Friday, 28 December, 2012

ISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

Demanding that Plant breeders’ Rights bill2010 should not be passed in haste as itneeded more time to be debated by thestakeholders concerned, the civil society or-ganizations on Wednesday asked the gov-ernment to postpone the bill and to let thenew National Assembly after the next gen-eral elections to consider it. This was said ina seminar “Plant breeder’s Rights (PbR) bill2010” held by the Centre for Culture and De-velopment (C2D), Sustainable AgricultureAction Group (SAAG), Potohar Organisationfor Development Advocacy (PODA) and LokSanjh Foundation in collaboration with Ac-tionaid-Pakistan.

The policy seminar was aimed at ad-dressing the conflict emerging betweenfarming communities, civil society and seedproducing companies after the introductionof the PbR bill in the parliament.

The participants from civil society andsmall farmers associations demanded thatthe present National Assembly had a veryshort time to consider the proposed PbR bill2010 and it, if passed in haste, would havedrastic implications for the small farmersand the agriculture sector.

The PbR bill had been pending for con-templation in the National Assembly for the

last few years and it had received renewedattention from the government after forma-tion of Intellectual Property Organisation(IPO) as the regulator of Intellectual Prop-erty Rights (IPRs) in Pakistan.

Lok Sanjh Foundation Executive Direc-tor Dr Shahid Zia gave a brief overview ofthe PbR legislation in Pakistan. He said thatseed monopolies were expected under theoriginal and existing version of the PbR bill.

He added that the present proposed billwas a replication or the reorganization of theprevious draft of 1998 with some cosmeticchanges. Under the proposed legislation,centuries old farming practice of exchangeincluding sharing and reusing seeds couldbe crippled entirely.

There was also need to further look intothe clauses of the PbR bill to make it morefarmer friendly and should not be used tosafeguard the concerns of the seed compa-nies. He stressed the need for the inclusionof damage clause in favour of farmers. Helamented the fact that damage clause for thebenefit of the farmers was not inserted in thebill which was widely demanded by thefarmers and the civil society, whereas thedemand of deletion of damage clause by themajor seed selling companies was acceptedovernight. He further demanded that the ex-ceptions included in the PbR bill should beaccepted as a right of the farmers.

Federal Seed Certification and Registra-tion Department Certification Officer SaeedIqbal argued that the PbR legislation was inpursuance of Pakistan as a signatory ofWorld Trade Organisation (WTO) andTRIPS. It would help to protect and promoteresearch initiatives for the innovation andnew varieties of seeds and plants for im-proved per acre yields. Dr Shahid furthersaid that the PbR legislation would help toachieve the goals of food security in Pak-istan. He added that the proposed legislationwas important as it would regulate illegalpractices of the seed mafia and companies.

PODA Executive Director SameenaNazir appreciated the organizers for holdingthe consultation. She said agriculture wasimpossible without the contribution ofwomen farmers. However, the proposed leg-islation did not refer to the concerns and re-quirements of the female farmers.

NCA Rawalpindi Director Dr NadeemOmar Tarar said that passing the bill withoutensuring bio-safety guidelines and farmers’rights would be disastrous for the smallfarmers’ community in particular and theagriculture sector in general. He furtheradded that all traditional knowledge and ge-netic resources were required to be properlydocumented and exclusive rights of the peo-ple should be conceded over indigenousknowledge. He also pointed out that Conven-

tion on bio-diversity, of which Pakistan wasone of the signatories, was referred to selec-tively, whereas all clauses which containedthe rights of the people over indigenous re-sources were usually not quoted. MushtaqGaddi, lecturer at NIPS, Quaid-a-Azam Uni-versity highlighted the importance of thePbR bill in the perspective of political econ-omy and said that the bill was an attempt togive rights to the multi-national corporationsto exploit the people and the resources of the

developing world. He termed the bill a formof neo-imperialism. He said that the govern-ment should be urged not to pass the billwithout ensuring rights of the farmers’ com-munity. The participants appreciated the ef-forts of Actionaid-Pakistan for initiating thedebate on the PbR, which was a crucial pieceof legislation in the context of food securityin Pakistan. They said that the issue neededto be debated further and farmers shouldalso be consulted in this regard.

