Satisfied with progress: IMF approves second $550m loan for Pakistan

IMF will conduct the second review in January, 2014. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABD: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund on Thursday approved the second tranche of $550 million loan for Pakistan, noting that the country was broadly on track with reforms tied to the $6.7 billion loan package.

The Executive Board of the IMF, which met in Washington, showed leniency and granted waiver to Pakistan as the government could not fulfil one condition relating to the Net International Reserves target of the first quarter of the fiscal year 2013-14. Without granting the waiver, approval of the first review and the second loan tranche of $550 million were impossible.

The leniency is believed to be based on the IMF team’s visit to Pakistan from October 28 to November 8. During its visit the team had held talks with top officials of the finance ministry and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) as it completed the first review of the three-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

IMF had approved $6.7 billion loan for Pakistan in September this year and released the first tranche of $547 million. Future payments are dependent on the completion of tough economic reforms measured at quarterly reviews by the IMF staff.

The second review of the IMF programme is scheduled to take place in January. The release of the third tranche of $550 million in March is dependent on this revew.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that the government did its best in implementing the reforms agreed with the IMF. He said the second tranche was expected to be disbursed by the IMF on the next working day.

With $550 million IMF loan, Pakistan’s reserves would be boosted above $4 billion mark. The reserves had fallen dangerously low. Chunks of heavy repayments to the IMF saw reserves dip below $2.9 billion last month.

Despite the signs of economic stress, Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood insisted that Pakistan was on course of putting the economy back on track and that the government would not divert from its path of reforms.

The federal government had proudly claimed an early victory last week where it claimed the economy was growing at a pace of 5 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

Helping hand: Germany pledges Rs40m scholarship for needy students

Ambassador Cyrill Nunn and HEC Chairperson Imtiaz Gilani shake hands after signing the agreement. PHOTO: EXPRESS

ISLAMABAD: 

The German government on Wednesday announced 200 scholarships worth Rs40 million for underprivileged graduate and undergraduate students from 10 Pakistani universities.

The announcement was made in a meeting between German Ambassador Cyrill Nunn and Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairperson Imtiaz Hussain Gilani under the HEC-German Needs-Based Scholarship Program.

The program will be executed in collaboration with HEC, Pakistan and will be opened for the students of 10 Pakistani universities in selected disciplines of social sciences, basic sciences, engineering and information technology.

The scholarships are meant for unprivileged students who, despite possessing academic merit, are unable to continue their studies because of financial constraints.

Nun said at least 30 per cent of the scholarships will be awarded to female students.

He further added that Germany would like to see the students availing the scholarships complete their studies and return to serve Pakistan.

He said many Pakistanis were already studying on their own in Germany in different fields.

The scholarships will cover tuition fee and other expenditures such as transportation, books, lodging and incidentals in the form of a monthly stipend for two years.

The participating universities are Quaid-e-Azam University, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Islamabad, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Government College University Lahore, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar, Kohat University of Science and Technology, University of Haripur, Frontier Women University Peshawar, Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences, and Sardar Bahadur Khan Women University Quetta.

Achievements in higher education

Over 0.5 million laptops will be given to students in the next five years as part of the Prime Minister’s National Programme for Provision of Laptops to Talented Students.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Higher Education Commission (HEC) Executive Director Dr Mukhtar Ahmad and Acting HEC Chairman Imtiaz Hussain Gilani said that the distribution of laptops by the HEC will begin in February 2014.

The officials said that talks were underway with different companies to persuade them to set up local production lines to make the programme cost-effective besides linking the assembly line with academia.

They said that PhD, MPhil and MSc students will be given priority, followed by graduates with 60 per cent marks in HSSC.

Around 20 per cent of the laptops would be given to the students who are in their second, third, or final year of a four-year undergraduate programme, while 10 per cent will be given to students pursuing a two-year masters or bachelors programme.

The officials said that the laptops would be distributed among provinces on the basis of enrolments. Under the scheme, around 39.9 per cent of laptops would be distributed in Punjab, 21.9 per cent in Sindh, 17.1 per cent in Islamabad and FATA, 14 per cent in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 3.7 per cent in Balochistan, 2.3 per cent in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and 0.6 per cent in Gilgit-Baltistan.

