Turkish
businessmen urged to invest in CPEC projects:
The
Pakistan-Turkey Investment Round Table was organized by the Board of Investment
(BoI) held on Thursday at a local hotel during the two-day official visit of
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to Pakistan. Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif also graced the investment round table. The investment round table was
attended by President & CEO's of different 30 multinational Pakistani
business circles and around 20 prominent business delegation from Turkey.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Asif, and Minister for Water & Power
also participated in the investment round table. Dr Miftah Ismail, MOS /
Chairman, BOI welcomed the President of Turkey and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
and business circles from Turkey & Pakistan in the investment round table
and highlighted that Pakistan is offering a very liberal investment regime in
the region with diverse and business friendly incentives.
FTA
with Turkey by next year: Prime Minister
Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif Thursday said that Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between
Pakistan and Turkey would be finalised by 2017 and it would further enhance
bilateral trade between the two countries. Addressing a joint press conference
along with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a one-on-one
and a delegation-level meetings, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that
fraternal relations between Pakistan and Turkey are unique. "President
Erdogan and I have a wide-range of discussions and agreed to transform bilateral
relations into strategic partnership," he said. "We have decided to
conclude bilateral Free Trade Agreement by 2017," he added. "We have
also agreed to increase trade, investment and commercial cooperation as
Pakistan and Turkey are indispensable partners and would work together for
peace, security and development in the region and beyond," he added.
Oil
prices fall as strong dollar wipes out OPEC cut optimism:
Oil
prices fell in early trading on Friday as the strengthening U.S. dollar snuffed
out rekindled hopes that OPEC might agree production cuts. U.S. benchmark West
Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were down 53 cents from their last
settlement, or 1.17 percent, at $44.89 a barrel at 0107 GMT. International
Brent LCOc1 crude futures were down 46 cents, or 0.99 percent, at 46.03 a
barrel. A stronger U.S. dollar makes oil, which is priced in dollars, more
expensive to buyers in other currencies.
PARC
approves 16 projects worth Rs1.2bn:
The
Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) has approved 16 research projects
with a total budget of Rs1.2 billion for 2016-17. In addition, the PARC board
of governors approved Rs194 million for projects under international
cooperation and Rs183m for Agriculture Linkage Program (ALP). Talking to Dawn
on Thursday, National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Director General, Dr
Mohammad Azeem Khan said a hybrid seed processing plant will be set up at the
NARC with a view to provide clean, treated and high quality seeds to farmers.
Reserves
fall by $58m:
Pakistan’s
total liquid foreign exchange reserves amounted to over $24 billion on November
11, down 0.24 per cent from a week ago, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said
on Thursday. According to a statement by the SBP, the decrease in reserves was
mainly due to payments on account of external debt servicing. SBP’s reserves
decreased 0.25pc week-on-week to $19bn. Net foreign exchange reserves held by
commercial banks amounted to $5bn on Nov 11, registering a nominal increase
over the preceding week.
Govt
paid Rs65b in markup on financing for power firms:
The
government has paid Rs65 billion in markup on the Rs136.45-billion syndicated
term financing facility taken to repay debt of state-owned power distribution
companies. The interest was being paid from the revenues collected by the
distribution companies from power consumers in the shape of debt servicing
surcharge. The disclosure was made in a meeting of the Economic Coordination
Committee (ECC) held on November 10.
Pakistan
increasing storage capacity to more than 20 days:
Pakistan has initiated projects to increase the oil storage capacity
above the mandatory limit of 20 days, as reserves will be kept for a longer
duration despite a significant jump in demand, the minister for petroleum and
natural resources said on Wednesday. “Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Hascol
Petroleum and a third party {Frontier Works Organisation} are adding to the
storage capacity,” said Shahid Khaqan Abbasi while talking to media at the
launch of premium petroleum products by PSO. He said the storage capacity was
being scaled up despite a significantly higher demand for petroleum products.
“Last year, the country saw a 17% increase in demand,” he said.
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