News

Industries lack plans for long-term growth: ADB

The high-growth industries in Pakistan lack industry-specific action plans that set a long-term growth vision to match with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) aimed at consolidating plans for innovation, technology adoption, and skills development of employees, said a new study published by Asian Development Bank on Monday. “The Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) developed by Singapore tha

Stocks suffer losses in jittery week

Trading on the stock exchange commenced on a negative note in the outgoing week as ratings agency Fitch stated that Pakistan faced a substantial debt payment of $3.7 billion in May and June. Arif Habib Ltd said another reason for pessimism was the absence of Pakistan from the agenda of the International Mone­tary Fund (IMF) meetings, which dampened the hope for the resumption of the Extended Fu

Declining remittances

OVERSEAS Pakistanis are sending fewer dollars back home these days, with workers’ remittances dropping 13pc to $22.7bn during the 10-month period between July and April of this fiscal year as compared to the last one. The loss of $3.4bn in home remittances nearly matches the upcoming debt repayments of $3.7bn during May-June. The amount is also equal to the ‘financing gap’ that Pakistan has bee

Missing the bus

Shahzad Saleem is the chairman of the Nishat Chunian Group and the Pakistan Textile Council, a not-for-profit organisation created by Pakistan’s top 31 textile companies as a research, advocacy & impact acceleration platform for the textile and apparel industry. It has recently set up a national compliance institute in Islamabad and is working on the Generalised Scheme of Preferences facility from

Infestation of political instability

Pakistan descended into a fresh round of political instability in April 2022 after Imran Khan, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, was removed from office through a vote of no confidence in the parliament. The polycrisis that ensued in the aftermath of his ouster took twists and turns but largely remained under control until last week when Imran Khan was arrested from the veranda of the Islama