Punjab Investment Gala: PBIT invites Karachi businessmen

LAHORE (November 22 2009)

Consultant to Chief Minister Punjab on Economic Affairs and Vice Chairman Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) Pir Saad Ahsanuddin has formally invited leading Karachi businessmen on behalf of the Chief Minster Punjab to Punjab Investment Conference to be held in January next year.

This invitation was extended to businessmen from Karachi Stock market, Presidents of multinational private sector organisations, heads of business forums and leading traders in Karachi, including Syed Salim Raza, Governor State Bank, Arif Habib (Arif Habib Group), Arif Bokhari (UBL) and Shehzad Naqvi (RBS) and other notable during Pir Saad's meetings with them, says a hand out issued here on Saturday.

The vice-chairman PBIT apprised the Karachi investors that Punjab had a necessary infrastructure for local and foreign investment. Above all, business-friendly policies had been introduced to expedite the pace of economic growth under the leadership of Punjab Chief Minister, Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif.

He further said that the PBIT had outreached local and foreign investors to identify areas of facilitation they require from the Punjab government. The PBIT was providing one-window operation to the investors and businessmen to initiate fresh projects in the province, he said. -PR

Foreign debt, liabilities touch new peak

RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI (November 22 2009)

The country's external debts and liabilities have posted a raise of some three billion dollars to a new peak of 55.2 billion dollars by end of September 2009 mainly due to International Monetary Fund's (IMF) standby loan package to avert balance of payments crisis.

The State Bank of Pakistan on Saturday said that the country's external debt and liabilities had been consistently climbing for past few years and overall an increase of 2.888 billion dollars was registered in external debts and liabilities during the first quarter (July-Sep) of current fiscal year. After the current upsurge, overall external debts and liabilities reached new high at 55.216 billion dollars as on September 30, 2009, against 52.333billion dollars at the end of last fiscal year.

"As per Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act, 2005, the government has to reduce its foreign debt by 2.5 percent of GDP every year. However, during last two years, due to the global economic meltdown, slow foreign investment and poor economic activities on domestic front the government failed to reduce the foreign debts," economists said.

On the one hand Pakistan is facing problems for reimbursement payments from the US, while on the other the current account deficit is on the rise, which compelled the government for fresh borrowings, they said. The country's external debts registered an increase of 3.03 billion dollars, to 53.794 billion dollars from 50.759 billion dollars during first three months of current fiscal year.

Foreign exchange liabilities depicted a slight decrease, of 152 million dollars, during the first quarter of current fiscal year. Foreign liabilities decreased to 1.422 billion dollars by the end of September 2009 as against 1.574 billion dollars as on June 30, 2009.

Foreign debts, as per ratio, also rose to 33 percent of overall GDP during July-Sep of fiscal year 2009, as at present GDP size is about 162.5 billion dollars. Major increase has been witnessed in the medium and long term debts, which posted an increase of 1.79 billion dollars, to 43.168 billion dollars from 41.459 billion dollars by the end of September 2009.

Similarly, during the same period with an increase of 2.13 billion dollars, the country's overall foreign exchange reserves stood at 11.221 billion dollars, up from 9.118 billion dollars. The major surge was witnessed after standby loan agreement with IMF and so far Pakistan has received some 4 billion dollars of 7.6 billion dollars program, while another payment of fourth tranche worth of 1.2 billion dollars is expected by the end of November 2009.

Economists said that rising current account deficit had compelled the government to go for fresh borrowings from internal and external sources. Therefore, overall debt burden is increasing gradually. The country has already requested for another loan of 4 billion dollars, which has also been approved by the IMF board in its recent meeting. Therefore, it is expected that during the current fiscal year the country's debt would show further increase.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2009