis and other is-sues amicably. He said that privatisation ofDiscos and Gencos was also mandatory asthe government could not tackle all issuesitself. “We should rehabilitate Gencos forpower conservation. It is private sectorwhich is boosting production but not thepublic sector,” he added.

Zubair Malik, president FPCCI, saidthat electricity was very important for de-velopment, adding that steps should betaken to generate alternative energy to meetpower needs of the country.

Current debt, governance, price adjust-ment and other issues facing power sectorbe addressed on priority basis, he said. It isprivate sector that is doing business effec-

tively as compared to government. Hecalled for providing power supply to indus-tries for their sustainability and economicstability of the country. “We will not allowindustries shift,” he said.

Arif Alauddin, CEO Alternative EnergyDevelopment Board (AEDB) said that their4 wind energy projects would serve as amodel for other projects, as the pace of de-velopment of another 400-600 MW wouldget accelerated. These wind power projectsare expected to achieve financial close dur-ing the current year.

He said that two wind power projects—FFCEL (49.5MW) and Zorlu Enerji(56.4MW) have already been completed.FFCEL has been inaugurated and the ZorluEnerji is ready for the formal launch.

Arif urged the government to attract thesugary industry owners to setup Co-Gener-ation Bagasse/Biomass based power plants.Recently, the ECC has approved the ‘PolicyFramework for Power Co-Generation, 2013(Bagasse/Biomass), to be administrated bythe Alternative Energy Development Board.

Bagasse (Sugar Mills waste) is environ-mentally friendly and can help mitigategreenhouse gas emissions from the coun-try’s power sector. Other benefits includes,

precious savings in foreign exchange spenton import of furnace oil. US$ 500 millioncan be saved by consumers in fuel cost if2,000 MW is generated by cheaper bagasseinstead of HFO. Foreign exchange savingsfor the country through the use of this in-digenous fuel instead of imported HFO willbe over US$ 1 billion annually, he added.

Abbas Sajid, Renewable Energy Asso-ciation of Pakistan (REAP) chairman, saidthat his organisation was imparting trainingto people in power sector and striving forovercoming power shortages and finding itsalternative solutions.

He stressed the need to boost renewableenergy production in the country. “We as anation should come up with concrete meas-ures to foster power generation for socio-economic uplift,” he said. Nasim A Khan,Osmani Associates executive director, saidwind energy was not being utilised despiteit has more potential. He stressed the needto install more wind and other alternativeenergy projects across Pakistan.

Umer Yaqoob said financing was amajor hurdle in energy projects installa-tion. There was need to launch power proj-ects on public private partnership basis, headded.

Experts call for resolving power crises on war footing

ABDULLAH YUSUFIPPs AdvIsory CounCIl ChAIrmAn

Coal power generation in

the country should be

boosted as it is

inexpensive. There is also

a need to revise the

NEPRA tariff, while

subsidies and bill

collection issues

are also hitting the

power sector hard.

Ansar Javed to

head Federal Board

of RevenueISLAMABAD: Interim Prime MinisterMir Hazar Khan Khoso on Wednesday ap-pointed Ansar Javed as chairman of theFederal Board of Revenue. Javed belongsto the Income Tax Group and is a grade-22officer. Khoso received the names ofAnsar Javed, Shahid Rahim Sheikh andAbdul Samad for the slot. However, theprime minister approved Javed’s name forthe important position. Before his appoint-ment, Javed was serving as Director Gen-eral Training in Lahore. On Tuesday, theIslamabad High Court had declared voidthe appointment of previous chairman, AliArshad Hakeem. After assuming charge,Javed canceled leaves of all staff forachieving the revenue target. STAFF REPORT

Pakistan to host nextSAARC insuranceregulators mootKARACHI: The SAARC insurance regula-tors conference held in Bangladesh decidedthat next regulators’ moot would be hostedby Pakistan in 2014. The two-day SAARCconference on “The Way Forward in theWake of Global Reality” was held at Banga-bandhu International Conference Centre,Dhaka, on April 6-7. Organised by the Insur-ance Development and Regulatory Authority(IDRA) of Bangladesh, the conference con-cluded with the adoption of Dhaka Declara-tion. It was formally announced that Pakistanwould host the next insurance regulators’conference next year. Muhammad KashifSiddique, Joint Director SECP, while deliv-ering a presentation on the overall insurancesector in Pakistan highlighted statistics onthe performance of the sector during the lastfew years which by and large portrayed at-tractive bottom lines. “This suggests that thePakistan insurance industry is poised for asignificant growth in the years ahead,” hesaid. The Dhaka Declaration, inter alia, in-cludes recommendations for capacity build-ing, developing a robust legal framework,setting up of a resource pool for reinsurancepurposes and devising market conduct forplugging unethical practices like undercut-ting prices, efficient claims management sys-tem etc. The conference also recommendedthe establishment of a committee forSAARC insurance regulators. STAFF REPORT

