Lahore—Pakistan Railways (PR) will rehabilitate
250 km long rail track damaged in civil war in
Sri Lanka besides carrying out a project for
improving Sri Lankan Railways’ rolling stock.
Lahore—Sri Lankan High Commissioner Air Chief
Marshal Jayalath Weerakkody has said that there
is a vast scope for expansion of two-way trade
between Pakistan and Sri Lanka under Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) He was speaking at a seminar on
‘Business opportunities with Sri Lanka under
Free Trade Agreement’ jointly organized by the
Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)
and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP)
here on Friday.
Islamabad—Pakistan is fast moving from being a
water stressed country to a water scarce country
which could put heavy brakes on economic growth
and government should accelerate its efforts for
setting up new water reservoirs and dams on
emergent basis to cope with the looming water
crisis. This was stated by Mian Shaukat Masud,
President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce &
Industry (ICCI) in a statement. He said
according to official reports the per capita
availability of water in Pakistan has gradually
dwindled from 5,260-cubic metres in 1951 to
about 1000-cubic metres in recent years and if
this trend continued, it could go as low as
550-cubic metres by 2025, which shows the
gravity of the situation.
Islamabad—The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB’s)
and Government of Pakistan signed today an
agreement for two loans to Pakistan totaling
US$500 million that will assist the government
with its macroeconomic stability efforts and
fund a targeted safety net program for the poor.
The US$500 million approved by ADB’s board
yesterday known as AETP2, is the second
subprogram of the Accelerating Economic
Transformation Program (AETP). The loans support
short- and medium-term reform actions being
taken by Pakistan’s government in response to
the global economic and financial crisis. The
loans also carry forward measures enacted by the
government in 2008 to cushion the impact of
skyrocketing global fuel and food prices.
Islamabad—Minister for Water and Power Raja
Pervez Ashraf on Friday said two Independent
Power Producers with a combine production
capacity of 450 MW have started test operations.
Talking to journalists here after chairing the
18th Board meeting of Alternative Energy
Development Board (AEDB), the minister
reiterated government’s commitment to end load
shedding in the country by December 31 this
year.