NGOs DEMAND RECONSIDERATION OF PLANT BREEDERS’ RIGHTS BILL

ISLAMABAD

APP

AbOUT 1393 kilogram ofgold has been importedduring the first fivemonths of current fiscalyear showing an increase

of 12.52 per cent over 1254 kg during thesame period of last year.

The gold imports during the periodunder review cost US $ 74.812 millionagainst US $66.49 million during thesame period of previous year.

According to the data of Pakistanbureau of Statistics, the overall importsof metal group registered an increase of14.38 per cent during July-November(2012-13) against the same period of lastyear.

The metal imports during the period

under review were recorded at $1.293billion against those of $1.13 billionduring the same period of lastyear.

Imports of iron and steelscrap registered a growthof 31.05 percent duringJuly-November (2012-13). Their im-ports wererecorded at$290.248 mil-lion during the firstfive months ofcurrent fiscalyear againstthose of $221.476million during July-No-vember (2011-12).

Imports of iron and steel edged upby 6.21 percent from

$544.064 million last year to$577.852 million whereas the imports

of aluminum wrought and workeddecreased by 1.16 per-

cent from $49.176million to $48.604million.

The imports of allother metaland articles

w e r erecorded

a t$301.426

million dur-ing the period under

review against those of$249.188 million last year

posting a growth of 20.96 percent.Meanwhile, during the month of No-

vember 2012, the gold imports wit-

nessed an increase of 314.13 percentwhen compared with those of November2011 whereas the gold imports duringNovember 2012 over October 2012 de-creased by 45.39 percent.

Gold imports in November 2012stood at $16.387 million against those of$3.957 million and $30.006 million inNovember 2011 and October, 2012 re-spectively.

The overall imports decreased by0.91 percent during first five months ofcurrent financial year whereas exportsfrom the country witnessed positivegrowth of 7.85 percent, indicating a pos-itive trend in the overall trade volume ofthe country.

The imports decreased fromUS$18.416 billion last year to US$18.25billion during the current fiscal year, thedata revealed.

1,393 kg gold imported during five months of 2012-13

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

Ministry of Commerce may give sub-sidy to exporters on Reefer Containersshipments for the continuity of kin-now export target, as GRI (GeneralRate Increase) of 1500USD/40ftReefer containers will be added on thecurrent tariff effective from 1st of Jan-uary 2013 said Chief Executive OfficerHarvest Tradings & Member ExportICCI, Ahmad Jawad.

In a statement he said kinnow ex-port already faced many issues fromthe start of season and with the addi-tion of GRI from the shipping lines, itcould create a negative impact on thecost. Till date only private sector istaking at their own to improve the ex-port every year of this potent source.

Jawad said current year’s produc-

tion is 20 percent less at 1.8 milliontones compared to previousyear’s yield of 2 milliontones.

However, unexpectedstrike by the goodstransport carriers acrossthe country few daysback badly disturbedall plans and ex-port process. Asa result the ex-port target forthe citrusfruit fell by10 percent to175,000 tonesor 180,000tones from theset target of200,000 tones,which may spell bad

fortune for all stakeholdersinvolved with this trade.

Despite restoration ofnormal transportation bygoods carriers, it wouldtake sometime to nor-malize the process. Al-ready kinnow processingfactories and orchards inSargodha are overfilledwith citrus fruit andthey have become amajor headache fortheir owners to pre-serve them in a way.

It may be recalledhere that previous

year’s citrus fruit’s ex-port goal remained unful-

filled at 225,000 tonnes asagainst the target of 300,000

tonnes.