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

Pakistanis working abroad remitted over$10.353 billion during the first ninemonths of current fiscal year, July–MarchFY13, the Central Bank said on Tuesday.

This, the bank said, marks a growth of6.35 percent or $617.95 million comparedwith over $9.735 billion the dollar-hungrycountry had received during the correspon-ding period of last fiscal year, July-MarchFY12. “The continued growth in workers’remittances is the result of the effortsmade by Pakistan Remittance Initiative(PRI) in collaboration with other stake-holders,” said the State Bank.

The period under review saw the in-flow of remittances from Saudi Arabia,UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries (includ-ing Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman),and EU countries amounting, respectively,to over $2.979 billion, $2.085 billion,$1.636 billion, $1.434.97 billion, $1.195

billion and $269.04million. Comparedto this during thesame months lastyear overseas Pak-istanis remitted$2.655 billion,$2.140 billion,$1.724 billion,$1.131 million,$1.099 billion and$273.45 millionfrom the above des-tinations.

The remittancesreceived from Nor-way, Switzerland,Australia, Canada,Japan and othercountries were counted as $752.04 millionas against $710.47 million received inFY12. On average the inflow of monthlyremittances for this period stands out to$1.150 billion compared to $1.081 billion

of the previous year,said the State Bank.

In March(2013), the remit-tances from SaudiArabia, UAE, USA,UK, GCC countriesand EU countrieswas recorded at$351.53 million,$220.22 million,$175.53 million,$150.22 million,$128.36 million and$26.43 million, re-spectively.

The inflowsfrom these destina-tions in March last

year were $329.45 million, $ 237.04 mil-lion, $198.90 million, $140.65 million,$130.58 million and $28.54 million, thecentral bank recalled. The receipts fromNorway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada,

Japan and other countries during thismonth amounted to $66.86 million.

“The continued growth in workers’ re-mittances is the result of the efforts madeby Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) incollaboration with other stakeholders,”

The central bank attributes the currentgrowing trend remittances to the PRI that,the regulator said, facilitated both overseasPakistanis and their families back home.Since its inception, the Initiative has taken anumber of steps to enhance the flow of re-mittances through formal channels. Themeasures taken include preparation of na-tional strategies on remittances, taking allnecessary steps to implement the overallstrategy, playing the advisory role for finan-cial sector in terms of preparing a businesscase, relationship building with overseascorrespondents, creating separate efficientremittance payment highways and becom-ing a national focal point for overseas Pak-istanis through round-the-clock call centrewith toll free lines, separate web site etc.

Remittances increase to $10.35b in nine monthsThe continued growth inworkers’ remittances isthe result of the efforts

made by PakistanRemittance Initiative (PRI)

in collaboration withother stakeholders. –

State Bank of Pakistan

Deposits of Burj Bank up77pc to Rs 36b in 2012

KARACHI: Burj Bank has concluded2012 as a turnaround year in terms of serv-ice delivery with the announcement of itsannual financial results. The year 2012marked the bank’s deposit base growingfrom Rs 20 billion to Rs 36 billion reflect-ing a deposit growth of 77% whereas thetotal assets grew from Rs 27.6 billion to Rs47 billion reflecting 70% growth during theyear. The balance sheet growth wasachieved while following a focused re-pric-ing strategy for both liabilities and assets.As a result of the customer’s trust, theBank posted an after tax profit of Rs.85 mnfor 2012; with a basic/diluted EPS ofRe.0.114 per share posted for the year.As the bank’s 7th AGM concluded, ShehabM. Gargash, shareholder and Vice Chair-man of Burj Bank said: “We are glad thatthe bank has grown well at a tough timeand our efforts towards creating customerdelight have started reaping positive resultsfor both the bank and more importantly forthe consumers of financial services. Wehave a long term commitment towards Pak-istan & its people. With the ongoing sup-port of all the investors, the regulators andour customers, we will soon make BurjBank the Islamic Bank of Choice in Pak-istan”. STAFF REPORT

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

The sale of locally-manufactured cars,including LCVs, vans and jeeps, in9MFY13 contracted to 96,326 unitscompared to 128,567 units of the sameperiod last year.

