04 October 2004 Monday 18 Shaban 1425 Consumer-driven economy in the making "Consumer is the king 'is a phrase often used by firms focusing on developing brand loyalty to quality products. Yet, the consumer is the gainer only if it is a buyers' market. ... Stabilizing prices in Ramazan A series of meetings between the government functionaries and the traders are being planned to fix the prices of essential commodities in Ramadan. ... WTO: challenges for the textile industry One way to ensure the right selection is to select all! This is probably the philosophy behind the recent selection of the largest ever cabinet in the national history by the new Prime Minister. ... Pre-requisites for a new work ethic Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz wants a new work ethic in Pakistan to increase economic growth rapidly. He wants the people to produce more of the value-added goods in all sectors ... Is Asia becoming a 'dustbin' for biotechnology? In a strange turn of events - reflecting a deepening crisis in the Third World over whether to accept or not the planting of genetically modified (GM) crops ... Impact of rising export re-finance rate The latest increase of half a percentage point in the State Bank's refinance rate for October 2004 is a clear indicator of how interest rates will move in the months to come and how they will affect various sectors of the economy. ... Human resource management and the banking sector Human resource management (HRM) has long been overlooked in the corporate sector in the country where a small section, comprising mostly the multi-national companies was practising the same. ... Potential threats to world economy Five major risks threaten the global economy in the days to come. Out of these five risks, three rest with the United States of America: sustainable sharp increases in the current-account deficit leading to a crash of the dollar ... New avenues add to banks' profitability New areas of investment and instruments are adding up to banks' profitability in financial industry where a cut-throat competition is on.. With excess liquidity in the market, banks employ various strategies to increase their profitability and market share. ... Property and stock market bubbles The State Bank of Pakistan's official foreign exchange reserves for the FY 1998-99 stood at $2,279 million. Then came the coup d'etat. Our foreign exchange reserves went down to $1,967 million, a loss of 13.7 per cent. Then came September 11 followed by Bush's USA Patriot Act ... Wireless phones enter telecom market The age of the Wireless Local Loop (WLL) has finally arrived in Pakistan. The auction of WLL frequency spectrum last August, is said to finally have marked the conclusion of the deregulation process of the telecom sector. ... The problem of deficit in balance of payments The balance of payments (BoP) means a systematic record of all the economic transactions between residents of a country with the rest of the world during a given period of time. ... Fertilizers management to compensate water shortage Water shortage has placed a question mark over the rabi crops, particularly wheat but water is a commodity that can only be managed, not increased, certainly not within a few weeks time. ... Future status of pesticides development Maximum productivity and efficiency in agriculture will depend on the development and the use of improved practices, such as growing varieties with disease-and-insect resistance ... Pakistan, India water talks; solution not in sight It has been more than a year that India and Pakistan have been having water talks at various levels but no formal agreement has yet been made and after every level of talks, both sides claim that they were very close to solution. ... Food and fibre market The food and fibre market system in Pakistan works with the participation of both public and private sectors. ... Higher dividends bring bourses back on track The dividend-driven rally on the Karachi stock market was well sustained as bulls were not inclined to loosen their grip on price line amid reports of higher pay outs by some leading companies, possibly during the next trading week. ... Rupee trims some losses Corporate demand kept the dollars somewhat aggressive but the banks' dollar-selling in the inter-bank market and the central bank's strict monitoring, as well as its indirect intervention this week helped the rupee trim its losses. ...

© The DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2004