Time to focus on regional trade, sustainable policies

Regional trade and cooperation is the need of the hour and the essence. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: 

The importance of regional trade realised by developed countries gave birth to the European Union. In spite of all the resources, the EU countries understood that their survival is only possible by enhancement of regional trade and full cooperation between member neighbouring countries. EU has emerged as a full economic force in the world.

Regional trade and cooperation is the need of the hour and the essence. But unfortunately, weaker countries like Pakistan succumb to external pressures falling into the trap where instead of their own benefits and priorities kept foremost, have to follow the whims and desires of the policemen of the world.

Pakistan today faces multi-faceted challenges. Terrorism, political uncertainty, lawlessness and all this leads to one point where a major main cause can be attributed to the economic health of the country. Unfortunately, there is a very big trust deficit between Pakistan and all its neighbours, friends and foes alike.

Rest of the world offers opportunities where the environment is most conducive for investment ie no terror issues, political stability and most of all stable and sound long-term policies irrespective of the changes in the politics of such countries. Why then should major global investors opt for Pakistan?

Uncertainty prevails, Reko Diq is one of the most recent examples and an important test case for Pakistan eyed by the global investor community. The project can become or maybe has already become a quagmire for Balochistan and the Government of Pakistan.

It is informed that very recently one of the key lawyers defending the case expressed to Balochistan parliamentarians the likelihood of the matter in the international courts favouring TCC.

The time has come where politics should be kept on the back burner and to think of brand building and bringing a turnaround to the country’s economy.

Trade with Iran

Ironically, Pakistan’s inability to bargain and utilise its competitive edge and its strategic geographical location has caused and is causing under-investment in the country.

Instead, trying to be the good guy benefitting neighbouring countries like India and Afghanistan by allowing transit trade between these two countries, before allowing this transit trade, Pakistan should have negotiated with Afghanistan to allow connecting Pakistan with the Central Asian countries with the construction of a 40km road from Tirich Mir to the Tajik border.

Instead of remaining pursuant towards India, it should bargain with the masters for allowing free trade with Iran and transit trade between Iraq-Turkey-Europe through Iran into Pakistan.

In this case, the end-beneficiary would be Pakistan and could become a lifeline for the Gwadar Port in Balochistan. In the latter case, allowing transit trade between Afghanistan and India brings no cognizable benefits to Pakistan.

Benefits

The time has come where it is imperative that undaunted efforts should ensue by working towards improvement of relations and trade with Iran. This step can benefit both Pakistan and Iran in a very big way. Some of the needs and benefits are as follows:

1. Will facilitate commercial activity and trade between the two countries.

2.Will facilitate seafood industry at Gwadar and in Iran.

3. Will facilitate direct interaction between the Gwadar Chamber of Commerce and Chabahar Chamber of Commerce.

4. Will facilitate people of border areas to travel across the borders legally and enable them to travel to other parts of the country with a proper visa made available between Gabd-Remdan and Mand-Pishin border points.

5. The development of zero points at the two new borders at Mand-Pishin and Gabd-Remdan, same as that at Taftan border, can have a very positive socio-economic impact on the people of both sides.

6.Since Pakistan is already getting power from Iran and intends to enhance the capacity in the near future, it would be imperative for the operators from both sides to travel freely across the border as a necessity for interaction/meetings.

7. Since Iran being under sanctions, banking with the country is impossible. Legal money exchanges should be established within the boundary of the zero points where businessmen from both sides should have easy access. These exchange companies can act as a guarantee for the commodities traded between Iran and Pakistan.

8. It can enhance tourism between Iran and Pakistan with emphasis on the coastal belt.

9. Once Gwadar starts developing, the facility can invite Iranian business houses to invest in various projects in this port city.

10. It would become necessary for both the countries to establish their consulates at Chabahar and Gwadar.

11. Gwadar Port will be activated after Gabd border is opened for transit trade that can facilitate Iran to export its goods by road from Gwadar to China and vis-à-vis through the Silk Route.

12. While India can buy crude by paying Iran in Indian rupees, why can’t Pakistan?

13. Both the countries should enforce trading in their local currencies.

Therefore, rather than the government begging for good relations with the country towards the eastern border, must turn its face and look towards the western border where the benefits can be innumerable.

The writer is the former project director and deputy managing director of Saindak Copper Gold Project, Chagai district, Balochistan

Choose the right gadget: Is your smartphone 3G compatible?

Most smartphones specifically state if they are compatible with the 3G network with the one on the left an example of being compatible. The one on the right, however, is not compatible with the 3G network. Both images are screenshots of two separate smartphone models. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: 

With Pakistan set to embrace the third-generation mobile internet technology next month, telecom subscribers – especially those planning to enjoy high-speed mobile broadband service – must know one thing: not all smartphones currently sold in the market are compatible with the 3G network.