This, the market analysts said,shows a decline of 25 percent.

For the subdued sales the analystscite a huge influx of used importedCBU’s during first quarter of FY13, ter-mination of Non-EURO-II compliantcars (‘Alto’ and ‘Coure’) and the ab-sence of taxi scheme.

However, in March 2013, car salesimproved to 13,344 units compared to12,628 units in Feb’13.

“We attribute the 6pc improve-ment to the declining inven-tory of imported usedCBU’s after im-port restric-tions andpre-electionb u y i n g , ”viewed Zee-shan Afzal ofTopline Re-

search. The LCVs sales increased by37pc MoM to 1,763 units mainly withthe support of newly launched Toyota‘Fortuner’. However, passenger carsales improved by 2% to 11,581 unitsin the month.

Amongst individual companies,Pak Suzuki (PSMC) sales declined by32% to 55,428 units in 9MFY13 versus81,360 units in the same period inFY12. However, on monthly basis,PSMC sales remained stable at 7,100units in Mar’13 as compared to 7,000units last month.

Similarly, Indus Motor (INDU)sales also went down by 34% to 25,829units in 9MFY13 as

against 38,858 units in the same periodlast year. “Decline in sales is mainly be-cause of 32% decline in ‘Corolla’ salesto 22,346 units in the period and termi-nation of ‘Coure’,” said Afzal.

However, the analyst said, onmonthly basis, INDU sales increased by11% to 3,979 units in Mar’13 vs 3,591units in Feb’13.

Although ‘Corolla’ sales declinedby 2% MoM to 3,284, growth in salesis mainly supported by LCVs. In thefirst month of its launch, the companysold 228 units of Toyota Fortuner while‘Hilux’ sales were increased by 86%MoM to 467 units in Mar’13.

“With restriction on used importedCBUs going into effect coupled

with expectation of strongbuying in wake of up-

coming elec-tions, weforesee de-cent growthin local carsales inc o m i n gm o n t h s , ”

the Toplineanalyst said.

Car sales down 25pc in 9MFY13

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businessThursday, 11 April, 2013

LAHORE: Farid Ullah Jan, head of mobile phone

business at SEPAK, gives away Samsung

GALAXY Note-II to Ayla Nausrat, the winner of

NoteII Creative Guru Competition. PR

LAHORE: Aamer Mohsin, COO Service Sales

Corporation, hands over a cheque to Dr Faisal

Sultan, CEO Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer

Hospital & Research Centre. PR

SSC makes donation to SKMCRHLAHORE: Service Sales Corporation (SSC), Pakistan’s

leading retailer presented a donation to SKMCH&RC as

part of their CSR program Har Aik Bantay Khushiyan

(HABK). HABK encapsulates the noble intent of SSC.

The program binds the customers, the internal team,

and the communities where SSC strives to bring a

change under a common thread. SKMCH&RC is SSC’s

primary partner for the program and have donation

boxes placed on more than half of the Servis Store

network. SSC has been a regular contributor to

communities over the years as they believe in making

meaningful improvements, no matter small, in the

community by using existing organizational muscle. PR

Planning and educationaltransformation vital for growthLAHORE: The multi-sectoral participation in

WISE community which comprises 18,000

active members from 152 countries marks the

existence of the fact that education alone on its

own cannot fulfill its part in today’s world

where other factors such as economy, law

reform, infrastructure and planning also play a

major role in furtherance of educational

transformation of a country.

The World Innovation Summit for Education is

a brainchild of the Qatar Foundation under the

patronage of the Foundation’s Chairperson

Sheikha Mozahbint Nasser in 2009. The prime

objective behind the establishment of this

initiative was the timely recognition of an ever

increasing need of innovation in education

given the fast pace with which the world and

society is moving; also, the fact that education

is the answer to all of the world’s problems,

both incumbent and future. It is a multi-

sectoral platform for opening new avenues of

thinking and implementation for enthusiasts

looking forward to improve education via

innovation of any sort regardless of their

persona.

