Barcelona talk untrue' - Hummels

The Germany international has laughed off the reports stating that he is poised to join the Spanish giants, claiming the stories are "not true"

Borussia Dortmund defender Mats Hummels has moved to refute the speculation linking him with a big-money move to Barcelona.

The Catalans are reportedly readying a €35 million bid in an attempt to prise the 24-year-old away from Signal Iduna Park, much to the frustration of CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke who recently labelled the reports as "absolute nonsense".

And Hummels, whose contract expires in 2017, has echoed those sentiments. Speaking to Sky Deutschland, the defender said: "There is no truth in these stories. 

"Of course every now and then there are reports. That is the same with other players, too.

"I read about [Ilkay] Gundogan and Thomas Muller going to Barcelona. He went to the city of Barcelona to have dinner. This just happens, and then you are getting linked to a move.

"Then, there are some people claiming they are in touch with Barcelona. And they tell the media about it.

"We had that experience back in April. Three days later, this was written in a newspaper."

The Germany international, who started and finished the 2-1 victory over Arsenal in the Champions League on Tuesday, has made seven league appearances for the German giants this season.

Capital’s climbers scale Trango Braak in G-B

The Trango Towers are located in G-B’s Central Karakoram National Park which the mountaineers climbed after three days using a “Portaledge.” PHOTOS: USMAN TARIQ

ISLAMABAD: 

No wall is too high for Pakistani rock climbers.

Imran Junaidi and Usman Tariq, two rock climbers from the capital, have successfully scaled the Trango Braak, which is situated in the Trango Towers — a set of vertical-faced granite mountains in the Central Karakoram National Park in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The climbing expedition is being considered Pakistan’s first ‘big wall’ climb. Big wall is a type of rock climbing in which climbers ascend a route that usually requires more than a day’s climbing and they use portable ledges to live on the mountain face.

Junaidi and Tariq’s climbing expedition was a joint effort of the Pakistan Alpine Institute and the Ibex Climbing Club, working under the umbrella of the Islamabad Sport Climbing Association and the Islamabad Olympic Association.

“We are extremely happy to have taken on this challenge,” the climbers told a local news agency. “The climb was no doubt quite challenging at times but our four-year training made it possible for us to achieve this honour.”

The climbers said they used guidelines from respected Pakistani mountaineer Hasan Satpara, who is the only Pakistani to have scaled six mountains higher than 8,000 metres.

Junaidi and Tariq departed from Islamabad with plans to climb the Trango Towers. On the Pakistan Alpine Institute’s blog, Junaidi wrote that they had to abort that plan because of bad weather after they reached Camp 2 of the towers, which is located at around 5,200 metres.

The climbers then went for Trango Braak and climbed it in a three-day effort using a portaledge device to rest in.

Junaidi wrote that the climbers also got help from “Trad Climbing+,” a book co-authored by John Arran, one of the most accomplished climbers in the world.

Stumbling blocks: Law and order, energy crisis stymie Japanese investment

Japan has particular interest in this region as part of efforts to promote business ties with central Asian states in fields like automobiles and electronics. DESIGN: CREATIVE COMMON

LAHORE: Bad law and order condition and energy shortages have been a stumbling block to foreign investment in Pakistan for many years. Though the new government is apparently making efforts to overcome these hurdles, many companies are either leaving or scaling down their activities in Pakistan.

However, a good sign is that still many of them are waiting for things to stabilise to some extent so they could immediately jump-start operations as they believe that Pakistan offers a great potential and is a key to trade with central Asian countries.

Japan has particular interest in this region as part of efforts to promote business ties with central Asian states in fields like automobiles and electronics, but it is worried about security issues and power and gas crisis. It needs better environment and infrastructure. In fact, expansion plans of some companies have been put on the back burner.

“Japanese companies are interested in investing in Pakistan, but persistent problems are not allowing them to do so,” said Toshikazu Isomura, Counsellor at Japanese Embassy, while talking to The Express Tribune.

“We know that central Asian markets offer a huge potential for us, we are waiting for things to normalise, especially law and order and energy crisis. We are pinning our hopes on this government as it is taking every possible measure to tackle these issues but there is still a long journey ahead,” he said.

Japan declared Pakistan as a country that was “fit for business” when its delegation of investors under the auspices of Japan External Trade Organization (Jetro) visited Islamabad a year ago.

