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ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia’s football team arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday, the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) confirmed, a day before the two sides meet each other for a round two clash of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki received the team at the Islamabad airport. Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) officials, the secretary of Pakistan’s Inter-Provincial Coordination ministry and Rana Mashhood, chairman of the PM’s Youth Program, were also present on the occasion.
“Saudi Arabian football team reached Islamabad from Riyadh by chartered flight,” the PSB said. “Saudi Arabian football team is visiting Pakistan for the first time.”
The visiting team was shifted from the airport to the hotel where they are staying under tight security, the board said.
The match between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is scheduled to take place on June 6 at the Jinnah Football Stadium in Islamabad.
It takes place months after Saudi Arabia thumped Pakistan 4-0 in the first leg of the qualifying matches when the Group G sides faced off at Al Ahsa city in November 2023.
Pakistan suffered another setback in round one of the qualifiers when they lost 6-1 to Tajikistan in Islamabad days after losing to Saudi Arabia. The green shirts will face Tajikistan on June 11 in Dushanbe in what will be their final round 2 away fixture.
Pakistan are in Group G of the World Cup qualifiers with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Tajikistan. In the second round of the qualifiers, a total of 36 football squads have been split into nine groups with four teams each. The winners and runners-up from each group would go through to the third round.
Pakistan are already eliminated after four consecutive losses and a -19 goal differential.
Pakistan squad:
Goalkeepers: Yousuf Butt (D), Saqib Hanif and Hassan Ali
Defenders: Abdullah Iqbal (D), Mohammad Fazal (D), Haseeb Khan, Rao Omer Hayat, Mamoon Moosa, Mohammad Saddam, Waqar Ihtisham, Moin Ahmed and Abdul Rehman
Midfielders: Rahis Nabi (D), Otis Khan (D), Ali Uzair, Umair Ali, Toqeer ul Hassan, Alamgir Ghazi and Ali Zafar
Forwards: Imran Kayani (D), McKeal Abdulah, Fareedulah, Adeel Younas and Shayak Dost
ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Wednesday it has approved a $250 million loan for driving investments in Pakistan through public-private partnerships (PPPs), in its bid to encourage the country in fulfilling its development goals.
The regional development bank has committed over $52 billion to Pakistan, one of its founding members, since 1966 in public and private sector loans, grants, and other forms of financing to promote inclusive economic growth in the country.
In December, the ADB approved three projects totaling $658.8 million to improve Pakistan’s domestic resource mobilization, rehabilitate schools damaged by the devastating August 2022 floods, and enhance agricultural productivity to improve food security.
“The ADB has approved a $250 million policy-based loan to help the Government of Pakistan drive sustainable investments in infrastructure and services through PPPs,” the development bank said in a statement.
It highlighted that the bank’s PPP program supported the implementation of government policies to create a fiscally affordable environment for public-private partnerships, apart from promoting economic growth.
“This program is part of our comprehensive and integrated package of public sector management support that balances the country’s fiscal consolidation and growth objectives,” ADB director-general for Central and West Asia, Yevgeniy Zhukov, was quoted as saying.
The official said the program will help Pakistan’s government create an environment conducive to strategic, fiscally affordable PPPs that will bring the country closer to its development goals.
“The reforms will facilitate efficient infrastructure planning and promote sustainable development practices in infrastructure projects, such as climate risk screening and gender considerations in project feasibility assessments and PPP contracts,” the report stated.
ADB Economist Sana Masood termed it vital to mobilize private finance through PPPs, adding it might help bridge the financing gap in public sector projects.
“This program will help ensure PPPs in Pakistan are structured correctly and implemented effectively to deliver more efficiency, innovation, and value for money,” she observed.
KARACHI: One of Pakistan’s leading conglomerates is in talks with Saudi authorities on building a cricket stadium and other sports facilities in the Kingdom, the group’s chairman said on Wednesday.
Cricket as a sport has grown popular in Saudi Arabia over the past couple of years, especially due to the Kingdom’s large population of Indian and Pakistani expatriates.
But the game saw a real boom in popularity after the Saudi Arabian Cricket Federation was established in 2020, and has since lined up a series of programs to promote the sport at home and prepare national teams to compete with the world’s best in the future.