The Innovation Summit has, since its

inception, embarked upon to honour the

efforts of educational enthusiast who have

been working for promotion of education via

introduction of innovation. These honours are

called the WISE Awards. PR

CORPORATE CORNER

02

B

The government is aware of the problems being faced by

the CNG sector but the stakeholders must realise that gas

supply is limited. – Petroleum Minister Sohail Wajahat

Major Gainers

COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVERunilever Food sPoT 4880.40 5124.00 5100.00 5124.00 243.60 60rafhan maize 4178.47 4300.00 4290.00 4300.00 121.53 100Wyeth Pak ltd Xd 1083.53 1137.70 1135.00 1137.70 54.17 250Bata (Pak) Xd 1653.75 1720.00 1625.00 1690.00 36.25 1,100sanofi-Aventis Pak 395.00 414.75 410.00 414.75 19.75 1,200

Major Loserssunrays Textile 219.25 208.30 208.30 208.30 -10.95 500sitara Chemical 210.13 212.00 199.63 199.63 -10.50 41,100Indus motor Co 309.00 300.50 300.00 300.25 -8.75 4,300murree Brewery 192.95 188.00 183.31 186.54 -6.41 4,300noon Pakistan 53.90 51.21 51.21 51.21 -2.69 1,000

Volume Leaders

Engro Polymer 11.41 12.39 11.50 12.17 0.76 12,565,500maple leaf Cement 19.32 19.89 19.10 19.23 -0.09 9,597,500P.T.C.l.A 21.37 21.79 21.35 21.46 0.09 8,377,500Engro Corporation 142.06 143.80 140.75 141.15 -0.91 8,324,800K.E.s.C. 5.78 6.12 5.70 5.82 0.04 7,419,500

interbank Ratesusd PKr 98.3418GBP PKr 150.6301JPy PKr 0.9889Euro PKr 128.8179

ForexBUY SELL

us dollar 98.80 99.05 Euro 127.68 127.91 Great Britain Pound 149.33 149.57 Japanese yen 0.9755 0.9839 Canadian dollar 95.60 97.12 hong Kong dollar 12.42 12.63 uAE dirham 26.60 26.80 saudi riyal 26.10 26.30

KARACHI: A view of the goods seized by Customs officials on Wednesday. ImRAN GILANI

PTCL connects Election offices of ECPISLAMABAD: Playing its part as Pakistan’s leading and

national telecommunication carrier, PTCL has extended

its full support for the preparation of upcoming

elections in the country. In this regard, PTCL has

successfully connected 535 Election offices of the

Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) using the

flagship voice and broadband range of services

including wireline and wireless broadband. Some

remote sites have been connected via VSAT technology.

Concurrently, more than 500 central, district and

regional offices of Returning Officers (ROs) of ECP are being connected through PTCL network and

additional locations will also be connected shortly. It is a unique capability of PTCL to bring forth Telecom

Systems Integration to render services for customer like ECP with a demand for the widest possible

national coverage. The state of the art connectivity has been provided to ECP and UNDP office bearers

across the country. It will enable ECP and UNDP offices in all parts of the country to transmit data whilst

remaining connected with ECP Headquarters in Islamabad. This is a significant step forward towards

ensuring timely delivery of information which in turn helps to render transparency in the election process. PR

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

THE Asian Develop-ment Bank (ADB)has warned that Asiais moving along adangerously unsus-

tainable energy path that will resultin environmental disaster and a gap-ing divide in energy access betweenrich and poor.

According to its recently re-leased report Asian Developmentbank highlights the complex balanc-ing act the region faces to deliver en-ergy to all its citizens while scalingback its reliance on fossil fuels. Re-port stated that if by 2035 Asiamerely expands energy access with-out fundamentally changing the way

it consumes, then re-gion’s oil consump-tion will double,natural gasconsumptionwill triple,and coalconsump-tion willrise awhopping81%, withcostly anddevastatingenvironmentalimpacts. “Asiacould be consumingmore than half theworld’s energy supply by2035, and without radical changescarbon dioxide emissions will dou-

ble,” said ADB ChiefEconomist Changy-

ong Rhee. Reportsaid that with

only 9% ofp r o v e nglobal oilrese rves ,the regionis cur-rently ontrack to al-

most tripleoil imports

by 2035, ren-dering it signifi-

cantly morevulnerable to external

supply shocks. It said thatAsia must find the political will andinnovation to scrap outdated policies

and recalibrate its energy mix. Forone, policymakers will need to re-place general fuel subsidies that ar-tificially lower the cost of power andimpose huge fiscal burdens with tar-geted subsidies for the poor. The re-port suggests eliminating wastefulsubsidies worldwide would alsolower CO2 emissions by 2.6 billiontons in 2035. Renewable energytechnologies wind, solar and bio fueltechnologies must be stepped up.

