Wapda chief’s role strengthened/ Power sector reform partially reversed/

http://dawn.com/2013/03/20/wapda-chiefs-role-strengthened/

ISLAMABAD: In a major decision taken days after departure of the federal cabinet, the government partially reversed on Tuesday power sector reforms by putting all the 16 corporate power companies under the control of the Wapda Chairman Syed Raghib Shah.

“The competent authority has been pleased to designate the chairman, Wapda, to act as overall coordinator for the power sector to enhance the administration and coordination. Chief executive officers of Discos (10 distribution companies) and Gencos (three generation companies), NTDC/CPPA and Pepco will report directly to him for coordination purpose,” a notification issued by the ministry of water and power said.

The chairman will be reporting to the secretary for water and power, it added. The Wapda chairman has been empowered to nominate a member each on the boards of directors of all distribution and generation companies, the National Transmission and Distribution Company (NTDC) and the Pakistan Electric Power Company after completion of formalities.

Mr Shah, who was appointed chairman a few months ago reportedly on the desire of President Asif Ali Zardari, will now have the powers of the federal power minister except that he will be reporting to the secretary, according to an official.

In an unusual development, the ministry also created the post of co-chairman on the board of directors of the NTDC and the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) for the Wapda chairman.

According to sources, the government will have to amend the Companies’ Ordinance to make room for the post of co-chairman because existing laws provide for a board of directors headed by a chairman.

The government also sacked eight members of the NTDC/CPPA board and reconstituted it, reducing its strength from 12 to eight.

Those removed from the board are Khalid Hussain Rai, Waqar Zakaria, Salman Burney, Aamir Qawi, Dr Muslehuddin, Dr Zafar Mueen Zafar, Noorul Arifeen Zuberi and Laeeq Ahmed.

They had been inducted from private sector through a selection process put in place by the cabinet committee on restructuring headed by former finance minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

While reconstituting the NTDC board, the government also excluded the Managing Director of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board, N. A. Zuberi, even though the PPIB is responsible for attracting investment and signing contracts for development of all power projects.

The newly constituted board will have four directors of the previous board — Khalid Mohtadullah, Bashir Ahmad Dahar, Mohammad Qasim Khan (Wapda member power) and Asjad Imtiaz Elahi (federal flood commissioner).

The new members are Aziz Mujahid, Sharafat Ali Sial, additional secretary for water and power, and Ibrahim Rind.

The sources said Wapda had been seeking re-amalgamation into the authority of the power sector that had been unbundled under the reforms under way since 1990.

They said the newly appointed secretary in charge of the ministry, Rai Sikandar, had been able to persuade the prime minister and the president that the reform process had complicated the power system, instead of improving its performance because of fragmentation.

The sources said the prime minister had been informed that former secretary Nargis Sethi had played havoc with the system allegedly by inducting handpicked officers from the ministry to look after corporate companies on an ad hoc basis.

Mr Sikandar, who is yet to be promoted to grade 22, presented his vision of revival of the power sector under a well established national institution of Wapda.

He convinced the prime minister that an independent and yet ad hoc set-up in the NTDC/CPPA did not have the capacity to sign power purchase agreements with private investors and created hurdles in the setting up of solar, wind and hydroelectric power projects being promoted by provincial governments, involving over 1,500mw.

“Practically, the power sector’s early 1990s status has been restored,” an official said.

He said Wapda had been separated from the power sector in the early 1990s under a strategic plan for restructuring the power sector on the desire of international lenders to attract private investment. The reform process was approved in phases by successive federal cabinets but the sector’s problems, including shortages, continued to increase.

Pakistan far from being an ‘economic calamity’

http://dawn.com/2013/03/06/pakistan-far-from-being-an-economic-calamity/

LAHORE: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Yaseen Anwar expressed full confidence in the country’s economy and was hopeful of its ability to pull through the difficult times facing it.

Speaking at the Naval War College on Tuesday, the governor described Pakistan’s current economic situation as “less than optimal” but said it was also “very far from what may be described as an economic calamity”.

“Pakistan has never defaulted on its international and domestic debts. In fact, the economy has grown consistently – though not spectacularly – over the past six decades despite periods of international alienation and sanctions, three expensive wars, two hostile fronts, regular political upheavals, social unrest, sharp increases in the price of oil, and much, much more,” the governor noted.

He said the SBP had always ensured that the financial system remained safe and stable. “The robustness of our financial system is a direct consequence of the reforms process and the bank’s constant vigilance,” he said.

