ML-I upgradation is of great importance to Pakistan
On March 17, China and Pakistan agreed to execute the mega ML-1 railway up-gradation project under the framework of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) on a priority basis. This is a major development and also the implementation of the important consensus of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s meeting with Chinese top leaders during his recent visit to China.
The agreement was reached at an online meeting between the CPEC Authority of Pakistan and the National Development and Reforms Commission (NDRC) of China.
The relevant departments of the two countries are now fully geared to take the necessary steps to transform the understandings reached at the highest level into actions on the ground at the earliest.
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Government in talks with Russia for LNG imports
As Russia develops the Yamal LNG project facility — Islamabad and Moscow are in talks to a multi-billion dollar government-to-government import deal. The Yamal LNG Project includes the development of the giant South Tambey (Tambeyskoye) gas field that is located near Sabetta in the Yamal peninsula in Russia. The Russian government has declared the project to be of national interest at a cost of around $27 billion.
This is a new addition to the energy cooperation between Pakistan and Russia as two countries are already working on different projects including the Pakistan Gas Stream, a gas pipeline from Kazakhstan and an offshore gas pipeline. Sources said the Pakistani government was interested to sign a government-to-government deal with Russia to import LNG to meet its growing gas demand.
They added that Russia was developing the Yamal Project, which would be one of the largest LNG facilities in the world. Russia is also meeting the demand of Europe by exporting gas through a pipeline despite the opposition of the US. The sources said Pakistan LNG Limited was in talks with Russian firms Gazprom and Novatek to import the gas.
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Inflation expected to slip further
The latest jump in cut-off yields on 3-12 months sovereign papers– T-bills – suggests that the benchmark interest rate and inflation reading are close to “peaking out” and economic activities are bound to gain momentum in Pakistan.
The cut-off yields on 3-12 months T-bills stood higher compared to the longer-tenure papers like 3-10 years Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs). This is an unusual situation.
“The inverted yields (higher on short-term papers compared to the long-term papers) strongly signaled that the inflation reading and the benchmark interest rate are close to ‘peaking out’,” Arif Habib Limited (AHL) Head of Research Tahir Abbas said.
With a recent jump of 40-55 basis points (bps), the cut-off yield on 3-12 months T-bills surged to 12 percent to 12.7 percent compared to 11.74-11.85 percent on 3-10 years PIBs recorded in the bonds
’ auction held on March 16.
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Government foresees 5pc gdp growth in fy22
Inflation has become a global challenge and the US, UK, European Union and all emerging markets are currently facing the highest inflation in the last three decades, said the Finance Division while responding to criticism over the state of Pakistan’s economy.
“Pakistan’s economy is also facing inflation headwinds due to record high international energy and food prices,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.
“However, in line with the government’s vision of a social welfare state, it has provided unprecedented relief to the masses by lowering prices of petrol, diesel and electricity.”
Moreover, it said, the government also rolled out the most comprehensive and targeted food subsidy programme that covered 20 million households (54 percent of the population).
It claimed that people had recognised the steps taken by the government to provide relief to the masses.
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Gwadar Free Zone Phase-II updates
In a major development, Gwadar Free Zone (phase-II) goes into formal action in true letter and spirit after the initiation of land allocation process and soil testing rolled out by registered companies. Gwadar Free Zone (phase-I) is already completed and functional.
The get-going makes a headway within 32 weeks after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the Gwadar Free Zone (phase-II) during his one-day visit to Gwadar on July 5, 2021 while launching a number of other development and infrastructure projects including an expo centre, agriculture industrial park and three factories.
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Businesses embrace cloud technology to grow profit
Businesses in Pakistan are rapidly adopting cloud technology as they see it as a way to accelerate business activities and inflate profits while consuming minimal resources.
While technology adoption in Pakistan had always been very fast, the pandemic certainly acted as a catalyst for digital transformation in the country, he pointed out, adding that organisations wanted to remain abreast of the latest technologies.
“We are seeing more and more Pakistani companies, especially those belonging to the health sector, adopt cloud technology as they seek to harness the lower total cost of ownership, higher availability, increased efficiency and greater ability to innovate,” he said.
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Adept laments low cocoon production
Cocoon production in Pakistan is extremely low and the annual demand of the country for 750 tons of cocoon is met through imports from China, Iran and Central Asian states, said Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Sub Campus Umerkot Professor Dr Abdullah Arijo.
Addressing a seminar on sericulture on Wednesday, he said that in the past, more than 200 acres of the mulberry nursery was available in Pakistan however it has been disappearing slowly. Sindh Agriculture University Sub Campus Umerkot Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Jan Mohammad Marri stated that Sindh Agriculture University had started research on sericulture and silkworms of Japanese and Chinese breeds had been included in the experiments in this project.