Former Pakistani bus driver's son appointed as new culture secretary in UK

In his new post, he will be responsible for policy on broadcasting, sport, media, tourism, telecoms and the arts. PHOTO: ONLINE

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron appointed former banker Sajid Javid as the country’s new culture secretary, replacing Maria Miller who resigned earlier on Wednesday over an expenses scandal.

Javid, considered a rising star in the Conservative Party, has served as financial secretary to the Treasury since last year.

BBC News noted that he is the first Asian male conservative cabinet minister.

In his new post, Javid will be responsible for policy on broadcasting, sport, media, tourism, telecoms and the arts.

His appointment has been praised by Conservative MPs – George Freeman describing him as “a new model Conservative for our times whose done great work at Treasury”.

Cameron also said on Twitter that lawmaker Nicky Morgan will step up to the financial secretary post at the Treasury — key to the government’s relationship with the financial services industry — from her current role as economic secretary.

Biography

Javid’s father, Abdul, a bus driver, came to the UK from Pakistan in 1961, reportedly with just £1 in his pocket. He settled in Rochdale, where Sajid Javid was born in 1969, according to BBC News.

After graduating from university, Javid worked for Chase Manhattan Bank and Deutsche Bank before starting his career in politics. He was elected as a member of parliament in 2010.

Danish experts arrive to identify openings for agri-business

According to some estimates, Denmark's dairy industry exports two-thirds of the milk it produces after meeting the demand of its 5.6 million citizens. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: Denmark is looking to identify opportunities for cooperation between Pakistani and Danish businesses in the sectors of agriculture and dairy.

To this end, the Danish embassy has invited two agricultural consultants from Denmark for a week-long tour of the country, Danish Ambassador Jesper Moller Sorensen told The Express Tribune.

Sorensen said they would help suggest steps to establish bilateral business and research linkages.

Denmark is a global agricultural powerhouse. According to some estimates, its dairy industry exports two-thirds of the milk it produces after meeting the demand of its 5.6 million citizens.

Pakistan’s agri-businesses suffer from technological and value-addition weaknesses that need to be tackled to achieve the full potential.

The Danish delegation consists of Henry Jorgensen and Werner Kofoed Nielsen from the Knowledge Centre for Agriculture, a Danish company that provides professional knowledge about agriculture.

The experts would meet Pakistan’s agri-business community and visit research institutions in Islamabad, Faisalabad, Lahore and Karachi, said Aslam Perwaiz, the embassy’s commercial adviser.

The delegation kicked off its tour from Islamabad on Monday, with visits to agriculture research centres in the capital. Later, they interacted with the business community from twin cities at a dinner hosted by the Danish ambassador.

Nielsen, a dairy and agricultural consultant, said they would present a set of recommendations to the embassy. “The recommendations will most likely highlight areas of interest in agriculture in Pakistan and identify companies and institutions in Denmark that might be interested in working in those areas.”

Jorgensen, who has expertise in the business side of agriculture, said growth in agriculture should be market-driven. “Any changes made to facilitate growth should follow some sort of financial analysis which indicates that those changes will benefit the farmers.”

He also supported incentives for improving product quality. “I think the best way to develop the agricultural sector is to pay farmers something extra if they fulfil the requirements.”

Pakistani businessmen, who attended the reception, said the agricultural industry was full of potential, but they underlined the need for investments in agricultural infrastructure. They did, however, welcome technological and technical support from Danish firms to help enhance quality and efficiency of products and processes.

To focus more on trade and commercial affairs, Sorensen said the Danish embassy opened its first-ever commercial section in Pakistan in December 2013. “That move has led the embassy to reach out to businesses in Pakistan and Denmark.”

The real challenge, the Danish envoy admitted, was to convince companies to do business with Pakistan. Some companies from Denmark had shown interest in working in the areas of energy and energy efficiency, Sorensen added.

“We think that increasing our bilateral trust on the trade side and doing more commercial activities are very much linked with policy objectives we have with Pakistan, which are to create opportunities for every single citizen, create jobs and growth and ultimately reduce poverty.”

Euromonitor report: Tradition still ahead of modern methods

The concept of hypermarkets and superstores has become increasingly popular among masses over the past decade. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: 

Modern trade maybe transforming the country’s retail landscape but the traditional grocery stores – small retailers – continue to define Pakistan’s retail sector, according to an international study.

Modern retailing – hypermarkets, supermarkets and large cash and carry stores for example – witnessed healthy growth in 2012 but the country’s retail sector continued to be defined by the hundreds of thousands of independent small grocers, Euromonitor International revealed in an April 2013 study on Pakistan’s retail sector.

Headquartered in London, Euromonitor International is a global firm with specialisation in strategy research for consumer markets.

The concept of hypermarkets and superstores has become increasingly popular among masses over the past decade. Besides a few international players that entered the Pakistani retail market, local retail chains also restructured their business models as per international best practices and expanded rapidly.

The Euromonitor study, however, noted the modern retailing businesses hardly posed a threat to traditional grocers, which provide services in small stores located near customers’ homes.

