Business - 36

Stocks on Wednesday finished with an extended gain as institutional traders and punters were not inclined to take even a technical breath despite a closure ahead and covered positions at the current levels on selected counters. The market’s uppish leaning was reflected in a fresh sharp rise in the KSE 100-share index that breached through [...]

PAKISTAN, impressed with the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), has invited Malaysian companies to take part in the development of a US$50 million (US$1 = RM3.80) intelligent city project in Islamabad. Pakistan’s Board of Investment (BOI) investment counsellor Datuk Salim Fateh Din said Islamabad is developing a 6ha site into an intelligent city like Cyberjaya, but [...]

A US-based energy firm plans to invest $1.2 billion in Pakistan’s wind power generation sector in Sindh province, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement. Chief Executive Officer of Access Energy Group International (AGI) of the United States, Shahid Naeem met with Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub Khan here on Monday and [...]

The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) has forecasted all-time-high world cotton production in 2004-05 of 111 million bales, amending its previous estimation of 102 million bales and estimating China as the top cotton producing nation with Pakistan taking fourth position. The US-based ICAC stated this in its recent report received here by local traders and [...]

The private sector airline Airblue’s Commercial Director, S. Nasir Ali – said the airline, is expanding its network by adding Peshawar to its route’s network. Airblue was launched on June 18 this year with its high-tech A320 aircraft, flying domestic sectors to Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. Nasir said the airline started with a fully computerised [...]

Begum Salma Ahmed’s own grit and her determination to get the women out of their shells, especially in the sub-continent, truly sets her apart from many women of her generation. Based in Karachi, Begum Salma Ahmed one of the first woman industrialists of Pakistan, she is the founder-president of Pakistan Association of Women Entrepreneurs (PAWE) [...]

In a historic fashion, business and diplomatic move, Faiza Samee, the Pakistani designer who once dressed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto for her wedding, has begun retailing in Delhi, the first ever for a Pakistani designer in India. Samee, who will be selling at the Carma fashion boutique in Mehrauli, has even made saris for [...]

The mobile phone penetration rate in Pakistan and other countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam is less than 10 per cent, which indicates their tremendous potential for growth. “There are 700 million people in these four countries, thus low mobile penetration shows tremendous potential for growth in these economies,” Ericsson (South East Asia) President Kristian [...]

Why is Pakistan the hot new offshore information technology (IT) destination? This is because of a combination of favorable economic circumstances. Just when many Western managers are finally becoming comfortable with the idea of working closely with Indian IT firms, along comes Pakistan. Pakistan is shaking off decades of “also ran” status. Funds invested into [...]

With the departure of a Boeing-767 flight yesterday, the national airline of the UAE, Etihad Airways launched its first scheduled flight to Karachi, the Pakistan’s business capital with an initial frequency of four flights per week, creating jitters among competitors. The Karachi flight represents still more growth and is Etihad’s 13th destination in its 11-month [...]