They expressed interest in increasing supply of auto accessories, supply chain and technology transfer, especially to the automobile sector of Pakistan, for gaining access to Central Asia.

They were also eyeing some other segments, particularly retail sector and logistics. However, since they left, no major breakthrough had been made, except for the re-entry of Yamaha.

Fresh investment is coming from Yamaha, which will soon start assembling motorcycles at the Port Qasim after a gap of almost a decade. Japan needs countries like Pakistan to set up production facilities as manufacturing back home has become too costly, regardless of the segment.

“Things are at halt for Japanese companies, there is no proper land route to Afghanistan and other countries from Pakistan, how can we export automobile accessories,” he asked. “Gwadar is the key, but still there is no facility over there.”

Isomura said Japan was still assisting Pakistan government in various projects, of which increasing the turbine capacity of Mangla power station was a significant venture.

In reply to a question about Chinese investment in Pakistan, he said companies investing and operating in any segment in Pakistan were state-owned corporations. “In our case, we only encourage private companies to invest. This is our model and we are committed to this,” he added

Raising finance: Sino-Sindh Resources gets investment to develop Thar

Capital expenditure: $2.6b is the total estimated cost of the project. PHOTO: File

KARACHI: 

Sino-Sindh Resources (SSRL) executed a subscription and cooperation agreement with a consortium of investors consisting of Global Mining (China) Limited (GMC) and Asiapak Investments (Asiapak).

According to a press statement issued on Wednesday, SSRL has plans to develop 10 million tons per annum coal mine and integrated 1,200 MW mine-mouth power plant in Block 1 of Thar coalfields. The total project cost is estimated at $2.6 billion for which a bankable feasibility has been completed through China Coal Technology and Engineering Group (CCTEG).

SSRL holds a 30-year mining lease for Block 1 of Thar coalfields which covers approximately 150 square kilometres (km). SSRL was awarded the block after an intensive round of international competitive bidding in September 2011. The block holds lignite coal resources of approximately 3.5 billion tons including 600 million tons of measured, 1.9 billion tons of indicated and 1.0 billion tons of inferred resources. These resources are eminently suitable for power generation and have been proven by several reputable international companies including RWE of Germany and CCTEG of China.

Under the terms of the agreement, GMC will provide the equity funding for the project and will also arrange the required debt facilities from a consortium of Chinese banks. GMC will also assist SSRL in its ongoing process of negotiating an engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contract with a state-owned EPC contractor in China. GMC will also take a majority representation in the board of directors of SSRL and will appoint its chief executive officer.

GMC Chairman and major shareholder Hokming Tsueng said, “Thar holds one of the world’s largest reserves of lignite coal and if properly implemented holds the key to Pakistan’s energy security. We are excited at the opportunity to invest and are delighted to form a partnership with Asiapak Investments and SSRL’s existing management to develop Block 1 on a fast-track basis. The Government of Pakistan and of Sindh province appear to be very committed to the success of the projects in Thar. We have received strong cooperation from them so far and are confident that SSRL with our investment support will be an important part of the solution to Pakistan’s energy shortage.”

Focus on Pakistan: Panasonic to step up activities next year

The company recorded consolidated net sales of 7.3 trillion yen for the year ended March 2013. DESIGN: JAHANZAIB HAQUE

DUBAI: With an increasing focus on the Middle East and Africa region, Panasonic is eager to step up its activities in Pakistan next year in an effort to capture a market that it says offers a high potential.

“We have not been very active in Pakistan, but we will enhance our activities next year through our representatives there,” Panasonic Marketing Middle East and Africa Managing Director Masao Motoki said.

He was talking to The Express Tribune earlier this week at GITEX 2013, the region’s premier IT exhibition, where the Japan-based company unveiled world’s first 20-inch tablet with 4k resolution and lamp-free professional projectors.

In the exhibition, which began on October 20 and will continue until October 24, a host of big names are participating including Samsung, Oracle, Huawei, Acer, Dell, Intel, Toshiba, LG and others.

The launch of Panasonic products comes as it strives to keep its market share in certain categories in the face of growing demand for Samsung products. Panasonic is focusing more on high-end devices like projectors and tablets to win consumers.

“Though our revenues have grown 104% so far in 2013-14 – Japanese year runs from April to March – profit is the same as last year,” Motoki said. “We are focusing more on projectors and tablets.”