He said there was a lot that could be improved in the country’s financial system and called for development of efficient debt markets, even better regulatory and reporting practices, and the broadening of financial sector’s scope to include largely un-banked sectors of the economy like agriculture, small and medium enterprises and housing.

“Despite this wish list, the fact remains that our financial system is by design secure and does not pose any threat to the economy as a whole,” he added. Informal Economy Harming Country

The governor pointed out that the size of Pakistan’s undocumented economy was – by some estimates – as large as the formal economy. “The informal economy does not file taxes and while it does absorb a significant chunk of the labour force, it also evades corporate and labour laws,” he said.

He said although close informal relationships did make the economy more resilient, they did so at a cost to the overall economy by eroding the ambit of the regulators.
“Ideally, we, at the SBP, would like to see a smaller informal economy, while society retains the structure that has made it so resilient,” he said.

He stressed the need for greater integration of country’s domestic market with global markets but observed it did not mean that we should not have proper controls and mechanisms in place to safeguard our own interests.

“Greater integration with financial markets will mean that capital will flow more quickly through our borders. It’s definitely something that will boost the economy, but, as most East Asian countries learned in the 90s, it can be a double-edged sword. Therefore, having some capital controls in place, which reduce the volatility of capital flows, is a necessary regulation in this day and age” he noted.

He also emphasised the need for more effective regulations for the economy and said it was an essential part of what was needed today to get the economy on a track for steady and sustainable growth. He said the government’s footprint in some sectors of the economy was very large, and quite negligible in other sectors.

“Such divergence is unhealthy. Effective regulation is sorely lacking in other sectors. The tax machinery can be tightened considerably. One of the country’s most challenging problems today is the size of the fiscal deficit – and a large part of the solution lies in increasing our tax base by enac-ting regulation that encourages tax compliance, and punishes tax evasion.”

A General Guide for Using Salt Water on Rice

I understand that a large part of sindh land particularly Badin, is going to waster because of sea intrusion. Now rice are being grown in Bangladesh and elsewhere using salt water. Please inform friends and family back home about these new scientific developments.

http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/crops_livestock/crops/rice/cultural_practices/A+General+Guide+for+Using+Salt+Water+on+Rice.htm

Here is one of many articles on internet.

A General Guide for Using Salt Water on Rice

Salt water can become a problem in rice production, especially in some areas in dry years. A small amount of salt water is not dangerous to rice at any stage of growth. Higher concentrations affect the existing crop and can cause a buildup of salt in the soil.

Rice grown on soils relatively free of salt is tolerant to salt water with 35 grains (600 parts per million) per gallon of sodium chloride. One flooding of 6 acre inches of water containing 35 grains (600 p.p.m.) of salt would leave 800 pounds of salt per acre in the surface soil. Three such floodings would leave 2400 pounds per acre, about all the crop would endure. Continued use of even this amount of salt will lead to trouble. Water containing more than 35 grains per gallon (600 p.p.m.) cannot be used continuously throughout the growing season and year after year without damaging both crop and soil.

Where sodium chloride or sodium carbonate has accumulated in the soil, less than 1000 p.p.m. is not toxic to germination if there is normal soil moisture.

This table can be used as a guide for tolerance of rice to salt water.

Commonly Accepted Tolerance of Rice to Salt Water
Concentrations of Salt as NaCl in water

 

Grains per Gallon	P.P.M.	Stage of Growth
35	600	Tolerable at all stages, not harmful. Rarely harmful and only to seedlings after soil is dry enough to crack.
75	1300	Tolerable from tillering on to heading.
100	1700	Harmful before tillering, tolerable from jointing to heading.
200	3400	Harmful before booting, tolerable from booting to heading.
300	5100	Harmful to all stages of growth. this concentration stops growth and can be used only at the heading stage when soil is saturated with fresh water.

This information was taken from material compiled by Dr. M.B. Sturgis, head, LSU Department of Agronomy by Lewis Hill, associate sppecialist (Agronomy), retired.

Last Updated: 5/18/2012 8:22:26 AM

More information on Crops

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THe History of Singapore

From 18th century village to independence and start of Lee Kuan Yew’s government in 1965

Sindh Development Issues and Agenda

Following is link to a very useful presentation on Sindh development Issues and Agenda.

