Pakistan ranked 5th in cement exports, surpasses Germany: Daily Times

By Moonis Ahmed

KARACHI: Pakistan has been ranked 5th in the world’s cement exports after a jump of 47 percent in exports during last fiscal year, the Global Cement Report shows.

According to the report, China ranks first with 26 million tonnes in exports, while Japan grabbed the second position by exporting 12 million tonnes. The third largest cement exporter in world is Thailand with around 12 million tonnes, followed by Turkey with 10.6 million tonnes.

Pakistan has left Germany behind by exporting 11 million tonnes of cement during last fiscal year. Germany now stands at 6th position with 9 million tonnes exports.

Irfan Amanullah, Chief Financial Officer of Attock Cement Limited, while talking to Daily Times said that Pakistan secured this position because of high demand and by capturing new markets.

He said that Pakistan could achieve the mark of 13 to 14 million tonnes exports by the end of the fiscal year if the government provides better infrastructure facilities.

He was of the view that the demand had remained firm during the year that helped to reach this mark in exports. “The new markets explored by the exporters include some of African countries, Qatar and Iraq,” he said.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan ranked 5th in cement exports, surpasses Germany: Daily Times

Increased productivity needed to cut cost of milk: The News

By Mansoor Ahmad

LAHORE: Pakistan obtains 33 million tonnes of milk from 20 million milking animals, compared with over 37 million tonnes obtained by China from 15 million animals and 84 million tonnes milk produced in the United States by 9.1 million cows.

Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of milk in the world after India, United States and China. The productivity of milking animals in Pakistan is, however, very low compared with the European, United States or Chinese breeds.

Dairy experts point out that both India and Pakistan are increasing their productivity by increasing the number of milking animals instead of increasing yield per animal. India produces 102 million tonnes of milk per year from over 75 million cows and buffaloes.

They said that the white revolution the government talks about would not come without increasing the milk yield of its livestock. Low milk yield increases the cost of production of milk. American farmers feed one cow to obtain the same quantity of milk that a Pakistani farmer obtains by feeding 4.5 buffaloes or cows.

They point out that even with low yields, the dairy sector has moved ahead on its own without much government support. This, they added, has made the planners complacent. They said that the dairy sector has the potential to take Pakistan out of its economic woes, if the planners pay more attention to increase the productivity of its milking breeds.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Increased productivity needed to cut cost of milk: The News

WB ranks Pakistan first in corporate governance: Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: World Bank Report “Getting Finance in South Asia 2009” has ranked Pakistan first in the areas of corporate governance, performance and efficiency.

In the area of access to finance, Sri Lanka ranks first in South Asia, on capital market development and market concentration and competitiveness in the banking sector first slot is grabbed by India.

According to the detailed report on Pakistan the bond market is developing at a lesser pace. The domestic bond outstanding was 25.16 percent of the GDP, equivalent to $32.41 billion. This consists of mainly government bonds, as the corporate market is yet to develop.

The areas on which Pakistan needs to focus are access to finance capital market development, and market concentration.

Access to Finance: Pakistan needs to focus on improving financial outreach through its commercial banking sector. Demographic branch penetration is low with around five bank branches per 100,000 people during the six-year period. To promote branch openings in rural areas, the SBP has introduced the Annual Branch Licensing Policy, which requires commercial banks with 100 branches or more to open at least 20 percent of their branches outside big cities and set up branches in Tehsil Headquarters, where no branch of any bank exists.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: WB ranks Pakistan first in corporate governance: Daily Times

Pakistan Ranks Top Ten in the World in at least Ten Categories of Global Competitiveness: ECONOMISTAN

According to the latest findings of the economic analysis think tank Economistan, Pakistan ranked in the top ten countries of the world in many areas of global competitiveness. These areas range from IT outsourcing to wheat production to exports. Pakistan ranked second in the world in terms of IT outsourcing growth according to Odesk and third in the world according to rentacoder. To get the complete list of rankings check out the newsletter by clicking here.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan Ranks Top Ten in the World in at least Ten Categories of Global Competitiveness: ECONOMISTAN

Philippines & Pakistan top oDesk’s “value for money” outsourcing rankings: Odesk

Today we’re going to have some fun with numbers by trying to calculate “value for money” between countries in hiring contractors to your workteam. The following table summarizes oDesk’s average hourly rates and feedback scores in each of our top 7 provider countries.