The company recorded consolidated net sales of 7.3 trillion yen for the year ended March 2013.

According to company executives, the lamp-free projector series are an alternative to conventional lamp systems, which have a short life span, with a combination of LED and laser diodes.

The new projectors, comprising four models, have a life span of 20,000 hours, which is equivalent to more than two years of continuous use without the need to replace a lamp or change a filter, they say.

Executives say the company has invested $7 million in producing the state-of-the-art projectors. Overall, it spends 10% of revenues annually on research and development work on all types of projectors.

Alongside the projectors, Panasonic unveiled the Toughpad 4k, said to be world’s first 20-inch tablet with a 4k resolution display for the ME and Africa markets.

Priced at $5,000 and pre-installed with Windows 8.1 Pro, the tablet can be used for video conferencing, digital viewing with 4k resolution, collaborative working with touch screen capabilities and have an electronic touch pen for accuracy and sketching.

The company expects to sell 30,000 tablets of all types worldwide in the next one year.

Thar coal: MoU to set up 6,000MW power plants

The power projects will be developed in five phases of 1,200 MW each. PHOTO: FILE

LAHORE: 

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company Ltd (SECMC), China Power International Holding Ltd (CPIH), and Sino Sindh Resources (Pvt) Ltd (SSR) to develop Thar coal based power plants in Sindh with a generation capacity of 6,000 megawatts (MW).

According to the MoU, the parties have agreed to jointly develop coal-fired power projects with a total installed net capacity of 6,000 MW in Sindh, Pakistan, , within the next 10 years, which will be expected to use lignite coal mined from Block-I and Block-II in Thar Coalfields.

CPIH will be the majority shareholder and will be responsible for the implementation and execution of the power projects subject to the signing of the formal agreement and the approval of Pakistan Government.

The power projects will be developed in five phases of 1,200 MW each. Coal mining will be independently developed by SSR and SECMC for Block-II and Block-II, respectively, who will supply coal based on the coal demand created by the power projects developed by CPIH.

CPIH is a wholly-owned core enterprise of China Power Investment Corporation, one of five State Power Corporations in the People’s Republic of China. The principal business of CPIH is to develop, construct, own, operate and manage large power plants.  Currently the company is managing power plants with a generation capacity of more than 23,000 MW.

SSR and SECMC are the developers of Thar Coal Mining Blocks-I and Block-II, respectively.

The Thar coalfields contain the world’s seventh largest coal reserves estimated at 175 billion tonnes, capable of generating 100,000 MW over the next 200 years, according to the government of Sindh.

Thar coal also has the advantage of economies of scale, which will result in a progressively lower coal price and predictable electricity price as the mining operation scales up and more power plants are added. Utilisation of Thar coal for power generation will result in huge forex savings.

China offers assistance in mining and agriculture

Shah was leading a delegation, which had been invited to come and attend the 14th Western China International Fair. PHOTO: PPP media cell

KARACHI: The provincial government of Sichuan has offered the Sindh government cooperation in exploiting mineral resources, development of agriculture and water management.

The offer was made to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah in a meeting with Governor Wei Hong in Chengdu on Wednesday, says a press release issued by the Pakistan embassy in Beijing.

In the talks, Shah was leading a delegation, which had been invited to come and attend the 14th Western China International Fair.

Hong said China had rich experience in the areas of mining, agriculture and water management and the Sindh government could benefit from it.

Qaim Ali Shah, while highlighting the potential Sindh offers for Chinese investment, said there was a vast scope of investment in Thar coal mining, wind and solar-based alternative energy generation. He invited Hong to visit the Sindh province and see the investment avenues there.

The governor informed the Sindh delegation that the exhibition had emerged as the most important event that showcased developments in western China in front of the world. In the exhibition, 72 countries and regions were participating, he said.

Deputy Secretary General of Sichuan Provincial People’s Government, Li Jiaguo, also met the Sindh chief minister and the delegation. Speaking on the occasion, Shah asked Chinese investors to take advantage of the immense investment opportunities that the province offered.

Li said Sichuan province had a strong economic base, besides robust agriculture and water management system. The province also had vast experience in mining with cutting-edge technology. He assured Shah of collaboration in all these areas.

Later, the chief minister visited the Hi-tech Industrial Zone in Chengdu, which ranked fifth among 53 hi-tech zones in China. It aims to position Chengdu as an equally modern business centre and high-end industrial town.