Pakistan Today

LAHORE: The Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) has decided to assist the Balochistan Board of Investment and Trade (BBoIT) in establishing commercial courts in the southwestern province besides increasing investments. In this regard, the BBoIT Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Farmanullah Zirkun and BBoIT Policy Engagement Officer (PEO) Hamza Storiani visited PBIT here on Thursday to hold detailed discussions...

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Culture and Tourism Authority has approved the creation of eight new tourists’ zones to promote tourism in the province. The sites were approved by KP Chief Minister (CM) Mahmood Khan while a preliminary survey of these places has also been completed. According to sources, the development of the new zones is being done under the KP...

ISLAMABAD: British High Commissioner Christian Turner on Thursday offered to provide Pakistan with all possible help from the British government to mitigate the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The ambassador extended this offer during a call on meeting with Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh. During the meeting, the adviser exchanged views with the...

LONDON: British businesses are rushing to stockpile goods just five weeks before post-Brexit customs checks come into force on Jan. 1, driving up the cost of cross-border deliveries and cutting capacity, industry sources said. Logistics companies told Reuters they have seen a surge in demand to bring goods into the country before any potential disruption in January, and customs agents...

The government is expected to hire advisers to issue dollar-denominated bonds in the international market by this or early next week, the Finance Ministry’s spokesperson said on Wednesday. According to The News, the Finance Ministry has received bids from the interested financial institutions and is now evaluating the technical and financial bids to structure the bonds. The government intends to raise...

TOKYO: Oil slipped on Thursday, stalling a rally driven by a surprise fall in U.S. crude inventories that added to bullishness over expectations progress on vaccines may end the coronavirus pandemic and revive fuel demand. Having spent the Asian trading day higher, Brent futures were down 1 cent at $48.60 a barrel by 0746 GMT, after rising around 1.6% in...

ISLAMABAD: The export of cement witnessed an increase of 11.79 per cent during the first four months (July-Oct) of the current financial year (FY21) as compared to the corresponding period of last year. According to details, Pakistan exported cement worth $150.544 million in July-Oct FY21 as compared to the exports of $94.409 million in July-Oct FY20, according to data released...

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration on Wednesday granted ByteDance a new seven-day extension of an order directing the Chinese company to sell its TikTok short video-sharing app, according to a court filing. The administration previously had granted ByteDance a 15-day extension of the order issued in August, which was set to expire Friday. President Donald Trump on Aug. 14 had directed...

LONDON: Bitcoin plunged on Thursday to its lowest in 10 days, leading a sell-off that extended to other smaller digital coins. Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, slumped as much as 13% to $16,317, a sharp correction from its three-year high of $19,521 hit a day earlier. It was last down 8%. The cryptocurrency has rallied around 150% this year to just...

WILMINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden will reveal his economic team and other key nominees next week, aides said on Wednesday, while he received belated congratulations for his election victory from China’s President Xi Jinping. The Democratic former vice president was scheduled to give a speech later on Wednesday highlighting the challenges Americans face as Covid-19 cases surge on the eve...

Imran Khan says he is concerned about second Covid wave as 'people are not taking the virus seriously'

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Wednesday addressed the Annual Microfinance Conference (AMC) as a guest of honour. The adviser on the occasion outlined the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), which aims to "achieve inclusive economic growth through promotion of small and medium enterprises, ensure affordable access to finance for farmers, facilitate low-cost...

ISLAMABAD: The Cabinet Division has once again issued fresh advertisement for the post of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) chairman, with an upgraded selection criterion and on special performance pay scale (SPPS), instead of MP-I scale, in order to attract better candidates. As per details, following the approval of federal cabinet to re-advertise the post of OGRA chairman, the Cabinet...

KARACHI: Continuing with the previous day's momentum, Pakistani Rupee gained another 81 paisas against the US Dollar in the interbank on Wednesday. According to a State Bank of Pakistan tweet, the US dollar opened at Rs160.09 and closed at Rs159.28. The local currency had gained Re0.96 against the greenback on Tuesday. Money dealers in the market attributed this rally of rupee...

ISLAMABAD: World Bank will provide $19.85 million to Pakistan for 'Covid-19 response, recovery and resilience in education project'. An agreement to this effect was signed in the federal capital on Wednesday by Secretary Ministry of Economic Affairs Noor Ahmed and Country Director World Bank Najy Benhassine in presence of Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdum Khusro Bakhtiyar. The project is aimed to...