Key subjects covered are:

Sindh Resource Rich and Poor
Chronic Problems
Economic reform
Fiscal restructuring,
Public Sector Development
Reforms in roads, irrigation, water sanitation
& Mineral development
Accelerated privatization and deregulation.Contents
Governance reforms
Financial management reform
Civil service reform
Decentralization
Social sector reform
Health
Education
Sindh’s PRSP and Monitoring Indicators

Click to access Sindh.pdf

Hunger and World Poverty

About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every three and a half seconds, as you can see on this display. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often.

Yet there is plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish themselves. Being constantly malnourished, they become weaker and often sick. This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for them and their families.

There are effective programs to break this spiral. For adults, there are “food for work” programs where the adults are paid with food to build schools, dig wells, make roads, and so on. This both nourishes them and builds infrastructure to end the poverty. For children, there are “food for education” programs where the children are provided with food when they attend school. Their education will help them to escape from hunger and global poverty.

Hunger and World Poverty Sources: United Nations World Food Program (WFP), Oxfam, UNICEF.

Pakistan and OIC (Economy)

Pakistan and the OIC

 

 

Dr Javaid Laghari
Monday, November 19, 2012
From Print Edition

 

 

 

Recently the OIC Economic Forum was held in Istanbul under the auspices of the Capital Market Regulators Forum (COMCEC). The commerce, development and finance ministers of the 57 Islamic countries attended the forum, which was chaired by the Turkish prime minister. Two reports were presented: The Annual Economic Report and SWOT Outlook on OIC Member Countries, 2012. The reports show how far Pakistan has fallen behind many OIC countries and the emerging economies in Asia.

 

For emerging economies like Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia, the average GDP growth rate for the last three years has averaged around eight percent, as against 6 to 8 percent for other developing countries, and 4 to 6 percent for the rest of the world. In South Asia in 2011, according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2011-12, Sri Lanka averaged eight percent, and India and Bangladesh seven percent.

 

However, Pakistan averaged between 1.7 percent and three percent of GDP growth over the same period, which is less than half the world average, and about quarter the average of the emerging economies. Pakistan already has among the lowest GDP per capita (purchasing power parity, PPP) at $2,700 (the average for emerging economies is around $6,100), and its GDP is ranked 134th in the world (even below Laos and Nicaragua). Pakistan will soon fall below countries like Rwanda and Sudan within a decade, unless some drastic economic measures are undertaken with immediate effect.

 

Things are getting worse by the day for the common man in Pakistan due to high inflation and a shrinking economy. While world inflation averaged below five percent for the last three years, and emerging economies registering less than seven percent inflation, Pakistan continued with double-digit inflation. Even where world prices have dropped (like in energy, which peaked worldwide in 2008 but are 40 percent lower now); prices in Pakistan continued to rise every year.

 

Pakistan’s budget deficit was reportedly 8.5 percent last year. The government continues to borrow Rs5 billion every day. It took Pakistan 60 years to accumulate a public debt of Rs6 trillion. However, in the last five years alone, the debt has doubled to over Rs12 trillion. As our tax collection as a percentage of GDP is among the lowest in the world (9.5 percent, compared to 18 percent for India), we need another $12 billion to survive over the next 12 months.

 

Pakistan’s reserves have fallen to less than $10 billion, from $14 billion last year. Foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2008 was $5.4 billion, which has dropped to around $700 million, a mere 13 percent of the 2008 figure. According to the 2011 Legatum Prosperity Index, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and the Central African Republic are the only three countries worse off than Pakistan.

 

Pakistan needs to invest in education. Unfortunately, education has remained a low priority in our country. The literacy rate in Pakistan is about 58 percent, compared to an average of 81 percent for the developing world and 84 percent for the world. Only Sub-Saharan Africa is behind us.

 

Our expenditure on education is only about 2.3 percent of the GDP. According to Unesco, there are only six countries that spend less than Pakistan on education, including Zambia, the Central African Republic, Burma, Ecuador and Nigeria. According to the Education Sub-Index, the Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan, Ethiopia and Nigeria are the only countries worse off than Pakistan.

 

The key to prosperity lies in the creation of a knowledge-economy through investment in higher education. Developed countries like Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan, and more recently emerging economies in Asia like Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia in Southeast Asia, are investing heavily in higher education.

 

Even the oil-rich OIC countries have figured it out that real long-term prosperity lies in creating a knowledge-economy. While the developing world continues to invest in higher education, our investments have fallen over the last five years from 0.32 percent of the GDP to less than 0.2 percent of the GDP. As a result, our gross enrolment rate in tertiary education is a measly eight percent, while it averages around 26 percent for the emerging economies, and 77 percent for the developed world.