Govt likely to give subsidy on additionof GRI to push kinnow export

LCCI makesdownward revision of itsservices charges

LAHORE

ONLINE

In a major move to ensure monetary re-lief to all the LCCI members, the LahoreChamber of Commerce and Industry hasmade downward revision of its servicescharges.According to details, the LCCI ExecutiveCommittee in its meeting decided tobring down the charges for Visa Recom-mendation Letter, Visa Invitation Letter,Visa Processing Fee.Visa Recommendation Letter fee forAsian Countries forProprietor/Director has been curtailedfrom Rs 1500 to Rs 1000 and for Europe,Africa, USA, Canada, UK and Australia itis now Rs 2000 instead of Rs 3000.Visa Recommendation Letter fee for em-ployees of LCCI Member firms for Eu-rope, Africa, USA, Canada, UK andAustralia has been decreased by Rs 1500and now onward it would be to Rs 2500instead of Rs 4000. Visa Recommenda-tion Letter fee for employees of LCCIMember firms for Asia has been de-creased by Rs 500 and now it is Rs 2000instead of Rs 2500.The charges for Visa Invitation letter toforeigners have also been halved. Earlierfor Asian countries the fee was Rs 1500and now it is Rs 750 while Europe,Africa, USA, Canada, UK and Australia itis now Rs 1500 instead of Rs 3000. Sameway Visa processing fee for China hasalso been halved.

‘Let’s enhancetrade with India’

SUKKUR

ONLINE

Federal Minister for CommerceMakhdoom Amin Fahim has said thatPakistan’s stance to enhance trade rela-tions with India is a new era betweenthe two countries. Regional Trade isquite common in other countries of theworld but owing to poor political rela-tions between the said countries tradeactivities could not promoted, he toldreporters in Sukkur. He further addedthat we are working on the roadmapwhich is made for the improvement ofpromotion of trade in this regard.

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Friday, 28 December, 2012

Major Gainers

COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVERNestle Pakistan Ltd. 4850.00 4999.99 4845.00 4900.00 50.00 320Indus Dyeing 600.00 629.00 629.00 629.00 29.00 100Mithchells Fruit 366.00 375.00 365.00 375.00 9.00 2,200AKD Capital Limited 57.60 60.48 60.48 60.48 2.88 500Ghani Glass Ltd.XB 55.67 58.45 57.50 58.45 2.78 113,000

Major LosersBata (Pak) 1360.00 1350.00 1316.00 1320.00 -40.00 200Sanofi-Aventis Pak 388.57 375.00 375.00 375.00 -13.57 200UniLever Pak 10007.50 10000.01 10000.01 10000.01 -7.49 20Murree Brewery 133.10 132.00 126.45 126.45 -6.65 19,800Fazal Cloth Mills 127.00 121.00 121.00 121.00 -6.00 500

Volume Leaders

Byco Petroleum 12.26 13.26 12.50 13.22 0.96 24,045,500K.E.S.C. 6.04 6.21 5.49 5.67 -0.37 12,835,500Fauji Cement 6.37 6.61 6.40 6.50 0.13 11,910,500P.I.A.C.(A) 3.99 4.21 3.65 3.80 -0.19 11,355,000Wateen Telecom Ltd 2.85 3.23 2.77 3.17 0.32 5,880,500I

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 97.5765UK Pound 157.7617Japanese Yen 1.1379Euro 129.4548

Dollar EastBUY SELL

US Dollar 97.40 98.10Euro 127.85 129.60Great Britain Pound 155.87 157.96Japanese Yen 1.1212 1.1355Canadian Dollar 96.81 98.75Hong Kong Dollar 12.31 12.59UAE Dirham 26.40 26.71Saudi Riyal 25.90 26.16Kuwaiti Dinar 343.12 346.33

Business

Etihad Cargo posts record

November figures

KARACHI: December 27 – Etihad Cargo, a divi-sion of United Arab Emirates (UAE) flag carrierEtihad Airways, has posted record monthly rev-enues for November of US$ 65.8 million, up 21.2per cent on the same period last year (US$ 54.3million). The carrier lifted 32,633 tonnes offreight in the period, an 18.2 per cent increase onNovember 2011 (27,628 tonnes). The figures re-flect the cargo operator’s continued upward mo-mentum in what has been a record 2012 so far.Etihad Airways’ Chief Strategy and Planning Offi-cer, Kevin Knight, said: “2012 has been a greatyear for us. The latest impressive revenue andtonnage figures have been driven largely by strongsales out of Southern China and solid growth outof Europe and South East Asia. “Yields have alsoheld up compared to last year, and at the sametime we have successfully grown volumes ahead ofour capacity growth.” “Looking ahead, we expectto maintain strong freight performance over thefinal month of 2012.”

