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30.01.2010
Reko Diq Project: Possessing Baloch Assets
January 30, 2010
A H Baloch Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province having 43.5 per cent landmass of the country with only 4 per cent of the country’s overall population. Balochistan remains the most neglected province and 88 per cent of its population lives in subhuman conditions. In terms of literacy, higher education, technological development, healthcare, infrastructure development and industrialization, the province is far behind rest of the country. Nevertheless, Balochistan is endowed with some of the world's richest reserves of natural energy (gas, oil, coal); minerals (gold, copper), having strategic mountainous borders adjoining Iran and Afghanistan on the west and a coast stre... details >>
15.01.2010
Govt likely to okay construction of Gwadar Int’l Airport
By Ijaz KakakhelISLAMABAD: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in its meeting on January 21 is likely to approve construction of new Gwadar International Airport (GIA) and allied facilities with initial cost of Rs 7.5 billion including Rs 1.312 billion as Foreign Exchange Component (FEC). The scheme envisages construction of state of the art GIA, along with allied facilities over a piece of land already acquired measuring 4300 acres. The airport would be developed as a green-field airport and all major components of an airport would be developed as part of this project. The sources claimed that the NGIA would be the business gateway to Pakistan through the city o... details >>
15.01.2010
Copper and gold exploration by Canadian firm: Pakistan threatens to annul $3bn mining project
Pakistan is threatening to cancel a $3 billion copper and gold exploration project by Canada’s Barrick Gold and Chilean miner Antofagasta in the country’s resource-rich south-western Balochistan province, citing the pressing need to “protect the country’s national interests”.Speaking to the Financial Times, Shaukat Tareen, finance minister, said, “We can’t continue with this project in its present form. We have to protect our key national interests.” The provincial government of Baluchistan last month recommended the cancellation of the Reko Diq contract – a move that needs the federal government’s backing before it can be formalised.The province of Balochistan has a 25 percent stake in the ... details >>
13.01.2010
Balochistan demands release of Rs.10 billion
Tuesday, 12 Jan, 2010
QUETTA: The Balochistan Assembly has unanimously approved a resolution demanding federal government to immediately release Rs. 10 billion for Balochistan in the wake of economic crisis. The Balochistan Assembly met in Quetta on Tuesday with speaker Aslam Bhootani in the chair. The resolution was jointly tabled by three members of the house including Mir Asadullah Baloch, Sheikh Jaffar Khan Mandokhel and Mir Zahoor Hussain Khan Khoso.
The movers welcomed the federal government's announcement to release Rs.120 billion for Balochistan under Aghaz-e-Hoqook-e-Balochistan package and demanded t... details >>
11.01.2010
Balochistan halts $3.5bn copper project
Jan 12, 2010
By Syed Fazl-e-Haider KARACHI - Local authorities in Pakistan have canceled an agreement with an Australian company for the exploration of copper and gold in the Reko Diq area in southwestern Balochistan province at a time when a feasibility study for the project was near completion. Australia's Tethyan Copper Company (TCC), a joint venture between Canada's Barrick Gold and Chile's Antofagasta Plc, had
an exploration license for the copper mine at Reko Diq, which has an estimated four billion tonnes of low-grade copper and gold, in the district of Chagai. Last month, when the Balochistan government passed a motion to terminate the contract with TCC, it called the move a... details >>
10.11.2009
Baloch economy
Tuesday, 10 Nov, 2009
IN its latest economic report on Balochistan the World Bank has not presented us with good news. Pakistan’s poorest province is growing poorer, its economic growth lagging behind that of the other provinces. In the period spanning 1972-73 to 2005-06 the provincial economy expanded by 2.7 per cent per annum which was much slower than the performance of the other provinces. The social indicators are also appalling. Illiteracy is high in Balochistan (nearly 60 per cent) and the primary school enrolment ratio is low. With its large area and a small scattered population, the province has failed to provide sufficient facilities for healthcare as a result of which diseases a... details >>
09.11.2009
Balochistan govt. asked to utilize natural resources for social development
QUETTA Nov 08 (APP) Balochistan government had been advised by World Bank for giving preference to utilization of its natural resources for uplift of social infrastructure in the province. According to World Bank Review Reviews on Balochistan Economic Situation, the provincial government had been asked to adopt an agenda aimed at increasing the production capacity of the province besides introducing reforms in energy and trade sectors
“Efforts should also be made for evolving effective revenue collection system in order to increase revenue of the province”, the WB report said, urging the need for capacity building of the members of provincial administration besides encoura... details >>
08.11.2009
Poverty rising in Balochistan, says World Bank
By Amin Ahmed Sunday, 08 Nov, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Balochistan has the weakest long-term growth performance of all provinces in the country, according to a World Bank study.
The ‘Balochistan Economic Report 2009’, which took into account statistics from 1972-73 to 2005-06, said the province’s economy expanded by 2.7 times in Balochistan, 3.6 times in the NWFP and Sindh and four times in Punjab.