 

We also have among the lowest number of researchers per capita. In the OIC countries, Tunisia (3,240), Jordan (1,934), Turkey (1,715) and Iran (1,715) are the top four, while Pakistan has less than 350! Out of 106,000 scientific articles published by OIC countries in 2011, half originated from only two countries: Turkey and Iran.

 

Pakistan accounted for only six percent of the total. And on top of that, whatever research takes place in Pakistan it is not transferred to the industry as there are hardly any incubators and technology parks. Only 1.5 percent of the world patents and four percent of global high-tech exports came from OIC countries, out of which 81 percent came from Malaysia alone. As a result, Pakistan is not even listed among the top 10 OIC countries by technological intensity of exports, neither in high nor medium skills, whereas Malaysia, Jordan, Turkey and Tunisia are top technological exporters.

 

We need to educate Pakistan. We need to make it a constitutional requirement to allocate at least four percent of the GDP to education. We need to engage our youth and create a knowledge-economy.

 

The writer is chairperson of the HEC.Email: jlaghari@hec.gov.pk

Urban poverty turns uglier

Urban poverty turns uglier

From the Newspaper | Muhammad Kashif| 30th October, 2012

 

 

A man, left, carries a bag past by Jamil Sirfiraz, 13, right, and Waqar Abdulghafar, 14, as they rest following their daily work at a puncture repair shop in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. – AP (File Photo)

KARACHI: Low economic growth,  relocating of industry, high food inflation and rising joblessness have together made the life of urban poor more painful and uglier, say economists, who are firm in the belief that the country is all set to miss the MDG targets.

The policy thrust of the government has been on stabilisation since 2008, having a direct bearing on overall economic activities. As a result, meagre GDP growth has pushed millions more below the poverty line.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Nadeemul Haq, when approached by Dawn, was reluctant and even got irritated by the query, saying he was in Dubai and receiving calls would cost him dearly.

Sartaj Aziz, a distinguished economist and former finance minister, said urban poverty was increasing mainly due to high food inflation, stagnant real incomes, rising unemployment and shrinkage of industrial base due to the rising cost of doing business and security issues triggering flight of capital and forcing many industrialists to relocate their businesses to other countries.

He said that in an environment of falling foreign and private investments, the incidence of poverty had not shown any signs of easing. In fact, the numbers have gone from bad to worse, he said, citing data from a recent report by the Social Policy and Development Centre.

The level of poverty had declined from 34.4 per cent of the population in 2001 to 28 per cent in 2005-06, but the high food inflation in the last three years has brought it back to 33 per cent, pushing at least 11 million people below the poverty line. When he was asked about the rising sale of mobile phones, refrigerators and other electronic goods, he said it was not an indicator of falling poverty, adding that many of these goods were import-intensive which put further pressure on the foreign exchange reserves.

He said an economic growth of six to seven per cent could reduce poverty as it generates employment opportunities and increase real incomes of the poor. “Only economic revival is the answer to poverty and other social problems,” he remarked, noting that the investment-to-GDP ratio had fallen to 13-15 per cent from 20 per cent in 1990s.

Arif Hassan, an expert on urban development and member of the UN committee that designed the goals for poverty reduction, said there was no reliable figures available depicting true picture of poverty ratio, but he was sure that during the last five years the urban-rural disparity had widened sharply.

He said poverty is not only about incomes, but also of access to quality health, education, justice, entertainment etc. He cited shrinking state sector, bad governance, corruption, low tax-base and anti-poor policies as the main culprits for the prevailing situation.

He said the per capita infrastructure investment in poor localities was not more than 10 per cent of what the settled localities received. He termed the foreign-funded initiatives cosmetic which were designed to misappropriate well-being funds of the poor. He said the cost of infrastructure projects was shown six to seven times of the actual to allow excessive profiteering by all concerned. “It is a system of loot and plunder,” he remarked.

For tackling poverty, he was of the view that the country didn’t need to look to the donors, but to capitalise on the national potential.

Dr Qaiser Bengali, former adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister on economic affairs, said macroeconomic indicators suggested urban poverty had risen because of stagnant industry and slowing services sector in the last four years. He, however, hastened to add that the agriculture sector was doing comparatively well, helping rural poor to fare better.

“Eliminating poverty has never been the strategic national economic policy of the state and there is no institutionalised framework available for performing this task,” he remarked. “Adopting a common agenda for eliminating poverty by developing a consensus of all players can only deliver the result,” he suggested.