In his presentation, Dr Ahmed said that enrolment in universities has increased manifold during the last five years. “During the last decade, the HEC has offered over 4,000 foreign scholarships and around 7,000 local scholarships,” he said.

While talking about placement and accommodation of fresh PhDs in universities, Dr Ahmed said that 1,498 scholars were currently engaged in the Interim Placement of PhDs programme. He said that a summary has been sent to prime minister to lift the ban on new recruitment.

“We are expecting a positive response. They will not be left in the lurch,” he said while talking about teachers the HEC had placed in universities under the interim placement programme.

The ED said that a mega project has been initiated to train around 3,500 non-teaching staff of universities from across Pakistan in the field of management. “Treasurers, registrars and other staffers would be part of this programme to train them to manage their resources within their means.

FLORENTINO DENIES BUYING BALE WITH BANKIA MONEY

"I think there is a campaign against Spanish clubs"

Florentino Pérez assured in the Europa Press programme 'Desayunos Deportivos' that the Spanish bank Bankia took no part in the financing of the signing of Gareth Bale. The Real president has had to speak out after the government did not wish to go into details following a question raised by a Belgian Member of the European Parliament.

"We have not spoken to any financial institution, I've said it until I'm sick of hearing it, but in football we are told about what doesn't go on as well as what does go on. Gareth Bales' signing was not paid for by Bankia. We did it ourselves with our own resources. Our records are public for all our members to see", he declared.

The Real Madrid president said "there are always people out to do harm" that make sure that such stories circulate around Europe: "It now seems that we have been bought Bale, and it's a lie. Real Madrid bought it with its own considerable resources and I'm a little annoyed that I have to be talking about this."

Moreover, Florentino assured that "there is a campaign against Spanish football", after the European Commission has begun investigations into the possible receiving of illegal funds by seven Spanish clubs: "Regarding our business with the Sports Village, there were already accusations and an investigation. They tried to hurt us then and in the end nothing came of it", he observed.

Regarding the conversion of the club to a limited company, Florentino was quite clear: "The 1990 law has had many negative consequences. It has cost Real 13 million euros, as because of it reinvestment does not benefit from tax reductions".

Mounting Market Will Grow $1.5 Billion By 2018

The North American PV mounting systems market is poised to grow 67% between 2013 and 2018 to account for more than $1.5 billion, according to the Wolf Research North American PV Mounting Systems Report. This market value growth will be strongest in the roof-top segment. The compound annual growth rate 2013 to 2018 for the flat roof-mount market value (primarily commercial buildings) will be 17.5%. For the pitched roof-mount market value, the CAGR is expected to be an almost equally impressive 16.1%. Ground-mount, the dominant segment in 2013, will experience slower growth during the next five years as utility-scale solar energy projects slow down, but is expected to still account for 37% of the revenue opportunity in 2018.

In 2013, Schletter led the industry in ground-mounted racking, according to a report.

The top three market share leaders for North American PV Mounting Systems during the first half of 2013 were Schletter, Unirac and IronRidge, in terms of MW equivalent mounting systems installed. Schletter was also the clear leader in ground-mount systems; Zep Solar was the leader in pitched-roof installations. The leader in flat-roof installations was IronRidge.

Significant market share shift for established as well as emerging competitors underscored the need for continued innovation and controlling manufacturing costs. The healthy PV market in North America is attracting new competitors from overseas and domestic start-ups alike, resulting in increasing price competition and investment in new production, as well as accelerating product innovation and differentiation.

“The need to speed up installations and reduce total PV system cost is critical for market growth,” said Wolfgang Schlichting, Executive Research Director at Wolf Research and lead author of the North American PV Mounting Systems Report. “Mounting systems vendors address this need with simpler, more integrated designs of their still durable solutions.”

The lead author of this comprehensive, 100-page North American PV Mounting Systems Report is Wolfgang Schlichting, an experienced downstream PV market analyst and Executive Research Director at Wolf Research. Contributing authors for this study include these industry veterans:

Barrett Silver, VP of Sales & Marketing for Sun Ray Install, LLC, an East Coast based solar ground mount installation company. Barrett was most recently the Director of Business Development, Northeast, at Unirac and Director of East Coast Accounts at SunLink.

