Business community welcomes America’s new strategy to strengthen Pakistan’s economy

ISLAMABAD, Mar 29 (APP): The businessmen in a meeting held at here Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomed US President Barack Obama’s initiatives to strengthen Pakistan’s economy by pledging US $ 1.5 billion in annual aid to the country over the next five years for building schools, roads and hospital and strengthen democratic institutions. 

The meeting was held here under the chairmanship of its President Mian Shaukat Masud said the prudent utilization of this aid package will create many new opportunities for economic growth. 

They also welcomed US strategy review of policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly its emphasis on a regional cooperation and solution and added that regional issues can best be resolved by adopting a regional approach with the support of regional powers. 

Mian Shaukat Masud also welcomed US move to pass legislation for establishing reconstruction opportunity zones (ROZs) along the Pak‑Afghan border and goods produced in these zones could be exported duty free to the United States. 

He said these ROZs will create a lot of employment opportunities for local population engaging them in productive activities, bringing positive change in their living standards and reducing the phenomenon of militancy. 

He also appreciated the role of business counterparts in USA for lobbying with the government and convincing to cut tariff on Pakistan textiles. 

He said that stronger economic ties with Pakistan would help advance American geopolitical goals in South Asia while economically stronger Pakistan would be in the best interest of USA and the whole World due to its strategic position. 

The ICCI President said Pakistan has suffered immensely on account of fighting war against terrorism and the optimum way to compensate Pakistan for economic losses is to provide it more easy access to US and European markets along with enhancing investment in Pakistan by these countries. 

He said the best option to tackle the phenomenon of terrorism, extremism and militancy is to step up the pace of developmental projects in these areas with the active participation and enhanced role of private sector.

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UN pushes for new global reserve system

A UN panel of expert economists has pressed for a new global currency reserve system to replace the unstable, dollar-based scheme.

"A new Global Reserve System -- what may be viewed as a greatly expanded SDR (Special Drawing Rights), with regular or cyclically adjusted emissions calibrated to the size of reserve accumulations, could contribute to global stability, economic strength and global equity," the panel said on Thursday. 

As part of several recommendations to tackle the global financial crisis, the panel also noted that a recovery would require all developed countries, in the short term, to take 'strong, coordinated and effective actions to stimulate their economies'. 

The commission, led by prominent US economist Joseph Stiglitz -- a frequent critic of globalization and uncontrolled free markets, is primarily aimed at finding solutions for developing countries. 

Stiglitz, the 2001 Nobel economics laureate, told a press conference on Thursday that there is 'a growing consensus that there are problems with the dollar reserve system'. 

He noted that such a system was 'relatively volatile, deflationary, unstable and (had) inequity associated with it'. 

This week, China's central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan suggested the dollar could be replaced as a reserve currency by an International Monetary Fund (IMF) basket comprising dollars, euros, sterling and yen, saying that such a system would not be easily influenced by individual countries.

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African Americans victims of financial meltdown

African Americans are far more likely than whites to be poor, out of work or in jail, and are hurting worse by the US economic crisis, a report says.

"Ironically, even as an African American man holds the highest office in the country, African Americans remain twice as likely as whites to be unemployed, three times more likely to live in poverty and more than six times as likely to be incarcerated," the State of Black America report said on Wednesday. 

Blacks and whites have both made progress in educational attainment, but progress was slower for African Americans, the report, which tracks trends between 2001 and 2007 added. 

The number of white children enrolled in preschool increased by about three percent, while among black children, it fell by one percent, causing the education gap to grow. 

Real median household income fell 1.7 percent for African Americans and nearly four percent for whites during the period, the report said. 

However, the poverty rate for African Americans increased nearly eight percent, while for whites it rose by around five percent. 

Millions of blacks are losing jobs at a faster rate than the general population during this punishing recession. 

Much of the disparity is due to a concentration of African Americans in construction, blue-collar or service-industry jobs that have been decimated by the economic meltdown. 

Unemployment among African Americans has been about double the rate for whites since the government began tracking those categories in the early 1970s.

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Japan registers record fall in exports

Japan announces a record drop in exports as the continuing economic slump drags down global demand for vehicles and high-tech products.

Japanese exports almost halved in February when compared to the same month last year, making it likely that the world's second-largest economy will shrink in the current quarter. 

Exports plummeted 49.4 percent, leaving behind January's slump of 45.7 percent, the Japanese finance ministry reported. 

Shipments to the US and Europe fell by more than 50 percent. Exports to China also plunged by almost 40 percent. 

The government said that Japan's trade surplus fell 91.2 percent in February from a year earlier, to 82.35 billion yen (840 million dollars), although that figure was more encouraging than January's record deficit. 

The Japanese economy experienced its worst 35-year slump during the last quarter of 2008, shrinking at an annual pace of 12.1 percent. 

The Asian financial power is one of the countries worst hit by the crisis because of its heavy dependence on foreign economies. 

Analysts believe that Japan's economy will pick up after the United States and China recover from the downturn, initiating a rise in worldwide demand. 

But for now, speculations are that on Friday, the government will report the first year-on-year decline in core consumer prices since September 2007. 

Japan's Central Bank Governor Masaaki says, however, that the country is not yet slipping into another depression. 

"Prices will likely soon start falling. But right now, the country is not going through a vicious cycle where economic contraction and price falls reinforce each other," Shirakawa said in parliament. 

Strong profits and investments by the corporate sector were what pulled Japan's economy out of the 1990s recession, so the country is now feeling the crunch as giant companies like Toyota and Sony cut thousands of jobs.

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Qatar's economy tipped to grow 9% this year

Qatar’s economy will grow by as much as nine percent this year and inflation will slow to “single-digit” figures, according to the governor of the country’s central bank.

The Gulf nation’s economy has been largely unaffected by the global crisis and falling oil price as it is based on 25 year contracts for liquefied natural gas (LNG), of which it is the largest exporter in the world. 

Attending a GCC banking conference in Bahrain on Tuesday the country’s central bank governor Abdullah Bin Saud Al Thani said: “Our expectation for our GDP growth is from seven to nine percent.”

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