Arif Habib, the founder and chairman of the Arif Habib Group— a leading Pakistani conglomerate in the services, real estate, and manufacturing sectors— said in February that Saudi officials have expressed interest in establishing a cricket stadium in the Kingdom.
“Yes, the construction of a cricket stadium in Saudi Arabia is under discussion and we had two meetings with them, including a Zoom meeting with the ambassador,” Habib told Arab News at a media interaction in Karachi.
He said Saudi authorities would initially give the location and their plan regarding the stadium, adding that the group is also in talks for developing other sports facilities there.
“There will be dining facilities and cinemas there for which we are in dialogue with them,” Habib said.
He said the group offered to develop the stadium as it has constructed one in Karachi’s Naya Nazimabad area. Habib said Saudi authorities were interested in building football clubs, gyms, and family clubs in the Kingdom too.
BUDGET AND TAXES
Pakistan’s government is expected to unveil the federal budget next week. Habib urged authorities to avoid imposing new taxes, particularly on the real estate sector.
The Pakistani business tycoon said the real estate sector is contributing the highest tax as a percentage of the revenue among other sectors, which is 15.25 percent while power generation and distribution contributes 15.09 percent, tobacco 13.71 percent and fertilizer 13.29 percent.
“The real estate sector is the second largest employer and supports about 40 allied industries in the country,” he said.
He advised the government to increase economic activity and improve the tax recovery system and enhance revenue to balance its revenues and expenses.
At a separate briefing for reporters in Karachi, a senior official of Indus Motor Company, one of Pakistan’s leading automakers, called on the government to introduce policy measures to reduce the number of used cars in the country.
“The share of used cars has increased by 28 percent in the current fiscal year, which is causing Rs45 billion in losses to the local vendors,” Ali Asghar Jamali, chief executive officer of the Indus Motor Company, told reporters.
Jamali said automakers have proposed bringing the rate of regulatory duty (RD) and additional customs duty (ACD) for used cars at par with that of CBUs (Completely Built Units) in the federal budget.
They have also suggested bringing the rate of depreciation allowance on income from used cars to the level of 0.5 percent.
“Implementation of these proposals could result in a potential increase of up to Rs52 billion in the revenue from the auto sector,” Jamali noted.
He said unrestricted imports of used cars are the “biggest obstacle” in reviving the local auto industry, which not only poses a threat to investments made in the industry but also reduces government revenues.
Jamali said the misuse of open-ended exemptions and income schemes for used cars has put the local industry in crisis. Due to regulatory leniency, the average monthly income of used cars remained at 3,068 units from July to April, resulting in a decrease of 2,633 units in the monthly sales of locally manufactured cars, he said.
KARACHI: International credit ratings agency Moody’s warned on Wednesday that some emerging markets, including Pakistan, will likely use its foreign exchange reserves to repay debts, keeping its near-term default risks high.
Pakistan has been struggling to put its fragile $350 billion economy on track by searching for enhanced economic cooperation and collaboration with regional partners. Islamabad has also sought loans from multilateral allies and international financial institutions as it faces a chronic balance of payment crisis.
The South Asian country’s macroeconomic crisis put it on the brink of a sovereign default last year before it secured a last-gasp deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Pakistan is currently in talks with the IMF for another loan program.
“Barring new or additional foreign currency financing from development partners, Pakistan, Argentina and Tunisia will likely use their foreign exchange reserves to repay debt,” Moody’s rating agency said in a detailed report on emerging markets.
“This will reduce their foreign exchange liquidity buffers and keep near-term default risks high.”
Moody’s Investors Service – one of the world’s top three rating firms – periodically issues assessment reports to help clients protect themselves against economic and financial risks.
The report cited large debt repayments to be made by emerging markets, including Pakistan, over the next two years. It added that inflation and labor market dynamics threaten to keep interest rates higher for longer, further weakening debt affordability for Pakistan, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria.
Moody’s said interest payments by Bahrain, Egypt, Nigeria and Pakistan are likely to exceed a third of their total revenue in 2028.
“For Egypt, Nigeria and Pakistan, higher for longer interest rates would result in a further reduction in already limited budgetary resources to respond to shocks or spend on longer-term credit enhancing policies,” the report said.