Bryan Conklin, President & Marketing Consultant at Resurgent Solutions. Previously Bryan was Senior Director of Marketing at Mainstream Energy/REC Solar and Director of Marketing – North America at BP Solar.

This report sizes, analyzes and forecasts the PV Mounting system market in the United States and Canada in terms of market value, MW equivalent installed and $/W. The report also includes market share for 2012 and the first half of 2013 by segment and roof type. Markets are divided into commercial and residential installations in the report, and detailed data for both markets include ground-mount as well as flat and pitched-roof mount PV projects. The report spans the period 2012-2018 with actual data for 2012 and the first half of 2013. Key market and technology trends as well as market share shifts are discussed in detail. In addition, more than thirty leading mounting systems vendors are profiled in the report; most are analyzed in terms of size, background, product and market focus, positioning, differentiation, challenges and opportunities.

This Wolf Research report identifies business challenges and market opportunities for companies that are currently active in, seeking to enter, or required to understand the North American PV mounting systems market. The report is based on actual installation and pricing data and features comprehensive analysis of PV mounting systems as well as the solar PV racking market and its competitive dynamics.

For more information about the Wolf Research North American PV Mounting Systems Report, visitwww.wolfresearch.com.

Apple's new Mac Pro available in Singapore

(Credit: Apple)

Update (December 19, 1720 GMT+8): The tricked-out Mac Pro with a 12-core 2.7GHz Intel Xeon E5, 64GB of RAM, 1TB of flash storage and the AMD Firebird D700 GPUs will cost you S$13,528.

Announced back in June, Apple's new redesigned Mac Pro workstation sports a cylindrical shape and makes good on Apple's promise to ship it in December. Prices start at S$4,288 (US$3,397) for the lowest-end model in Singapore and should be available today, according to the Apple press release.

Compared with the US$2,999 retail price of the Mac Pro in the U.S., the Singapore prices might seem like a huge premium, but the difference actually not that significant if you factor in the usual sales tax in the different states (though if you buy the Mac Pro in a tax-free state, the savings are definitely substantial).

The base model comes with a 3.7GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processor, dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs, 12GB RAM and 256GB PCIe flash storage. There's also a S$5,688 version that packs a 3.5GHz hexa-core Intel Xeon E5, the same dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs, 16GB RAM and 256GB of PCIe flash storage.

The Mac Pro can also be configured with a 12-core Intel Xeon E5, AMD FirePro D700 GPUs, 64GB of RAM and 1TB of flash storage. The Apple online store wasn't ready to accept orders when this article was written, so we are unable to see how much a fully tricked out machine would cost.

In the meantime, while you're waiting for the "buy" button to become available, why not check out these five hilarious mockups of the Mac Pro created by Internet users?

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Case filed against Salman khan in Hyderabad

Hyderabad, December 19:

A case has been filed against Salman Khan, actor and host of Big Boss TV Reality show, and its director and producer Rajat Rawail, for the alleged hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims by screening ‘heaven and hell’ (Jannat our Jahnnum’ in the ‘Big Boss Season 7’ TV show.

This was stated at a media meet here Thursday by M A Qavi Abbasi, high court advocate and Mohd. Fasiuddin Ayaan, complainant, and other Muslim leaders. They condemned the TV show, demanded the arrest of the accused and banning the show.

They said that they have approached the Court at Nampally and the court has referred the matter to the Falaknuma police Station. The police have registered a case against Salman Khan and Rajat Rawail and took up investigation, they added. (NSS)

Perez: No bids for Di Maria

Despite reported interest from the likes of Monaco and Manchester United, the Real Madrid president insisted there has been no concrete offers for the Argentine

Real Madrid have not received any offers for Angel Di Maria, according to president Florentino Perez.

Di Maria, who will replace the injured Gareth Bale for Wednesday's Copa del Rey second leg against Olimpic de Xativa, has been linked with a move away from the Bernabeu. 

However, despite reported interest from the likes of Monaco and Manchester United, Perez has insisted no bids have been lodged for the Argentina international, who joined Real from Benfica in 2010. 

"He has a contract in place until 2018 and many clubs want him," he said.

"We have not received any offer for the sale of Angel Di Maria. This is the truth of this subject.

"These are things that do not happen but are written about.

"Nobody has told me anything about this situation, I have asked the club if someone has approached us and nobody knows anything.