Overall, the size of the ‘economic pie’ rose 110 per cent in the rest of the country, except Balochistan.
With Balochistan’s growth lagging behind the rest of Pakistan, its per capita income level has lagged behind other provinces, the World Bank said.
Balochistan ranked lowest on the ‘horizontal a... details >>
08.11.2009
WB advises Balochistan on resolving economic crisis
Sunday, November 08, 2009
ISLAMABAD: By pointing out financial difficulties being faced by Balochistan, the World Bank (WB) has recommended to the province to replace expensive cash development loan with relatively inexpensive foreign loans in order to come out of the economic morass.The WB's report titled Balochistan's Economic Report also pointed out that the federal transfer to the province declined substantially due to lower share in gas development surcharge in recent years, aggravating the financial difficulties by paving the way for increased debt servicing cost.The WB also recommended to Balochistan to review the size and composition of provincial Public Sector Development... details >>
30.10.2009
'Balochistan agriculture victim of neglect'
By Kalbe Ali Thursday, 29 Oct, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Officials of the ministry of food and agriculture on Wednesday blamed the provincial departments of Balochistan for poor state of agriculture in the province, which was not only causing economic downturn to the farmers but also reducing the net agriculture growth in the country.
The officials were responding to the queries raised by the members of Senate Standing Committee on Food, Agriculture & Livestock and Dairy Development, which met at the Parliament House, under the Chairmanship of Senator Syed Javed Ali Shah.
The chairman of the committee stressed the need of addressing the problems being faced by the agriculturists in the country... details >>
25.10.2009
Govt may include 200 bulldozers in Balochistan package
By Ijaz KakakhelISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Mohammad Gondal on Saturday said the government was considering including the provision of 200 bulldozers in Balochistan Development Package, which will be announced shortly.This demand was made today in a meeting between delegation of Balochistan including provincial agriculture minister, Asad Khan Baloch, MNA Changaize Khan along with federal agriculture minister and high officials of the ministry.After the meeting, the minister told journalists that Balochistan was a big province area wise and the federal government would try its level best to facilitate agriculture in the province. Cotton, being a cash crop of the... details >>
15.10.2009
Resource investment risky in Balochistan
QUETTA: A low-level separatist insurgency and fears of the spread of Taliban militancy are likely to keep a lid on foreign investment in the rich gas and mineral resources of Pakistan's poorest province.For decades, separatists in Balochistan province have been fighting a guerrilla war for control of the province's resources, which they say are unfairly exploited by richer provinces.They have regularly blown up gas pipelines and attacked utility infrastructure and transport links.While hard-nosed investors have been managing that risk, new danger lurks.US assertions that Afghan Taliban leaders are based in and around the provincial capital, Quetta, has brought fear the United States could ex... details >>
11.10.2009
Balochistan demands Rs300b arrears
By: Bari Baloch
October 11, 2009
QUETTA - Balochistan’s Finance Minister Asim Kurd Gailoo has said that province’s stance about the new NFC-Award was clear and it wanted multiple criteria for distribution of resources instead of population as the sole criteria.‘We don’t need any grant and we demand that Federal govt should pay Balochistan’s arrears of Rs 300 billion under the head of GDS and royalty on gas’, he said this while talking to the newsmen on Saturday after session of Balochistan Assembly. Asim Kurd Gailoo said that NFC-Award meeting was being held in Quetta on Sunday (today) in which Finance Ministers of all provinces would participate including Federal Finance Minister S... details >>
13.09.2009
Jewel in the Crown: Reqo Diq Copper and Gold Deposits in Balochistan Province of Pakistan
Sold for a SongBy Dr. Babur ZahiruddinSunday, September 13, 2009
On June 14, 2008 there was a well attended demonstration outside the Quetta Press Club.This incident was well reported in the National news papers, but it did not make any headlines nor any ripples were caused in the national way of life of an ordinary Pakistani citizen. This event passed un-noticed and was soon forgotten as many fiascoes and malfeasance are wiped like dust under the carpet in Pakistan. Why were these people agitating? This will be deliberated subsequently, but the point of concern and worth noting is that no one from the Government whether it was the CENTRAL or the PROVINCIAL took any note of this minor inci... details >>
16.08.2009
China calls halt to Gwadar refinery
August 16, 2009
QUETTA, Pakistan - Cash-strapped Pakistan, which has had to accept more than US$11 billion from the International Monetary Fund, is threatened with the loss of a huge foreign investment after China said it had shelved its multi-billion dollar coastal oil refinery project at Gwadar, in southwest Balochistan province. China has formally informed the Pakistani authorities that the refinery project has been deleted from the list of financial development plans agreed with Islamabad for the financial year ending next June as there has been no progress on the project, according to a Business Recorder report. The decision, which follows suspension in January by theUnited Arab Emirat... details >>
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