Those advertised and sold as smartphones should be 3G-enabled phones, experts say. But there are many smartphones in the market that do not support 1,900-2,100 megahertz (MHz) band – the spectrum chosen by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for the rollout of 3G technology.

Wow.com defines smartphones as mobile phones that can perform a host of computing functions, typically having a relatively large screen and an operating system capable of running general-purpose applications. Simply put, they have more advance computing capabilities and connectivity than a feature phone.

Most smartphones, according to techterms.com, have the capability to display photos, play videos, check and send e-mail, and surf the web. Modern smartphones, such as the iPhone and Android-based phones, the website says, can run third-party applications, which provides limitless functionality.

However, these definitions alone cannot determine if a smartphone is also a 3G phone, especially after the recent influx of low-priced mobile phones into the market that are advertised and sold as smartphones. This leads to an obvious question: how will the consumers know if the phones they are using or planning to buy support the 3G network?

Before finding an answer to this question, the consumers should know the technical names and the relevant spectrum for 2G, 3G and 4G networks.

Check the specific band

The technical name for the current mobile technology (2G) is Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications. Most GSM networks around the world, Pakistan included, run in 900 MHz or 1,800 MHz band.

Likewise, the 3G network is known as Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) in the technology world, according to experts. For W-CDMA, 2,100 MHz band is the most popular platform. Pakistan, too, has chosen this band for the launch of 3G technology.

Long Term Evolution (LTE), experts say, is the technical name for 4G technology. It was launched in 2,600 MHz band but was later introduced in 1,800 MHz band as well. Currently, both the bands are used for an LTE network.

However, the PTA has chosen 1,800 MHz band for 4G or LTE service, which means smartphones supporting 2,600 MHz band will not be 4G compatible in Pakistan.

Now to answer the question, the consumers willing to avail themselves of 3G service need to do a little exercise before buying a new mobile phone. They need to check the specifics of the device they plan to buy and ensure that it supports 1,900-2,100 MHz band or says ‘yes’ to the 3G network.

Some companies publish these specs on their websites but one can also find them on the phone’s packaging.

This article puts a special emphasis on 3G phones because most GSM phones already support 1,800 MHz or 4G network. Secondly, 4G is less relevant at the moment because the country is most likely to receive 3G technology shortly after the spectrum auction, which is due on April 23, for high-speed mobile internet services. The operators will need a while, maybe a year, before they are ready to roll out 4G technology.

It is important for the consumers to ensure that the smartphones they are buying support the network they want to use. Otherwise, they will have to spend more on swapping their devices for 3G-compatible smartphone

Enforcing standards: Mango exporters see EU ban on India as a lesson

According to the EU, a high number of such consignments were intercepted at arrival in the EU with quarantine pests. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: 

The European Union’s recent ban on imports of Indian mangoes and a few vegetables due to concerns over the presence of fruit flies has given leading fruit and vegetable exporters in Pakistan a chance to collaborate and expedite enforcing higher standards of agriculture practices.

“We have taken the recent EU’s ban on Indian mangoes and some vegetables very seriously as it is an opportunity for us to look into how we have to cope with similar challenges,” spokesperson for All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association Waheed Ahmed told The Express Tribune.

Association members gathered here on Saturday to review the progress made against fruit flies and other diseases that are hampering the exports of fruits and vegetables.

“We will ask the government to make it compulsory for the growers to hang fruit fly catchers in their farms. This will help reduce the threat of fruit flies,” said Ahmed.

“The association is also looking forward to the purchase of X-ray machines so that exporters can make sure the country can only export products that are free from fruit flies and other detectable diseases,” he added.

On Wednesday, the EU’s Standing Committee on Plant Health decided to impose a ban on Indian mangoes and some vegetables from May due to concerns over the presence of pests and insects in Indian consignments.

India and Pakistan are among the leading mango exporters in the world. The two countries have similar atmosphere and challenges that hamper their exports to the world’s leading markets like the EU.

According to the association, Pakistan is the fourth largest mango exporter in the world. The country annually exports 19,000 tons of mangoes to Europe. The EU said that the decision had to be taken due to a high number of such consignments being intercepted at arrival in the EU with quarantine pests, mainly insects, like non-European fruit flies, Hindustan Times reported.

The EU said that though the prohibited commodities represent less than 5 % of the total fresh fruits and vegetables imported into the EU from India, the potential introduction of new pests could pose a threat to EU’s agriculture and production.

HMRC to appeal against high court award to Barclay brothers of £1.2bn

Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay’s Littlewoods catalogue shopping business has been awarded the large sum in a top-up settlement. Photograph: James Fraser/Rex

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has insisted it will appeal against a high court decision to award Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay's Littlewoods catalogue shopping business £1.2bn in a top-up settlement relating to a long-running legacy VAT dispute.