United States
Pakistan
Ukraine
Canada
Russia
Philippines
India

*We’ve broken out the rates for software development and data entry since they vary quite a bit in both dollar amounts and proportions of work between countries. Note that other categories of work exist on oDesk as well, that aren’t listed here. Looking at this data, it’s obvious that there is much greater variance in average hourly rates ($6.33 to $19.60) than feedback scores (4.01 to 4.40). We therefore scale the numbers to percentiles to compare between countries. We then use a quick-and-dirty calculation, averaging the percentiles, and finally rank the countries to determine their relative “value for money.”

The results … the Philippines and Pakistan rank the highest in this admittedly simplistic analysis, which must be taken with a grain of salt. There are many factors to be taken into consideration when hiring contractors to your workteams. But, in the meantime, congratulations to providers in these two countries for topping the list! Fans of outsourcing to the Philippines and Pakistan will also be glad to know that they were also the fastest growing countries on oDesk, by hours worked, from 2007-2008.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Philippines & Pakistan top oDesk’s “value for money” outsourcing rankings: Odesk

Pakistan ranks 34th in WEF’s Financial Development Report: Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been ranked 34 out of 52 countries in the World Economic Forum's first Financial Development Report, which was released in Pakistan through the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) Thursday.

The report is a comprehensive analysis of financial systems and capital markets in 52 countries that explores key drivers of financial system development and economic growth in developing and developed countries and serves as a tool by which countries can benchmark themselves and establish priorities for financial system improvement. Arthur Bayhan, Chief Executive of the Competitiveness Support, said: "I am very happy to see that financial system in Pakistan is well reformed and competitive vis-à-vis Asia and Europe.

Pakistan is ranked ahead of the Russian Federation (35), Indonesia (38), Turkey (39), Poland (41), Brazil (40), Philippines (48) and Kazakhstan (45)." The United States narrowly edged the United Kingdom to take the top position in the Financial Development Index. The United Kingdom was second while China ranked 24 and India 31.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan ranks 34th in WEF’s Financial Development Report: Daily Times

Pakistan ranks 5th in banking efficiency: The News

KARACHI, Dec 3: Pakistan has been ranked 5th in the world’s banking efficiency index, while it stood among the top 25 countries in terms of foreign direct investment and foreign labour as per the world competitive report compiled by the World Economic Forum, Switzerland .This was stated by Sushant Rao, director and head of South Asia of the World Economic Forum (WEF).He was speaking at the 11th management convention organised by the Management Association of Pakistan here on Wednesday.He said that in overall terms, Pakistan ranked at 101 out of 134 countries, which are part of the report. He said that efforts should be made to improve the country’s perception among the international community regarding the business and trade environment.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan ranks 5th in banking efficiency: The News

Pakistan ranked 89th in Global IT Report: The News

Thursday, April 10, 2008

By Mehtab Haider

ISLAMABAD: The World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report 2008 has ranked Pakistan at 89th position, out of 127 countries, in terms of preparedness to effectively promote business, improve investment climate and develop infrastructure.The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF), a partner institute of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Pakistan, released the report on Wednesday.This year’s ranking shows a five-point decline for Pakistan from last year when it was ranked 84th out of 122 countries.Although telecoms operators are aggressively upgrading their networks’ infrastructure to launch broadband data and multimedia services, Pakistan still ranks low in terms of the cost of broadband and security of Internet servers. Furthermore, the number of days and procedures required to enforce a contract in Pakistan is also a key challenge in achieving a sustainable impact. The decline is a result of a weakened political and regulatory environment and infrastructure environment, which refers to network facilities, network capacity and capabilities.Published for the seventh consecutive year, the Global Information Technology Report is the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of information and communications technologies on the nations’ development and competitiveness.“It is evident that technology is playing a leading role in accelerating economic growth and promoting development,” said CSF Chief Executive Officer Arthur Bayhan.“A coherent government vision on information and communications technologies, coupled with an early focus on education and innovation, is the key to spur network readiness and to lay the foundations for sustainable growth.”The support for CSF is part of the $1.5 billion in aid that the US government is providing, through USAID, to Pakistan over five years to improve economic growth, education, health, governance and earthquake reconstruction.

Source: Pakistan ranked 89th in Global IT Report