September 12, 2005	Monday	Sha’aban 7, 1426

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The rural debt POVERTY alleviation has become the buzzword attracting a lot of attention at domestic and international levels. Mass poverty in the country is universally recognized. Poverty is more acute in rural than urban areas....		Pakistan not yet on the outsourcing map Despite a late start, Pakistan’s information technology entrepreneurs and the government are hoping to make it big in the global marketplace for outsourcing of IT-enabled services....
Will cement and sugar imports cut prices? WILL millions of dollars being spent on importing large quantities of cement and sugar bring down prices? The answer, in a single word, is: hardly. Food imports from India prove this point....		Participatory approach to technologies AFTER introduction of the Green Revolution technology in Pakistan, new horizons in the field of agriculture have been accessed. Intensive and multi-cropping system of agriculture has been the norm of this era....
Mango exports on the rise KNOWN as the “king of Pakistani fruits”, are mangoes receiving their due? The public is generally pleased because even in the highly inflationary present times, price of this fruit of some...		Returns on apple orchards FRUITS play key role in the economies of many countries. With small independent agricultural units, the scope of mechanization in Pakistan is limited and agricultural production labour-intensive....
Fragmentation of land holdings ON the occasion of ‘World Food Day’ on October 16, the Environ Monitor of Pakistan is organizing a conference in Lahore in the first week of the month....		Upgrading infrastructure PAKISTAN’S Infrastructure Projects Conference 2005 scheduled for 13-14 September 2005 at Islamabad is expected to provide participants with an overview of infrastructure policies, projects and opportunities for the private investors....
World economies IRAN’s economy relies heavily on oil export revenues - around 80-90 per cent of total export earnings and 40-50 per cent of the government budget.  Strong oil prices in the past few years have helped Iran’s economic situation.  For 2004, Iran’s real GDP increased by around 5.8 per cent; for 2005 and 2006,...		Recycling waste IN Pakistan, it is estimated that 47,920 tonnes of waste is generated daily and 53.6 per cent is collected while rest lies scattered around. About one kg garbage per person is produced and disposed off daily....
How should sugar be priced? A SENIOR government official in the ministry of commerce is reported by the press to have said that government has decided to teach sugar mills a lesson, if they do not release their stocks and reduce the price of sugar....		Foreign investment in stocks: Mumbai Letter IT was celebration time on Thursday last at Dalal Street, the narrow, but bustling road in the heart of south Mumbai, which is home to the 28-storeyed Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers, headquarters of the Bombay Stock Exchange....
The real estate bubble INVESTING in real estate has become a national craze in Pakistan. The moneyed are taking this newly developed passion to an extreme. They favour speculation in real estate at the cost of industrialization....		Corruption — a drag on equitable growth CORRUPTION is rampant in much of the developing world. It is pervasive at all levels of public management, including deliberate mismanagement of national economies for personal gain....
Limits of a tighter monetary policy THE governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Dr Ishrat Husain, who had earlier acknowledged the limits of tighter monetary control to fight the irrepressible inflation is back talking of tightening monetary control to bring down inflation....		South Asia’s concern on dumping A TWO-DAY conference of parliamentarians of South Asia held in Islamabad on August 29-30 to discuss WTO-related issues and their impact on the region’s economies and people is a momentous development....
Stocks stay bullish on hopes of better prospects THE stocks stayed bullish last week as investors kept strengthening their position in bank and energy shares amid predictions of better corporate earnings and enhanced dividend....		Rupee softens against dollar THE rising oil prices in international markets exerted downward pressure on the dollar in local market. Big banks were seen buying dollars in the inter-bank market to cover their import bill payments....
SBP using OMOs to contain liquidity, fight inflation ON September 9, the State Bank of Pakistan mopped up Rs10.6 billion from the inter-bank market through a six-day repo sale of the Treasury bills at 7.9...		Lack of trading interest in commodities THE wholesale commodity markets lacked normal trading interest last week as retailers and brokerage houses did not make fresh commitments at inflated levels and stayed on the sidelines....