Business

KARACHI: Tech­no­lo­gical advancements have transformed financial services but challenges including cyber security issues, social media, data privacy and third party risks have emerged strongly, participants at a seminar hosted by the State Bank observed. The ‘Internal Audit: Emerging Challenges and Effective Practices in Central Banks’ seminar hosted by the SBP under the aegis of Saarc Finance Forum at the National …

BEIJING: China has never forced debt upon participants of its new Silk Road project as “prejudiced” critics have suggested, the country’s top diplomat said on Saturday in a strongly worded defence of a key policy platform of President Xi Jinping — Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative, as it is formally called — envisions rebuilding the old Silk Road to connect …

ISLAMABAD: Global e-commerce sales grew 13 per cent in 2017, hitting an estimated $29 trillion, according to the latest numbers released by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). A similar surge was seen in the number of online shoppers, which jumped by 12 per cent and stood at 1.3 billion people, or one quarter of the world’s population. …

ISLAMABAD: The Secu­rities and Exchange Com­mis­­sion of Pakistan (SECP) is finalising the ‘brokers model’ — a framework that aims to define the roles of various market players. The framework is expected to give leverage to small brokers and enhance their retail network whereas the large corporate brokers would concentrate on inviting listings in the stock market. The new framework will …

NEW DELHI: India’s trade ministry has proposed that the government delays by a month the imposition of retaliatory tariffs on some US goods that were due to go into effect from April 1, a trade ministry spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday. Trade friction between India and the United States has escalated after US President Donald Trump announced plans earlier this …

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank on Friday suspended the Integrated Water Resources Management and Development project for Balochistan over lack of progress in management and funds disbursement. In a statement, the WB offered to work with the Baloch­istan government over the next 30 days to restructure the scope and governance arrangements to more realistically deliver sustainable water management to the province. …

KARACHI: Investors at the stock market remained indecisive on Friday marked by choppy trade as suspense was thick in the air over the State Bank of Pakistan Monetary Policy that was to come after trading hours. The benchmark KSE-100 index closed slightly positive with gains of 96.39 points (0.25 per cent) at 38,649.34. The index opened on a positive note …

ISLAMABAD: With a slight increase in international crude price and currency devaluation, the government is considering a major increase in the prices of all petroleum products for the month of April. Based on import parity price of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) for purchase in March, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has worked out about Rs11.17 per litre increase …

LAHORE: As water flows increase with the onset of summer, the Neelum Jhelum hydropower project (NJHP) touched its maximum generation capacity of 969 megawatt once again on Friday. All four units have started running on full load (installed capacity) of 242.25 megawatt each. The project had started operation with the commissioning of its first unit on April 13 last year. …

ISLAMABAD: Expressing dissatisfaction over Pakistan’s inadequate compliance with global commitments, the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) — a regional affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — has flashed contradictory situations and poor coordination among stakeholders fighting money laundering and terror financing as top takeaways of three-day mutual evaluation. No official word was available from the APG or the government on …