Countries cannot meet all theirpower requirements on their own, soAsia must accelerate cross-borderinterconnection of power and gasgrids to improve efficiency, cutcosts, and take advantage of surpluspower. With increased cooperation,a pan-Asia energy market is achiev-able by 2030, the report says.

Asia moving along a dangerously unsustainable energy path, warns ADB

Asia must find the political will and

innovation to scrap outdated policies and recalibrate its energy

mix. For one, policymakers will need to replace general fuel subsidies that artificially lower

the cost of power and impose huge fiscal burdens with targeted

subsidies for the poor. The report suggests eliminating wasteful

subsidies worldwide would also lower CO2 emissions

by 2.6 billion tons in 2035

JS may revoke Growth FundKARACHI: The management of Jahangir Siddiqui InvestmentsLimited (JS Investments) is tending to convert the JS GrowthFund into an open-ended scheme or revoke the Fund. In this re-gard, the company would be seeking the agreement of the certifi-cate holders of the Fund in a general meeting scheduled to beheld on April 30. “The meeting would decide whether to convertJS Growth Fund into an open-end scheme or to revoke the Fund,”the JS Investments told its shareholders at the country’s threestocks exchanges in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad on Wednes-day. It said the register of certificate holders would remainedclosed from April 24 to 30. STAFF REPORT

KARACHI: The 225 MW Hub Power Company(Hubco) power plant in Narowal has shut downoperations over non-availability of oil and non-payment of Rs 19 billion outstanding amount, thecompany said on Wednesday. “We are unable torun our power plant due to our inability to procureoil,” the company said, urging the federal govern-ment to clear the dues on priority to help it bridgethe current gap between demand and supply. ZafarIqbal Sobani, CEO Hubco, in a statement said thatwhile his side was appreciative of the appointmentof Dr Musaddaq Malik as Federal Minister forWater and Power, the company also hoped that theminister would take concrete steps to solve the is-sues being faced by the Independent Power Pro-ducers (IPPs). He said the industry was expecting

better decisions from the caretaker minister to runthe country’s efficient power sector at its full ca-pacity. He also hoped that the new water andpower minister would pay due attention to the non-payment issues being faced by the IPPs. Sobaniclaimed that the federal government was only pay-ing to IPPs based on their last day’s generation.Hence, the Narowal power plant was not beingpaid at all for the last three weeks as it was notgenerating power due to non-availability of fuel.Those IPPs which went to the Supreme Court werereceiving partial payments for generating power,the CEO said. Though these IPPs also had overduereceivables, their dues were substantially lowerthan that of Narowal power plant standing in ex-cess of Rs 19 billion. STAFF REPORT

H d

DIB posts Rs 501mprofit in 2012KARACHI: The Board of Directors of DubaiIslamic Bank Pakistan Limited (DIBPL) re-cently held a meeting to approve its financialstatements for the year ended December 31,2012. DIBPL is a fully owned subsidiary ofDubai Islamic Bank UAE, the world’s first Is-lamic Bank. The Year 2012 marked numerousachievements for DIBPL. On the financial side,the bank has reported a yearend Profit BeforeTax of Rs 501 million. Furthermore, a 38% de-posit growth was achieved in comparison to2011, taking total deposits to Rs 53.11 billion in2012. On the asset side, DIBPL’s asset base roseby 32% in contrast to 2011 increasing the assetbase to Rs 63.5 Billion in 2012. The Bank’s in-vestments grew substantially by 65% over theyear, taking total investments to Rs 21.33 Bil-lion. DIBPL opened 25 new branches in 2012,increasing the total branch network to 100 in 35cities. In addition, the Bank also established 15Branchless Banking Booth mainly based tocater to growing remittance segment that requireeasy, safe and convenient access. STAFF REPORT

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