NBP signs Home Remittances

Agreement with Placid Express

In line with its objective to facilitate overseas Pak-istanis across the globe, NbP has launched itsHome Remittances Services in collaboration withPlacid Express from Malaysia. This collaborationhas further enhanced NbP’s outreach to providefast, convenient, secured and absolutely free of

charge remittance services to Pakistani Expats liv-ing in Malaysia. Further, Placid Express is a globalMoney Transfer Company and has its presence inCentral Asia, Asia Pacific, European and NorthAmerican Regions.“NbP is one of the largest players in Pakistani re-mittance market and the launch of NbP ForeeCash and NbP Foree Transfer services from thecounters of Placid Express and its agents willmake it convenient for Pakistanis to send moneyhome through legal channels and serve the na-tional cause.” said Mr. Khalid bin Shaheen,SEVP/Group Chief & Chairman NbP ExchangeCompany Limited during the Agreement SigningCeremony in Malaysia.

KARACHI: The prominent businessmen Zafar Iqbal and

Ather Iqbal, hosted a dinner at their residence in DHA, it

was attended by, Kalim Farooqui , Naseem Farooqui COO

Sindh Bank, Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan, Farrukh

Ansari,Col Thair Husaan, of town and journalists.

Emirates says ‘Hello 2013’,offers

great fares across its network

KARACHI: Emirates, one of the world’s fastest-growing airlines, is welcoming 2013 aboard by of-fering very attractive fares for quick-actingcustomers. Whether your New Year’s resolution isto spend more time with family and friends or visita dream destination Emirates’ Economy Classdeals, currently available for early bookers, offersomething for everyone. The special fares apply tomore than 120 destinations across the Emirates’network when booked between December 26, 2012and January 10, 2013 - for travel from January 18 toJune 10, 2013.* “Emirates has always been cus-tomer focused. Welcoming 2013, Emirates has in-troduced special fares to provide its passengers withbest options for their money in order to make theirjourney more pleasant and convenient,” said Mr.Khalid bardan, Emirates’ Vice President, Pakistan.

RAWALPINDI: Caroling children along with Sheharyar

Mirza General Manager Pearl Continental Hotel,

Rawalpindi posing for a group photo in the Hotel Lobby on

Christmas Eve.

KARACHI: The Consul General of the Russian Federation

Mr.Andrey V.Demidov, and Mrs Demidov, hosted a

reception on the Occasion of the Stamp and photographic

exhibition at Consulate premises. Picture shows, host

addressing to the guests.

KARACHI: The Grandeur Art Gallery held an exhibition

Designer Curve at its premises. Picture shows Grandeur

CEO, Neshmia Ahmed, witn other designers.

CORPORATE CORNER

Oil prices jump ahead of

renewed ‘fiscal cliff’ talksNEW YORK: Oil prices jumped Wednesday as Presidentbarack Obama headed back to Washington for a last-ditch at-tempt to secure a “fiscal cliff” deal with Republicans ahead of ayear-end deadline. New York’s main contract, West Texas In-termediate (WTI) for February delivery, gained $2.37 to settleat $90.98 a barrel, its highest level in almost ten weeks. brentNorth Sea crude for February delivery climbed $2.27 to $111.07a barrel in London trade. With the clock ticking, Obama andCongress are under increasing pressure to hammer out a com-promise to avoid looming tax hikes and deep, mandated spend-ing cuts that are slated to take effect next month. Experts warnthat going over the so-called fiscal cliff could plunge the UnitedStates economy back into recession. And that could hurt oil de-mand in the world’s biggest consumer of crude.“Hopes forprogress have been fueled by President Obama’s early returnfrom his family vacation in Hawaii,” said Lisa Finstrom of CitiFutures and OTC Clearing. If investors believe that Democratsand Republicans can reach agreement that works in favor ofcrude prices “as the chances for recession decrease,” saidJames Williams of WTRG Economics. AGENCIES

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

A delegation of Pakistan Post Of-fice led by its Chairman and Direc-tor General, Syed Ghulam PanjtanRizvi visited Islamabad Chamberof Commerce & Industry and in-formed business leaders about thesteps taken by Pakistan Post to fa-cilitate the business community.

