Kabul receives first wheat shipment from Delhi via Iran

KABUL (NNI): The first shipment of 2,200 tons of wheat has arrived in Kabul from India through the Chabahar Port in Iran, said an official, adding another 60,000 tons would be reaching soon. Nasir Ahmad Durani, the Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, attended a ceremony held for receiving the 2,200 tons of wheat from India, said the wheat would be stored in the Central Silo of Kabul city. He also informed another 60,000 tons of wheat had reached Chabahar port and would be shifted to Kabul soon. He said the remaining 50,000 tons of the total 1.1 million tons of India-granted wheat would reach Afghanistan in near future and would be stored in Helmand, Ghazni, Laghman, Herat, Kandahar, Kabul and Nangarhar provinces. He said the wheat would be utilized in time of need and during occurrence of natural disasters. Alok Ranjan Jha, deputy chief of mission at the Indian Embassy in Kabul, who also participated in the ceremony, expressed happiness over the arrival of the first wheat shipment from his country to Kabul.
He said India was in favor of strengthening relations with Afghanistan.
Jha said India besides other assistances and cooperation over the past 16 years with Afghanistan had promised 1.1 million tons of wheat for the people of Afghanistan as grant.

Production of POL products up by 15.67pc in four months

ISLAMABAD (APP): The production of petroleum products witnessed 15.67 percent increase during the first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of the last fiscal year. According to latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the petroleum products that contributed in positive growth included motor spirits, output of which grew by15.06 percent during the period under review. The production of High Speed Diesel grew by 16.23 percent, Diesel oil by 47.08 percent while the output of Furnace oil witnessed growth 18.9 percent. Similarly, the production of Jute batching oil increased by 34.41 percent, Solvent Naptha by 24.18 percent while the production of LPG increased by 38.93 percent. The petroleum products that witnessed negative growth in production included jet fuel, output of which decreased by 4.05 percent while the production of lubricating oil declined by 10.45 percent.
Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the production of petroleum products increased by21.64 percent during the month of October 2017 against the production of same month of last year.
The products that witnessed positive growth included motor spirits (11.61 percent), High Speed Diesel (28.03 percent), furnace oil (25.25 percent), Jute batching oil (1.54 percent), Solvant Naptha (47.25 percent), while the production of LPG increased by 47.53 percent.
On the other hand, the production of Jet fuel oil during the month decreased by7.60 percent, Kerosene oil by 15.12 percent while the production of lubricating oil decreased by 2.14 percent.

PTDC's ongoing efforts can make Pakistan tourists' destination

RAWALPINDI (APP): Executive Director of Dubai Tourism Dr Qaiser has said that Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) is heading in the right direction and its efforts, if continued with same spirit, would made Pakistan a destination for the tourists of the world. Talking to media after attending a function held here, he said 90 percent of the revenue of Dubai is generated through tourism. Earlier, the citizens of Dubai used to come to Pakistan to celebrate their holidays but now, Pakistani citizens go to Dubai for tourism and enjoy their holidays as the Dubai government focused the world tourists and took a number of steps to attract them. Pakistan has been a tourism hub, he added. He said Pakistan has all the potential to be a great tourist destination. Appreciating steps being taken by Managing Director PTDC for the promotion of tourism in Pakistan, he said like many other untapped resources, tourism is also such a hidden resource of Pakistan which could never be harnessed to its true potential.
He said PTDC is making efforts to launch “Discover Pakistan” TV channel, which would help to promote tourism in the country. He said if the tourism was promoted in Pakistan then there would be no terrorism.
Tourism helps the economy in many ways e.g. by increasing foreign exchange reserves which a country severely needs, by giving impetus to the services sector which could also give a spillover effect on many other sectors of the economy, he added.

China supports development of new energy intelligent cars

BEIJING (APP/Xinhua): China's top economic planner has cleared the way for development of domestic new energy cars and intelligent vehicles. The country will promote the innovative development of the intelligent vehicles and develop the auto industry in the "strategic direction" of intelligent vehicles, according to the draft version of the Intelligent Automobile Innovation and Development Strategy, which was released by China's National Development and Reform Commission to solicit opinions. China will develop the artificial intelligence and big data to make the new energy auto industry competitive in the global market. Baidu is becoming a major new player in self-driving technology. The company announced a big upgrade to its open-source platform "Apollo 2.0" at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 in Las Vegas, the United States, to speed up the development and production of autonomous vehicles. China has the world's largest new energy auto industry.
The country sold more than 490,000 new energy cars in the first 11 months of 2017, and the sales are expected to exceed 577,000 units in the whole year, according to statistics by EV-Volumes, an electric vehicle sales database.