Economist Syed Akbar Zaidi said poverty in urban areas was much lower than its rural component. “Poverty had fallen in the Musharraf period, but began to rise again in 2007 onwards till it went down in 2009 again. I agree with findings made by the World Bank and by PIDE that poverty has been falling over the last decade.”

According to poverty analysis done on the basis of data obtained through the Pakistan Social Living Standard Measurement (PSLM) survey in 2010-11, overall poverty had fallen to 12.4 per cent, with urban poverty at 7.1 per cent and rural poverty at 15.1 per cent. “These figures might not be accurate, but the important thing is the trend of decline. It would seem odd that even when the economy is performing poorly, poverty would decline, or at least, not rise. Probably the biggest poverty alleviation factor is the increase and distribution of remittances,” he said.

He, however, was of the view that most of the government figures didn’t capture real changes in the poverty.

About the best strategy to deal with dwindling indicators of well-being in urban poor, Zaidi said economic growth, which creates jobs, was essential for the alleviation of urban poverty, as is education and human capital.

Also, if better economic conditions and opportunities exist in small towns and even in so-called rural areas, that may stem the tide of the migrants who join the urban poor. Land reforms granting ownership of economic units of agricultural land would be a good strategy to curb both rural and urban poverty.

About direct government intervention to reduce poverty, he said evidences from the 1980s onwards suggested that economic growth is important, as are remittances, and these have been the main tools for poverty alleviation.

“Direct government intervention in the form of Baitul Maal and Zakaat transfers has been seen to show huge holes for corruption. The government should help by providing employment in public works and public infrastructure schemes. The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is a handout which has lost its real value over time due to inflation. Credit for the micro and small-scale industry is also a better means to allow people to stand on their own feet rather than just give handouts,” he suggested.

Education in a Changing World

I found this to be a very interesting video about
Education in a Changing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuGkkaoOZVE&feature=BFa&list=PLAD0B5EC91812E621

The financial crisis looming ahead‏ (in Pakistan)

The emergency

Farrukh Saleem

Sunday, May 20, 2012

 

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-109392-The-emergency

 

We need a colossal $24 billion just to survive the following 24 months. Imagine; our imports are growing twice as fast as exports and the current account over the following 24 months will be in the negative to the tune of $9 billion. The IMF and other debts in the amount of $15 billion have to be paid back. The oil import bill just by itself is going to be $15 billion a year or a total of $30 billion over the following 24 months (on the assumption that the international price will stay under $100 a barrel).

 

Imagine; we accumulated a total of Rs6 trillion debt beginning in 1947 till 2008. Over the past four years our debt has gone to Rs12 trillion.

 

By the end of the next financial year our foreign reserves will be next to nothing. Foreign inflows – other than remittances – are at a historical low. In the next three to six months, the IMF will be the key –can’t live with it, can’t live without. Every other multilateral and bilateral donor will be taking the cue from the IMF.

 

Budget 2011-2012 has proven to be a total farce, complete fiction. A sum of Rs70 billion was expected from privatisation. Nothing done. An additional $800 million was to come through the auction of 3G licenses. Nothing done. Etisalat was expected to pay $800 million. Nothing done. A billion dollar transfer was to take place in the form of Coalition Support Funds. Nothing done. An amount of Rs40 billion was to come in through Eurobonds. Nothing done.

 

On the other side of the equation, Wapda/Pepco subsidy was estimated at Rs122 billion. The real figure is close to Rs360 billion. The federal government was expected to borrow Rs303 billion from the banking sector. The real figure has crossed Rs1 trillion.

 

Imagine; the federal government has already consumed “91 percent of the total annual budget in just nine months.” And now there’s going to be an election year budget-relief, subsidies, revenues would be widely overestimated, expenditures underestimated. A new disaster that is in the making.

 

Imagine; all that the government is doing is printing money– Rs1 trillion a year or Rs300 crore a day every day of the year. All that new money has caused food inflation to go through the roof and as a consequence 60 million rural Pakistanis and 22 million urban Pakistanis are now ‘food insecure’.

 

What is really scary is that no one is talking about the things that really matter. Politicians are promising to build bridges where there is no river and bureaucrats are not making any decision in order to escape all responsibility.

 

Our industry depends on energy and agriculture on water –amazingly, we have plans neither for energy nor for water. Muddling along the fast flowing Niagara River the wobbly ship with 180 million onboard is not too far from the falls, Niagara Falls.

 

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email:farrukh15@hotmail.com