Historically Saudi Arabia has been extending extensive aid, grant assistance to Pakistan, but economic cooperation between the two countries has remained far from satisfactory. Some of the critics applaud this brotherly attitude, but say that Saudi stance has been contrary to an old saying ‘don’t give me fish, but teach me how to catch a fish’. However, others say that since the cooperation has been between the two states …

  Some of the Western experts say that the prime reason of Pakistan’s poverty is its huge population. They may have their own reasons to establish their point of view but many local experts completely disagree with this state of mind. Now there is a growing consensus that a population of 200 million people is country’s biggest asset. At present the country has the largest percentage of youth, which is …

  In Pakistan financial institutions have been the pioneer of technology deployment. This is partly because of the nature of their business and partly because of dealing with their counterparts located in developed countries. The added advantage have been that they have ample funds and also because ‘globally acceptable’ hardware and software are available. They also have on credit ‘development of tailor made programs’ that are Pakistan specific. Deployment of …

  It is heartening to note that the incumbent government has appointed S. M. Muneer as Chairman of Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP). The business community has reposed confidence in the new chairman, himself a leading exporter of textiles and clothing and leather and leather products besides having interest in other industrial entities. While the TDAP has enormous mandate as regards to boosting Pakistan’s exports, it is necessary to …

  Despite having tropical wet and dry climate, extensive irrigation makes Punjab a rich agricultural region. Its canal-irrigation system established by the British is the largest in the world. Wheat and cotton are the largest crops. Other crops include rice, sugarcane, millet, corn, oilseeds, pulses, vegetables, and fruits. Livestock and poultry production are also important. Punjab contributes about 76% to annual food grain production in the country. Cotton and rice …

  In 2003, Punjab Government had established Punjab Industrial Estates Development and Management Company (PIEDMC), on the basis of public-private partnership to achieve orderly planned and rapid industrialization in the province. Over the years, PIEDMC actively participated in the industrial developments and now successfully runs four industrial estates and it is busy in developing another five estates in different parts of the province. One of the landmark achievements is that …

  It seems there is a deliberate attempt to create justification for the import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and bid farewell to Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project. This lobbying is being done on the behest of those who have been opposing the project for one or the other reason. The bottom line is to keep Iran and Pakistan at a distance and the efforts have been further enhanced by …

  The word CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) seems to have become a talking point in Pakistan’s corporate sector. The members of Board of Directors and senior management often include many items in CSR, which hardly have any relevance with the community they work with of the people employed in the entities. While huge sums are being allocated and spent under CSR, the trickledown effect is often not visible. In this …

  There are two contrary opinions about Pakistanis being Information technology savvy: 1) Pakistan has reasonable percentage of technology savvy people and 2) the level of IT education is far from satisfactory. Some experts say both the opinions are valid and it depends on the segment of population anyone is trying to explore. However, the split between urban and rural areas continue to have impacts. They say a lot depends …

  In Pakistan banks were the first to deploy technology as they had funds and also wanted to enhance their footprint. On top of that it was growing pressure of the corporate sector to make banking more efficient. Banks went for mainframe computers and soon also started processing bills of utility companies. After a while utilities installed their own systems. However, the real revolution came with the advent of personal …