Pakistan Today

ISLAMABAD: Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said Sunday that the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) implementation level of Pakistan reached 79 per cent in November 2020 from 34pc in June 2018. In a tweet, the advisor said that it was greater than India, Bangladesh and an average of all WTO...

LONDON: Investors stormed into riskier assets last week, pumping $27 billion into equity funds as positive Covid-19 vaccine updates led to euphoric buying of shares in worst-hit sectors such as banks, travel and leisure, and oil, BofA said. Citing data from EPFR, the bank said inflows into global stocks in the last two weeks soared to $71.4 billion, the biggest...

LAHORE: Pakistan can make a quantum leap in export promotion of the country by upgrading its marine fisheries sector in collaboration with China. Pak-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) President S M Naveed said on Saturday that keeping in mind the sea potential of Gwadar and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the marine fishing sector needed an urgent...

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is close to declaring that 89 Chinese aerospace and other companies have military ties, restricting them from buying a range of U.S. goods and technology, according to a draft copy of the list seen by Reuters. The list, if published, could further escalate trade tensions with Beijing and hurt U.S. companies that sell civil aviation parts...

SHENZHEN: Chinese handset rivals of Huawei Technologies including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are making aggressive moves to seize market share from their giant rival, after stepped-up U.S. sanctions hobbled Huawei’s supply chains, industry insiders say. Last week Huawei said it has sold its budget Honor subrand for an undisclosed figure in a bid to safeguard the latter’s supply chain from...

LAHORE: Punjab Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has said that the country's textile industry is growing due to the far-sighted and solid policies of Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan. Talking to the delegation of party workers here on Sunday, Aleem Khan said that the revival of the textile industry would not only boost the confidence of traders but also increase...

ISLAMABAD: Locally made medical device Covid-19 Rapid Artificial Intelligence Detection (COV-RAID) would be soon available throughout the country to detect coronavirus infection in a suspected patient’s lungs within a minute. According to an official of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan’s (DRAP), the device was registered by the authority to identify suspected patients economically using x-rays whereas the product was approved...

Pakistan has so far secured $800 million worth of debt freeze deals from 14 members of the richest G-20 countries, while awaits ratification worth $1 billion by the remaining six countries. It may be recalled that Pakistan along with 76 other poor African countries had qualified for the G-20 debt relief initiative, announced in April this year for May-December 2020 period,...

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Sunday urged the government to reduce property tax on plots belonging to auto markets. The statement was made by ICCI President Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan during a visit of a delegation of the Islamabad Auto Market, I-10/3, Traders Welfare Association (TWA), led by its TWA President Musharraf Janjua and TWA...

ISLAMABAD: Domestic tractors manufacturing during the first quarter of the current financial year (Q1FY21) have witnessed about 17.17 per cent growth as compared to the production of the corresponding period of last year (Q1FY20). During the period from July-September 2020-21, about 11,235 tractors were assembled locally as compared to the assembling of 9,589 tractors of the same period of last year. According to the provisional...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has conducted a detailed study of Pakistan’s existing tax system and made recommendations, including a string of policy proposals from the rationalisation of tax rates to withdrawal of tax exemption and removal of all distortions in the country’s tax system. According to a report by Dawn which quotes a source in the Federal Board of...

CAMBRIDGE: Moderna will charge governments between $25 and $37 per dose of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, depending on the amount ordered, Chief Executive Stephane Bancel told German weekly Welt am Sonntag (WamS). “Our vaccine, therefore, costs about the same as a flu shot, which is between $10 and $50,” he was quoted as saying. On Monday, an EU official involved in...

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) and UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) President Ambassador Munir Akram has called for scaling up financing from all sources for getting back on track for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adding that rebuilding better after the pandemic will not be an easy task. He was speaking during a virtual...

The benchmark interest rate for the next two months which is to be decided by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in a meeting tomorrow is likely to remain unchanged as the country navigates its way through slow economic activity and inflation against a backdrop of rising second wave coronavirus infections. In a report by Express Tribune, Pakistan has invited...

DUBAI: Western Union, the world’s largest money transfer firm, has acquired a 15 per cent stake in the digital payment unit of Saudi Arabia’s STC Group for $200 million. The acquisition of STC pay, which values the company at 5 billion riyals ($1.3 billion), will finance its capital and support long-term expansion plans, Saudi Arabia’s largest telecoms operator said in...