Category: Business

The monsoon rains in August have spelt disaster for the agriculture sector in rural Sindh. The economy of medium- and small-size farmers has been dealt a serious blow at a time when crops were at the harvesting stage. Besides cotton, vegetables, onion and tomato crops have been destroyed. Substantial losses are reported in the sugarcane […]

Faced with a balance-of-payments problem, Pakistan urgently needs as much foreign investment as possible. This need becomes all the more urgent keeping in view a limited scope of volumetric expansion in exports and remittances in the short term.  Pakistan’s foreign direct investment (FDI) grew to $2.56 billion in 2019-20, up from $1.36bn in 2018-19 but […]

When Archie Jafree heard that Lord & Taylor filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early August, he was sad about the fate of the storied retailer with roots dating back to 1824. Still, the 36-year-old northern Virginia resident acknowledged he hadn’t shopped there in months, preferring instead to go to Nordstrom and Zara, where he […]

QUETTA: Consul General of Iran Hassan Darwesh called on Customs Collector Abdul Waheed Marwat and discussed with the latter ways of increasing cooperation to enhance trade between Pakistan and Iran.  Referring to the importance of bilateral trade for providing employment opportunities in the two countries, the Iranian envoy underlined the need for further increasing working […]

ISLAMABAD: Prompted by the Supreme Court’s directives, the power division and power regulator on Friday appeared to be setting in motion actions against K-Electric for its inability to restore power supply to its consumers following recent torrential rains. Official sources told Dawn that top officials of the power division and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) had […]

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Friday constituted a special committee comprising bankers, parliamentarians, leading religious scholars and representatives from relevant ministries and the central bank to move quickly towards a complete Islamic financial system in the country. The National Assembly’s standing committee on Finance & Revenue presided over by PTI’s Faiz Ullah also expressed dissatisfaction […]

KARACHI: Pakistan’s ability, capacity and success in business innovation declined in 2020 as the country’s ranking on the Global Innovation Index (GII) fell to 107 during the year from 104 in 2019. The GII is compiled by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, INSEAD business school and Cornell University which publishes its annual rankings after evaluating innovations in […]

KARACHI: Total cement despatches (local sales and export) plunged 27 per cent to 3.520 million tonnes in August from 4.838m tonnes in July due to slowdown in construction activities amid countrywide rains, Eid ul Azha and Ashura holidays. However, overall despatches posted a 5pc increase over 3.35m tonnes reported in August 2019. The local uptake […]

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s exports dipped by 19.5 per cent year-on-year in August, data released by the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) showed on Thursday. During the second month of FY21, export proceeds were reported at $1.586 billion, as against $1.969bn over the corresponding period of last year. The exports returned to a declining trend after witnessing paltry […]

NEW YORK: The Chinese government is complicating the US-government-ordered sale of US TikTok assets. China on Friday introduced export restrictions on artificial intelligence technology, seemingly including the type that TikTok uses to choose which videos to spool up to its users. That means TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, would have to obtain a license to export […]