The strength of traditional grocery stores lies in their deeply rooted social and financial connections to the society they serve and the proximity of their location, which has proved crucial in a time of high fuel prices and fuel shortages, the report said.

“These traditional outlets, despite their old methods, conventional facilities and lack of application of modern retailing methods performed well in 2012, indicating that they are far from being replaced by modern retailers,” the report said.

The economic indicators (energy shortages, inflation and unemployment) hardly saw any change in 2012 compared to the previous year thus higher economic growth allowed consumers to spend more in retailing, the report said – the country’s real GDP grew by 3.4% in 2012 compared with 2.4% of 2011.

Retailing had a prominent year in 2012 with many small entrants and a noteworthy presence of major players on television, radio and billboards, the report said, which indicated a healthy competitive environment.

According to Euromonitor’s study, retail sales through store-based retailing increased by 12% in 2012. “Stronger economic growth allowed consumers to enjoy higher disposable income which in turn helped retailing to grow in the country,” it said.

While the growth was notable, the retail sector remains far from its potential.

“Strikes at retailing outlets due to excessive electricity load shedding in the summer and natural gas load shedding in the winter continued to be a hindrance and curtailed the sector from reaching its true potential,” the report said.

Given the country’s demographics and retail potential, the report concluded the sector will grow further as the country’s economy would recover.

Pakistan has the sixth largest population in the world with approximately 187 million people – comparatively young with a median age of 21.8 years as recorded in 2012 – of which 35% age between 1 and 14 years, the report said. Due to high income disparity and 64% of the population living in rural areas, only a small portion of the population play a significant role in terms of spending power in the context of retailing, it said.

“As the economy recovers from the natural disasters such as floods in 2010 and 2011, the severe energy crisis, a fall in income taxes and growing urbanisation together will push the growth of retailing over the forecast period [2017],” it said.

The general investment climate for domestic and foreign investors is also expected to improve as the inflation levels and the political scenario stabilises, leading to expansion by current players and entry of new local and foreign entities in the future, the report says.

Dar hails investor confidence as Pakistan's Eurobonds subscribed three times over

This is the highest amount that Pakistan has ever raised in a single attempt. DESIGN: FAIZAN DAWOOD

ISLAMABAD: In the largest ever single transaction, Pakistan has been able to raise $2 billion from international debt markets through the issuance of five- and ten-year dollar-denominated Eurobonds, taking a giant step towards meeting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) condition of increasing its gross official reserves to $9 billion.

It was the highest amount that Pakistan has ever raised in a single attempt, which according to analysts shows the increasing confidence of international investors in government policies.

The bonds were highly over-subscribed, receiving offers of $5.2 billion, but only offers totalling $2 billion were accepted, Ministry of Finance spokesperson Rana Assad Amin told The Express Tribune.

Amin added that against the initial expectations of $500 million, the investor response was overwhelmingly strong and the order-books were oversubscribed across the two tranches, consisting of over 400 orders from high quality investors.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar speaking at the US Institute of Peace during his visit to Washington, commented on the Eurobond that the demonstration of massive response to Pakistani sovereign paper is unprecedented.

“The multilateral donors and international markets have reposed tremendous confidence in Pakistan’s economic future.”

The government has raised $1 billion for five years and another $1 billion for ten years, according to details issued by the Finance Ministry. However, the government will be paying a high cost for venturing into international debt market after a gap of seven years.

The $1 billion raised for the five-year tenure have a fixed rate of 7.25%, 5.58 % over and above the benchmark five-year US Treasury rate. The $1 billion were generated through ten-year bonds at a fixed rate of 8.25%, which is 5.56% above the corresponding 10-year US Treasury benchmark rate.

In 2007, the Musharraf government had issued ten-year bonds at 6.75% interest rate, which was 3.25% above the US treasury rates at that time.

Against the high premium that Islamabad chose to pay, Sri Lanka on Tuesday sold $500 million of five-year bonds at 5.1%. Pakistan has a junk credit rating of Caa-1 by Moody’s Investors Service, which increased cost of borrowings.

Under the $6.8 billion bailout package, the IMF has asked Pakistan to increase its gross official reserves to $9.4 billion by end of June this year. As of end March, the gross official reserves stood at $5.17 billion, requiring the government to raise another $4.3 billion in three months. After the successful issuance of Eurobonds, the government is betting on the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to meet the remaining shortfall.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the five-year bonds were distributed across all major geographic regions with 59% going to US investors, 19% to UK investors, 10% to investors in mainland Europe, 10% to investors in Asia and 2% to investors elsewhere. Fund managers took 84% of the five year issue, banks took 8%, hedge funds took 7%, and insurance companies and pension funds got 1%.

The Finance Ministry said that the ten-year bonds were distributed 61% to US investors, 21% to UK investors, 12% to investors in mainland Europe, 5% to investors in Asia and the Middle East and 1% to investors in other regions. Fund managers took 86% of the ten-year issue, hedge funds took 9%, banks took 4%, and insurance companies and pension funds took 1%.