Keeping pace with the chang-ing communications market, SyedGhulam Panjtan Rizvi informedthe meeting that Pakistan Post isemphasizing upon the use of newcommunication and informationtechnologies to move beyond whatis traditionally regarded as a itscore postal business. Pakistan Postis committed to make secure and

timely delivery of mail, money andmaterial at the doorsteps of thecustomers at affordable cost.

He said Pakistan Postal Serv-ice Office has been transformedinto a modern and fully comput-erized organization to competewith the private couriers, under aprogressive policy, for the benefitof the customers in the country.Director General said that unfor-tunately, Pakistan Post office wasfacing a loss of Rs.2 billion annu-ally as it lost most of its moneyorder business due to onlinebanking and other private com-petitors.

Syed Panjtan Rizvi said thatbusiness community could alsoavail their online postal servicessuch as Express Mail Tracking

System where businessmen couldtrack their international businesspackets and personal mail itemsonline even on cell phones by log-ging on to wwe.ep.gov.pk. He saidthat Pakistan Post has also an effi-cient staff handing postal com-plaints system as well as onlinecomplainants receiving system.

Speaking on the occasion,Mr.Zafar bakhtawari, PresidentICCI said that various Public sec-tor enterprises drain away a sig-nificant chunk of governmentresources and causing huge finan-cial losses to the national excheq-uer. Thus, there is dire need tomake these enterprises efficientand profitable by practicing goodgoverness and effective monitor-ing system, he added.

He said that Pakistan Postshould take all measures to re-move trust deficit by facilitatingpeople in their transactions acrossthe country without any delays. Hesaid that it is right that trend ofpersonal letter writing decreased,however, Pakistan Post could ini-tiate other new services to caterthe needs of their customers. Pres-ident ICCI expressed hope thatPakistan post would overcome itslosses very soon as it is the organ-ization of faithful and sincere offi-cials.

Mr.Munawar Mughal, formerPresident ICCI said that PakistanPost should provide motorcyclesto the postmen across the countryto ensure provision of quality serv-ices to the common people.

ICCI PRESIDENT FOR MAKING PUBLIC SECTOR ENTERPRISES MORE PROFITABLE

ISLAMABAD

APP

Mobile banking accounts havejumped to 1.8 million mark de-picting a remarkable growth of25 percent during July-Septem-ber quarter of the current year.

According to branchlessbanking Newsletter released bythe State bank of Pakistan(SbP) on Thursday, the branch-less banking customers con-ducted almost 31.5 milliontransactions of Rs 139 billionduring the quarter.

The average size of eachtransaction was Rs 4,420, whilethe average number of transac-tion per day increased to 0.349million.

The accounts’ activity levelhas also improved considerablyduring the quarter at the back ofsignificant growth of 84% inLevel `0’ accounts and 7%growth in Level `1’ accounts.

These accounts are opened

at the agents’ loca-t i o nl a r g e l yby those,w h ohave tra-ditionally beene x c l u d e dfrom theb a n k i n gservices.

T h eagents’ networkhas reached to31,637 as of Sep-tember 30, 2012from 29,525 as onJune 30, 2012registering anincrease of 7percent.

It may bepointed out thattransaction limits forLevel `0’ &

Level `1’ accounts areRs 15,000 & Rs. 25,000 perday respectively.

b i l l sp a y m e n t s& mobile

t o p - u p sr e -mainedt h ed o m i -

nating ac-t i v i t yd u r i n g

J u l y - S e p -tember 2012

quarter with 45percent sharein total num-bers, fol-

lowed byperson top e r s o n(over thec o u n t e r )fund trans-fers with a

share of 38percent.

bulkp a y -

ments mostly by agents topped,among others, by 41 percentshare in total value transactedduring the quarter followed byperson to person fund transferswith a share of 34 percent.

It may be pointed out thatthe branchless banking serviceproviders are trying to increasetheir linkages with microfi-nance institutions as loan re-payments of Rs.646 millionwere collected through branch-less banking agents during thequarter.

According to the Newsletter,the growth expectation in com-ing quarters is fairly high as theexisting two branchless bankingplayers are increasing theirscale of operations and twobanks namely Waseela Microfi-nance bank and Askari bankLimited have launched theirbranchless banking servicesunder the brand names of `Mo-bicash’ and `Timepey’ respec-tively.

Mobile banking accountstouch 1.8 million mark

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