The report said this would hamper these countries’ efforts to build resilience to climate shocks and strengthen their social safety nets.
Moody’s noted that some countries like Egypt and Pakistan have attempted to lengthen their debt maturities and reduce their exposure to interest rate risks.
“However, this is difficult to do in a high interest rate environment,” the report said.
LONDON: A group of prominent former emerging market finance chiefs is pressing global leaders to incorporate external shocks and climate change into debt sustainability calculations, according to a letter published on Wednesday.
The signatories, former central bankers and finance ministers mostly from emerging economies from India to Argentina, also called for debt relief to enable struggling emerging economies to meet climate investment targets.
“Every civilization faces what seems to be an impossible hurdle that threatens its existence,” Patrick Njoroge, former governor of Kenya’s central bank, said in the letter.
“We face such a moment, given the global debt crisis and the limited space for the required investments in climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals.”
The World Bank has warned that high borrowing costs and slowing growth have sparked a “silent debt crisis” that has thrown climate, health and education spending goals into question across the developing world.
The 21 signatories included Nigeria’s Lamido Sanusi, Colombia’s Jose Antonio Ocampo, Pakistan’s Reza Baqir, Argentina’s Martin Guzman and South Africa’s Tito Mboweni.
Zambia this week became the first poor nation to emerge from debt default under a rubric designed by the G20 dubbed the Common Framework.
But some have said the debt relief — estimated to have reduced Zambia’s debt by some $900 million and spread future payments over a much longer time frame — was insufficient.
The letter is asking for the Common Framework to give countries fair, comparable debt relief from all creditors, with the relief sufficient to allow countries to meet climate and investment spending needs.
The International Monetary Fund is also in the midst of a years-long revamp of the way it calculates debt sustainability analyzes — figures that form the baseline to determining how much debt relief lenders must give to defaulted countries.
These have been criticized in recent months and years by some investors and experts.
The Debt Relief for Green and Inclusive Recovery Project (DRGR), which organized the letter, released a study earlier this year that found emerging countries will pay a record $400 billion to service external debt in 2024.
It said 47 of them cannot spend the money they need for climate adaptation and sustainable development without risking default in the next five years.
“It is time for G20 leaders to spearhead comprehensive debt relief and mobilize new financing to uphold sustainable development and climate objectives,” Wednesday’s letter read.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China on Wednesday signed 32 memorandums of agreement in the fields of IT, textiles, leather and footwear, minerals, pharmaceuticals and agriculture and food processing, a statement from the prime minister’s office said.
The agreements were signed during the second day of PM Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to China from June 4-8 as the South Asian nation pushes to bring in much needed foreign direct investment.
The focus of Sharif’s visit is business-to-business meetings and efforts to seek an upgrade for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, through which Beijing has pledged over $60 billion in Pakistan since 2015.
“A historic moment between private sectors of Pakistan and China was observed today when 32 MoUs in different fields were signed on the sidelines of the Pakistan Business Conference in Shenzhen after the B2B (business to business) meetings between the Pakistani businessmen and their counterparts from China,” the PMO said.
“The areas of interest for the business community of both sides included the fields of electronics & home appliances, ICT, textile, leather & footwear, minerals and pharmaceuticals etc.”
The private sectors of both countries signed four MoUs in the field of energy, two in automobiles, one in cultural cooperation, four in IT, six in pharmaceutical and health care, four in logistics and ten in agriculture and food processing. A Letter of Intent (LoI) in the field of Optical Fibre Networks was also signed.
“Business Conference Shenzhen 2024 will not only pave the ground for the introduction of Pakistani products in the regional markets, but it will also leave a positive impact of strong regional government-business relations on Pakistan economy’s strategic transformations,” the PMO said. “An unprecedented next level industrial cooperation between the two nations is expected out of this B2B initiative of the government.”
“Many businesses sat together and participation took place,” National Bank of Pakistan President Rehmat Ali Shamsi, who is part of the delegation visiting China, told state media. “Plus, many MOUs were also signed.”
Additional Secretary of the Board of Investment, Dr. Erfa Iqbal, said the Pakistani delegation was expecting “high-level industrial corporation” from China to help in increasing exports, making way for local products to reach international markets.
“This will also strengthen CPEC in the second phase,” she added.
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