Two Pakistani teams had held the road shows. A team headed by the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar visited Dubai, London and New York and another team headed by the Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood visited Singapore, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston.

Disclaimer

The bonds have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, or with any securities regulatory authority of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States. They may not be offered or sold in the United States unless they are registered under the Securities Act, or are offered and sold pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act.

The investment instruments are being offered and sold outside the United States, and inside the United States only to qualified institutional buyer within section 144a of the Securities Act.

The securities have not been approved or disapproved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, any state securities commission or any other regulatory authority in the United States.

Guardiola: Manchester United will park the bus again

The Bayern trainer thinks David Moyes will opt for a defensive approach once more and believes it will be a close encounter

Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola expects Manchester United to sit back in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday.

The Premier League champions held the Bavarians to a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford last week with a rather defensive strategy and the Spaniard is expecting his Red Devils counterpart David Moyes to employ similar tactics in the return.

"I think they will sit very deep. They play very defensively and always look to counter – it is something they do very, very well," Guardiola said at a press conference.

"It's never easy against English teams. United are a very big team. Before the first game, everybody was talking about Bayern, but now people know that Manchester can win in Munich.

"But we're playing at home. That's an important factor. If we win, we are through. If not, we are out. It will come down to small details. Our players know, after the experience in Manchester, how United play. My players know their strength and weaknesses. "

Guardiola then went on to discuss the possibility that the tie will be decided by spot kicks and stressed that the mental aspect of the game could play a major role.

"Penalties are less about technique and more about courage," the former Barcelona boss mused. "It is all in the head."

Bayern will be without key players such as Bastian Schweinsteiger, Javi Martinez and Thiago Alcantara due to suspension and injury and Guardiola admitted that he has limited options to choose from.

"We only have 14 first-team players so I have not got too many options," the former Spain international confessed.

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Terry: Mourinho got gameplan right again

The Blues beat PSG 2-0 to reach the last four of the Champions League on away goals, and the captain says his manager's preparation gave the hosts the edge at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea captain John Terry has hailed Jose Mourinho's tactics as the Blues progressed to the semi-finals of the Champions League with a 2-0 victory over Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday evening.

Laurent Blanc's side won the first leg 3-1, leaving the Stamford Bridge side needing a fine turnaround to progress. Andre Schurrle struck a quarter of an hour after replacing the injured Eden Hazard in the early stages of the game.

With Chelsea needing another goal to go through, Mourinho introduced strikers Demba Ba and Fernando Torres in the second half, and the Senegal striker duly delivered with a late strike to send the Blues into the last four on away goals.

"I thought at 1-0 we always give ourselves a chance," Terry told ITV. "We worked a lot during the week on scenarios; 1-0, 2-0, 3-1. Demba comes on, we've hit the big man and he scores a great goal. Every scenario we had a gameplan and once again we got it right.

"This competition means a lot to us. The manager's been very successful. We've experienced it once and the disappointments over the years as well. 

"It keeps you fighting and keeps you believing and that one time winning it, believe me, it's the best feeling ever."

Ba was delighted with his contribution from the bench, telling ITV: "It went so quick [the goal]. I was on the floor then I looked at the goal and I saw the ball was in the net. It was a big joy for everyone.

"First of all I just do what I have to do when I get chances [to play] and I didn't have chances this season but I just took it."

Mourinho - who has now won 15 of his 22 Champions League games in charge of Chelsea at the Bridge -insisted that he wasn't celebrating after dashing down the touchline following Ba's late strike.

He told ITV Sport: "No, not to celebrate. To tell Fernando [Torres] and Demba [Ba] the changes we had to do. Because there was still three minutes plus extra-time and playing the way we were playing was too risky."

Real Madrid lucky to still be in Champions League - Ancelotti

The Italian coach was relieved that his charges could edge past Dortmund, claiming they "suffered" en route to the semi-final stage on Tuesday

Carlo Ancelotti admits Real Madrid were lucky to make the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund.

With a 3-0 first-leg advantage, the Blancos looked firm favourites heading into Tuesday's game but Angel Di Maria's saved penalty and a first half brace from Marco Reus set Madrid nerves jangling.

They survived more Dortmund pressure in the second period, Henrikh Mkhitaryan striking a post while Iker Casillas was also called upon to make some crucial saves, and their coach confessed that his charges had almost paid for their poor second-leg showing.

"All games at this stage are very difficult," Ancelotti mused to reporters. "We are fortunate to be through to the semi-finals.

"We're happy to reach the semis, but not happy as we suffered a lot. Especially in the first half. We opened the tie up again.

"We were better in the second half. Football is like that, we gave away gifts, made lots of errors, we had no confidence and we suffered because of it.

"Casillas made fantastic saves in important moments of the game. His game was very, very good."

Bayern Munich or Manchester United and Atletico Madrid or Barcelona, who play on Wednesday, will join Real Madrid and fellow Tuesday victors Chelsea in the last four of the elite European competition.