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Pakistan to materialise flood aid of over $10bn in three phases

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  • Three phases include short-term, medium-term and long-term.
  • There are four Strategic Recovery Objectives as per 4RF.
  • SRO1 seeks to rebuild governance-related physical infrastructure.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has managed to secure over $10.5 billion in flood pledges which would be materialised in three phases — short-term for up to one year, medium-term for up to three years and long-term for up to five to seven years period — for the reconstruction of flood-affected areas, The News reported Tuesday. 

The cash-strapped nation clinched the pledges at the one-day International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan in Geneva after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched an $8 billion flood aid appeal, aimed at helping the country overcome the devastation caused due to the cataclysmic floods.

The country, with a $350 billion economy, secured commitments worth $8.57 billion by the end of the plenary session I, while it managed to secure over $2 billion in the second session.

As per the Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Framework (4RF), there were four Strategic Recovery Objectives (SRO). SRO1 includes enhancing governance and the capacities of the state institutions to restore the lives and livelihoods of the affected people. Especially the most vulnerable SRO1 seeks to rebuild governance-related physical infrastructure that has been destroyed and damaged by the floods, as well as restores and enable a governance structure and system that fosters efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and inclusiveness.

The key will be to enable all tiers of the government to prepare and respond to natural hazards and climate change through gender-informed and community-led, structural and non-structural risk reduction measures, including through ecosystem adaptation and landscape restoration.

Strategic priorities include short-term objectives, such as improving public financial management, public procurement, audit, and anti-corruption measures while medium-term objectives, such as undertaking detailed and localised multi-hazard risk assessments and integrating data into local level decision support systems and long-term objectives, such as strengthening meteorological monitoring and early warning systems and increasing technical capacities of climate change and environmental management agencies at federal and provincial levels.

SRO2 includes restoring livelihoods and economic opportunities. It seeks to restore livelihoods and economic opportunities through a multi-sectoral approach. It has two key pillars — promoting livelihoods recovery through agriculture and employment restoration and boosting economic opportunities through commerce, industry, tourism, markets and financial interventions.

Strategic priorities include short-term objectives, such as direct cash contributions, in-kind inputs, and cash-for-work interventions as well as the restoration of jobs through e-commerce and job guarantee programmes. Meanwhile, medium-term objectives, such as rehabilitation of damaged public and private infrastructure by using employment intensive approaches and implementing business regulatory reforms and long-term objectives such as legal, policy, and institutional reforms for the development of the credit market and provision of interest free loans or community investment funds through local non-governmental organisations (NGO) without micro-finance institutions.

SRO3 includes ensuring social inclusion and participation. It seeks to ensure that no one is left behind and that mainstreaming approaches are taken so that social inclusion leads to social sustainability. Strategic priorities include short-term objectives, such as the provision of protection services, psychosocial support, and the adoption of community-driven development approaches.

Meanwhile, medium-term objectives include establishing missing facilities and more robust protection for those more vulnerable to violence, tracking and exploitation and long-term objectives such as the acceleration of community-level disaster preparedness activities with social inclusion and gender equality sensitivity, school meals programmes targeting for the most vulnerable, multi-purpose cash grants for the most vulnerable (women and children) and rehabilitation of flood-affected heritage sites.

SRO4 includes restoring and improving basic services and physical infrastructure in a resilient and sustainable manner. It seeks to restore basic social services for the affected communities and carry out resilient infrastructure rehabilitation and reconstruction, support led by strengthening human capital, institutions, and policies to respond to future disasters.

Strategic priorities include immediate and short-term objectives, such as supporting reconstruction and rehabilitation of housing, prioritising the most vulnerable, repairing and improving existing physical infrastructure, repairing water infrastructure and strengthening weak sections before the next monsoon. 