The judgment handed down on Friday is thought to be one of the biggest single company defeats for HMRC, which had already paid out £470m to Littlewoods in 2004 in an attempt to settle the matter.

It finds the total VAT and interest repayments to the Barclays' empire should be £1.67bn, though the case is almost certain to be taken to appeal and may not be resolved until 2017 if, as expected, it is eventually referred to the supreme court.

A spokesman for HMRC said: "We think today's decision is at odds with how parliament intended VAT law to work and will now seek leave to appeal."

The long-running dispute stems from an error in the treatment of commissions paid to an army of Littlewoods regional agents during the previous 30 years.

In 2004 HMRC accepted that the company, which was owned by the Moores family for almost all of that period, had overpaid £205m in VAT over almost three decades. What has been hotly contested since is the appropriate interest payment Littlewoods should receive.

HMRC had originally settled the dispute with a simple interest payment, but in 2007 the Barclay brothers, who spend much of their time in the tax havens of Monaco and their private island of Brecqhou in the Channel Islands, launched another legal claim demanding the settlement be paid out with compound interest.

The brothers, owners of the Telegraph newspaper titles and the Ritz hotel, hired John Kay, a professor at London School of Economics, to testify that compound interest is the most appropriate measure to assess compensation.

With overpayments stretching back to 1973, he said the interest bill should be £1.4bn. On Friday, Mr Justice Henderson agreed. "The award of compound interest should be computed in accordance with the unchallenged rates and methodology advanced by the claimants' expert, Professor Kay."

The argument has already been through the British tax tribunal system, from where it was referred to the European court of justice. The court in Luxembourg then ruled that it was for the British court to determine such cases, so the matter returned to the high court in London last autumn.

The Barclays acquired loss-making Littlewoods, together with its claim against HMRC, for £750m in 2002 through their offshore family trust. A year later they added the catalogue retailing division of General Universal Stores, merging it with Littlewoods and renaming the holding company Shop Direct. They have since added a number of smaller acquisitions, including buying the web brand for Woolworths from administrators in 2009, and developed the Very.co.uk online brand.

On Thursday HMRC won a more modest court victory over Littlewoods in relation to the corporation tax paid on VAT repayments. The sum involved was £30m.

If it eventually receives the £1.2bn payout, a spokesman for Littlewoods said "the net proceeds will be used for further investment for the benefit of all stakeholders".

BMW announces $1bn expansion at South Carolina facility

A BMW employee works on a door assembly. Photograph: Chris Keane/Reuters

BMW is investing $1bn in its plant in South Carolina to build two of its new X-series vehicles at the facility that ushered in a wave of foreign automakers building southern plants.

The German automaker announced Friday it will create another line at the plant, producing the X7, a larger SUV with three rows of seats similar to a Cadillac Escalade. The company will also make the X4, a sportier version of the X3 coupe and plans to build a plug-in hybrid version of its smaller X5 SUV.

The $1bn will be spent through 2016 at the plant in Greer, a town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. BWM says it will hire 800 additional workers, bringing total employment at the plant to 8,800 people. The Greer plant will make 450,000 vehicles a year by 2016, becoming the largest of the company's 28 plants around the world.

Almost 300,000 BMWs were made in South Carolina last year, and more than 2.6m vehicles have rolled off the plant's assembly lines in the past two decades.

BMW first started making cars in South Carolina in 1994 after months of courtship from around the US and has become as much of a part of the state's modern cultural landscape as the barbecue. The company said access to interstates motorways, rail lines and the Atlantic Ocean were the state's biggest draws. About 70% of the vehicles made at the Greer plant are exported, most on ships out of the port in Charleston.

Mercedes-Benz followed with a plant in Alabama a year later, and in the past two decades, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen have all followed with plants built in rural Southern locations not far from decent-sized cities.

The foreign automakers also benefited from cheaper, non-unionized labor. Earlier this year, workers at the Volkswagen plant near Chattanooga, Tennessee, refused a vote to organize, even with management's blessing.

BMW planned a huge ceremony Friday, with BMW Group Chairman Norbert Reithofer joining governor Nikki Haley and US secretary of commerce Penny Pritzker at the Greer plant.

Facebook reveals plans for solar-powered drones to boost internet access

A Bangladeshi woman brings a laptop to a village to help people access the internet. Currently two thirds of the world cannot access the web. Photograph: A M Ahad/AP

Facebook is working on solar-powered drones to deliver and improveinternet access around the world.

The social network has revealed details of its Connectivity Lab, a team of people, including experts from Nasa, which is working on new aerospace and communications technologies with the aim of expanding global internet access.

