Punjab governor to inaugurate Foundry Congress on Dec 2
LAHORE (PR): Governor Punjab Ch Muhammad Sarwar will inaugurate 2 days 5th International Foundry Congress and Exhibition (IFCE), organized by Pakistan Foundry Association, on 2nd December at a local hotel. This was stated by Asam Qaderi, secretary general Pakistan Foundry Association. He said that all arrangement are completed and foreign delegates from India, UK, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Netherlands and different European Countries will reach on Sunday. IFCE 2014 is aimed at bringing together professional, industrialist, services providers and vendors under one roof.
About 100 national and international companies will display our products in the exhibition.

FBR campaign fails to control smuggling
LAHORE  (Staff Reporter): The spending of millions of rupees by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on advertisement campaigns to create awareness against smuggled products has proved to be a futile exercise as consumption of smuggled tobacco sticks increased by 0.4 billion this year, market sources said. According to report of ‘Asia-14 illicit indicator 2013’, launched by International Tax and Investment Center. the share of non-domestic illegal consumption increased by 14.8%. The report also revealed that duty-free products originating from other destinations in South Asia and cigarettes originating from Afghanistan were also identified in the empty pack survey.

LSE de-lists Central Forest Products
LAHORE (PR): The majority shareholders of Central Forest Products Ltd. have applied for voluntary de-listing of the company through buy-back of shares from the minority shareholders. The proposed buy-back transaction by the company has been approved by the Listing Committee (LC) of the Lahore Stock Exchange at a price of Rs. 4.0 per share subject to purchase of at least 41,050 ordinary shares out of the total 410,500 shares, outstanding with the shareholders other than sponsors, to qualify for delisting.  The purchase agent of the company, i.e. Cassim Investments (Pvt.) Ltd., has purchased 56,800 shares within a period of 60 days as per condition imposed by the Exchange.
 The Company has also complied with the procedure for voluntary de-listing under Listing Regulation No. 30-C of LSE. After the delisting of this company from the Lahore Stock Exchange number of companies listed at LSE would reach to 431.

Role of technical and vocational skills highlighted
LAHORE (Staff Reporter): Experts and leaders from the corporate sector on Thursday underlined the importance of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and urged for permanent and meaningful linkages of public and private sector for the production of a skilled workforce in line with the market needs. This was a clear message coming from the conference “Sustainability Exchange Conference”. The conference was organized by the Engro Foundation with the support of TVET Reform Support Programme, which is funded by the EU, the Embassy of Netherlands, Germany and the Norwegian Embassy, and commissioned by the German Federal Ministry (BMZ).
 The DeutscheGesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is implementing this programme in collaboration with the NAVTTC.

Govt urged to take steps forpromoting pharma industry
LAHORE (PR): The office bearers of PPMA have said that government should take positive measurers to promote pharma industry instead of harassing them. They strongly condemned violation of drug act and unlawful action taken by the Health Department.  In the meeting, they said that if any medicine is found adulterous by pharma industry, the association was ready to cooperate with govt. but proper scrutiny should be made before taking any action. The unlawful arrest of Mediceena and Medisearch companies owners is against the norms of justice, they said. The meeting was attended by Mian Asad Shujaur Rehman, Khawaj Shahzeb Akram, Akbar Ali Bhatti, Amjad Ali Jawa and Hamid Raza.