FPCCI president to lead delegation to Iran for ECO-CCI meetings

KARACHI (INP): Ghazanfar Bilour, president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and ECO Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ECO-CCI), will preside the forthcoming statutory meeting of ECO-CCI scheduled to be held on March 5, 2018 at Tehran, Iran. ECO CCI is a flagship organization of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) which was established in 1990 and all the National Chamber of Commerce & Industry are members. The meetings will be attended by the representatives of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Prior to the statutory meetings, there will be six Specialized Committees meetings on trade facilitation, transportation, tourism, arbitration, industry, investment and SMEs promotion and women entrepreneurs council on March 3 & 4, 2018.
At present, the total trade of all ECO members countries stood at $638 billion which has registered a declining trend compared to $836 billion in 2012 and the reason behind the declining of trade is global recession and low oil prices on which this natural resources heavily depend. The contribution of ECO region in world trade is just two percent despite the fact that ECO has 6.2 percent of world population. Intra-regional trade accounts 8.4 percent of total trade of world which is far below the potentials available.
The Executive Committee and General Assembly will review lower intra-regional trade and investment, removal of trade barriers, harmonization in trade and investment regulations, SMEs, arbitration and gradual integration of the member state’s economies, development of transport and communication, effective infrastructure linking in the region. Pakistan will handover Presidentship of ECO-CCI for the year 2018-19 to Afghanistan as per the statute of ECO-CCI.

Motorbikes' production up by 16.91pc
in seven months
ISLAMABAD (APP): The production of motorbikes in the country during first seven months of current fiscal year increased by 16.91pc as compared to the production during July-January 2016-17. The production rose to 1,091,555 units during July-January 2017-18 from that of 935,951 units in same period of previous year. On yearly basis, the motorbikes production in the country also rose to 150,570 units in January 2018 from 143,857 units in same month of last year thus posting an increase of 4.6 per cent. According to details issued by PAMA, production of Honda bikes surged by 18.38 per cent as it jumped to 644,826 units in Jul-Jan (2017-18) from 544,69 units in same period of previous year. Similarly production of Suzuki motorbikes also registered an increase of 11.71 per cent as it increased from 11,382 units to 12,715 units while DYL motorcycles' production decreased to 3,713 units during the period under review while during same period of previous year its production was recorded at 4,702 units.
The manufacturing of YAMAHA motorcycles also increased to 9,980 units in Jul-Jan 2017-18 from 6,275 units in same period of previous year thus registering an increase of 59 per cent.
Production of Hero bikes witnessed an increase of 75 per cent as it increased to 2,752 units in July-January 2017-18 from 1,564 units in same period of previous year, whereas the production of Ravi bikes also increased by 25.68 per cent from 12,846 units to 16,145 units in the period under review.

UAE remains committed to Opec oil
output cut deal: Official
DUBAI (NNI): Suhail Al-Mazrouei, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Energy and Industry and incumbent President of OPEC, said Saturday "will spare no effort to reach the state of market stability aspired by both producers and consumers," UAE state news agency WAM reported. The UAE minister and OPEC president also lauded the efforts made by Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia, during his chairmanship of OPEC in 2017. Al-Mazrouei noted that the Saudi minister exerted "unique efforts that added significant values to the international endeavours to stabilise the market and we are determined to pursue the same path and follow on the constructive and fruitful work performed during 2017." He added "we are now set to initiate innovative efforts to deliver the future and build on the Declaration of Cooperation reached by OPEC member- and non-member states last year to secure the sustainable development goals."
Earlier last year in November, the oil exporting countries of OPEC and its partners agreed to extend the output cut till the end of 2018, nine months longer than the previous agreement.
Twenty-four countries led by OPEC and non-OPEC member Russia decided to maintain production cut of about 1.8 million barrels per day until Dec. 31, 2018.
The price of oil (Brent) reached a three-year high in January when the "black gold" hovered above 71 dollars a barrel (159 liters), before retreating to a trading range between 60 dollars to 65 dollars a barrel in the wake of the global stock market crash from February 5.

Rs293.23 million released for industrial development projects
ISLAMABAD (NNI): The government has released Rs 293.230 million for several industrial development projects under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2017-18 as against the allocation of 2,737.270 million. Under PSDP, the government has released Rs 84.700 million for establishment of Bostan Industrial Estate phase-first as against the total allocation of Rs 211.736 million in current fiscal year, according the data of Planning Commission of Pakistan. An amount of Rs 49.60 million was released for establishment of infrastructure in Quetta industrial and trading estate as the government has allocated Rs 122.625 million in its current year development programme. So far, the government has provided Rs 38.850 million for establishment of Peshawar light engineering center in order to promote the engineering industry in the country as an amount of Rs 42.614 million was allocated for the above mentioned projects.
In order to develop and promote the industrial activities in Balochistan, an amount of Rs 30.620 million was released for provision of infrastructure in Quetta Industrial State, whereas the government has earmarked Rs 76.567 million in its current years development programme.
Besides, Rs 44.740 million was released for water supply scheme for Hub Industrial Trading Estate as against the total allocation of Rs 111.855 million for the current financial year.