The medium-term objectives include a detailed technical evaluation of damaged transport and communication infrastructure, improvement of contingency plans and their performance in the health sector and long-term objectives, such as the establishment of a regulatory framework and tariff structure for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and municipal services, enhancing the disaster resilience of the energy distribution network, a flood susceptibility analysis of the entire infrastructure network, and climate and disaster-resilient rehabilitation of irrigation, drainage, dams, and dikes.

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Pakistan’s gold prices are declining.

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Ten grams of 24 carat gold also had a price decrease of Rs. 1,115, from Rs. 239,026 to Rs. 237,911, while ten kilos of 22 carat gold saw a rise in price from Rs. 219,107 to Rs. 218.085.

The cost of ten grams of silver and one tola of silver stayed at Rs. 2,829.21 and Rs. 3,300, respectively.

As stated by the Association, the price of gold fell $13 to $2,670 on the global market.

On Monday, November 11, 24-karat gold prices fell to 3,771 Saudi Riyals (SAR) per tola in Saudi Arabia.

The price of 24-kar gold is SAR 10,067 per ounce, while 10 grams of the metal are being sold for SAR 3,237 in the kingdom, according to forex.pk.

Note: Since the prices were updated at 10:15 am on November 11, 2024, there may be some discrepancies in this post due to the dynamic nature of the gold market globally, especially in Saudi Arabia.

As the markets anticipate the Federal Reserve to take a cautious stance under U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, gold prices fell for a second session on Monday due to a stronger dollar and heightened risk appetite.

As of 09:27 GMT, spot gold was down 0.6% to $2,666.48 an ounce. The price of US gold futures dropped 0.8% to $2,673.20.

“A stronger U.S. dollar, rising Treasury yields, and increased risk appetite in financial markets are the main reasons why gold prices have declined — a trend that has gained momentum since Donald Trump’s victory in last week’s presidential election,” said Ricardo Evangelista, senior analyst at ActivTrades.

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Prices for cooking oil and ghee have increased in Pakistan.

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Details show that although the price of ghee increased to Rs 550, the price of cooking oil increased by Rs 30 to Rs 560.

The market vendors said that the cost of Karachi-branded ghee had increased by an astounding Rs 120 over the past month, to Rs 500.

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), which measures weekly inflation, increased by 0.28 percent for all consumer categories during the week ending October 17, according to a report released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on October 18.

In the aforementioned group, the SPI for the week under review was 319.79 points, compared to 318.91 points the previous week, according to the PBS statistics.

In the week under examination, the SPI for the combined consumption group increased by 15.02 percent compared to the same week last year.

51 important goods for all expenditure groups and 17 urban centers are covered by the weekly SPI with base year 2015–16 = 100.

Additionally, the SPI for the lowest consumption category, which is up to Rs 17,732, increased by 0.27 percent from 312.91 points last week to 313.74 points.

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The KSE-100 Index surpassed 94,000 points, while the PSX touched a record high.

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Monday saw record highs for the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), as the benchmark KSE-100 Index broke above the 94,000 point mark in the face of robust positive tendencies.

Beginning the week on a strong note, the stock market reached a series of record highs during the trading session.

After rising 408 points to 93,700, the KSE-100 Index continued to rise 551 points, reaching 93,845. Just a short while after that, the index jumped another 728 points, breaking all previous PSX records and reaching 94,020 points.

Since the beginning of the trading week, Pakistan’s market has demonstrated sustained rise, reflecting restored investor confidence. This surge is a reflection of that. Market optimism, improved economic data, and heightened interest from both domestic and international investors are all elements that analysts say are driving the upbeat attitude.

On Friday, the KSE-100 index soared 480 points, reaching a record high of 93,001 points, marking the first occasion in PSX history that the index had pushed above the 93,000-point milestone.

According to economists, the market is booming because investors are looking forward to Pakistan’s higher economic grade and reforms. An early 250-point increase propelled the 100 index to 92,770 points, the session high before the day’s top. The prior day’s market close was at 92,520 points.

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