The company's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, said in a post on his personal Facebook page: "In our effort to connect the whole world withInternet.org, we've been working on ways to beam internet to people from the sky. Today, we're sharing some details of the work Facebook's Connectivity Lab is doing to build drones, satellites and lasers to deliver the internet to everyone."

In a video post, Yael Maguire of Facebook spoke about the different ways the company was looking to extend the reach of existing internet connections.

"We're looking at a new type of plane architecture that flies at roughly 20,000 metres, because that's a point where winds are at their lowest, it's above commercial airliners, it's even above the weather, and actually it can stay in the air for months at a time. These planes are solar-powered and they sit there and circle around, and have the ability to broadcast internet down."

Zuckerberg said key members of the team were from the UK-based firm Ascenta, which created early versions of Zephyr, the world's longest flying solar-powered unmanned aircraft. They would be working on "connectivity aircraft".

The project is an extension of the Internet.org group which Facebook helped found in 2013 along with other major technology firms, such as Samsung and Nokia, with the goal of providing the internet in those parts of the world without access. According to the group, two thirds of the world cannot access the web.

The launch of the Connectivity Lab follows a similar move by Google with the creation of Google X, a group responsible for the development of both Google Glass and the smart contact lenses announced in January. The lenses can measure glucose levels in the tear ducts, and could be used to monitor conditions such as diabetes.

Facebook offered no details on how far advanced the project was, or any time frame for its completion.

Co-operative Group board member defends 'robust' business model

Ben Reid is chief executive of Midcounties Co-operative. Photograph: Daniel Lynch

The Co-operative Group should not stray from the mutual model or add layers of authority that distance the group from its members, according to an independent member of its governing board.

Ben Reid, chief executive of the Midcounties Co-operative, Britain's biggest independent customer-owned retailer, said the model had been proven to work and the Co-operative Group needed to respond to its troubles by getting back in touch with its customer owners.

The co-operative model of member ownership has faced severe criticism after the Co-op Group, the movement's biggest business, was plunged into financial crisis last year when a £1.5bn black hole was found in its banking arm. The group is expected to report a loss of at least £2bn next month.

Reid said: "Independent cooperatives have weathered the recession well and have shown how robust the co-operative model is." Reid, who is one of the five representatives of independent co-operatives who sit on the Co-op Group's 21-strong board, declined to comment specifically on proposals from Lord Myners, its independent director, for overhauling its governance.

Myners, called in to review how the group is run, has proposed an overhaul of the board of directors, which includes a nurse, a farmer and a tax official. He said governance at the group was worse than at the bailed-out banks in the run-up to the financial crisis.

But Reid said: "The co-operative model is alive and well. It might have taken a few knocks over the last few weeks but we have shown there is a way of doing this. I want to project it out there. Our movement is bigger than the problems we face.

"What we don't need is a multiplicity of layers in the structure that make it difficult for co-operative enthusiasts to have their voice heard."

He also called for caution following Myners' initial report. "I think there is still a lot of debate to be had. There has been an initial outline produced and we shouldn't get too excited until the full report comes out. It could be easy to misinterpret what he [Myners] means."

In an interim report rushed out two weeks ago after the shock departure of former group chief executive Euan Sutherland, Myners proposed a smaller board made up mainly of outsiders with business experience.

Members would elect representatives to a new membership council to oversee the board and spread power from about 100 activists who guide the group.

Reid spoke as Midcounties announced operating profit up 21% to £22m on revenues up 24% to £1.2bn – the first independent co-operative to pass the billion-pound mark for sales. Midcounties, based in Warwickshire, will pay more than £6m of dividends to its 439,000 members and staff.

"We are an independent society with direct connectivity to our membership. Maybe that is one of the things Lord Myners will look at in his report."

Myners has claimed that one member of the group's board had threatened to block his proposals by using their influence over 28% of the votes that will determine whether they take effect.

Reid said he was not the person Myners was talking about and that no one could wield that kind of power at the group.

"I just don't recognise the description. That isn't the way a co-op works. This isn't a plc where you log votes."

He said Midcounties had "taken a step back" a few years ago to draw customers and employees, who volunteered more than 44,000 hours for local causes last year, into the business. That is what the group needs to do now, he added.

"I'm a believer so I believe it is possible. The trick we have to pull off with the group is to reconnect it to its membership.

"Whatever the structure is, and there will be all sorts of suggestions, we have to find a way for the voice of the ordinary members to influence the group and its strategy. That is what is more difficult as you get bigger."

Reid said he supported the idea of bringing in independent non-executives and that he was very disappointed when Sutherland quit amid a furore over the £3.6m pay deal he negotiated last year.