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November 20, 2019: Government has approved renewable energy policy 2019 with the aim to produce cheap and clean energy by using indigenous resources.

This was announced by Minister for Power Omer Ayub and Special Assistant on Petroleum Nadeem Babar at a news conference in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Omer Ayub was confident that generation from renewable sources will help bring down the power tariff in future. He regretted that the previous government installed expensive power through the LNG plants.

Giving the targets set in the policy, the Minister for Power said that eight thousand megawatts of power will be produced from renewable sources including solar and wind by 2025 and twenty thousand megawatts by 2030. This, he said, does not include the hydel generation and if it is also included the share of clean and green energy will be sixty to sixty five percent.

Omer Ayub said that under this policy, manufacturing of solar panels and wind turbines will also be locally manufactured. This, he said, will give a major boost to the industrial base in the country.

The Minister for Power said there is potential of forty billion dollars investment in the country's renewable sources and some companies have already started invested in it. Danish, Japanese and Chinese companies have expressed interest to invest in the manufacturing of solar panels and wind turbines.

Nadeem Babar, in his remarks, said that this is a forward looking and progressive policy which has been prepared after consultations with all the stakeholders including the provinces.  He said under this policy, contracts will be awarded through a transparent open bidding.

Minister for Power Omer Ayub said the revenue of power sector has increased to the historic 229 billion rupees as compared to the previous year under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan. He said this has been done by ensuring efficiency and taking action against the pilferage.

Radio Pakistan

November 20, 2019 (MLN): The State Bank of Pakistan released the Bid Pattern for today's MTB Auction.

Auction target is Rs.500.00 billion against a maturing amount of Rs.175.77 billion, showing an additional funding requirement of Rs.324.23 Billion.

Link to Full Bid Pattern

In the previous auction cut off yield for 3, 6 and 12 months was 13.2902, 13.2899 and 12.79 percent.

Copyright Mettis Link News

November 20, 2019: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) recently released its ‘Performance Evaluation Report’ for K-Electric Company, in light of the PSTR 2005.

According to the report, the total outages hours recorded at all interconnection points were 3.37 during the year FY18, indicating a 52.5% decrease in comparison to the preceding year’s 7.10 hours. Number of interconnection points remained the same.

The average duration of interruption per interconnection point during the reported period remained 0.48 hours (29 minutes). This indicates a 52.5% decrease over the previous year’s 1.01 hours.

Regarding System Frequency of Interruption, the report stated that a total of 8 number of outages were recorded during the year, which indicates 20% decrease over the previous year i.e. 10. Moreover, the number of 132 kV outgoing circuits remained the same as compared to preceding year.

The average number of interruptions per circuit during the reported period remained 0.24, indicating 20% decrease in comparison to the preceding year’s 0.30.

In order to gauge system security, the estimates of total energy not served (ENS) during the reported period were also analyzed. And hence, the total ENS as reported by KE were 2.585 million kWh. Based on the average energy sale rate of KE, the financial impact of 2.585 million kWh, amounts to approximately Rs. 33.1 million.

With respect to Quality of Supple and System Voltage, the report said that the voltage violations increased by 71.4% in 2018 as compared to preceding year. Further, no violation occurred at 220 kV level both under normal and N-1 conditions and at 132 kV level, limits were violated under N-1 condition only.

The data submitted by KE was analyzed and it was revealed that a total of 5 times frequency remained outside the prescribed limits and that comes out to be approximately 0.0078% of the reported period. The number of violations remained the same as that of preceding year.

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November 20, 2019 (MLN): According to the latest data issued by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on export receipts by commodities, the textile products remained the major exportable goods for Pakistan as it accounted 61% of the total exports during Jul-Oct 2019.

Whereas, imports of the textile group into the country during the period under review nosedived 32% YoY to $604 million, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data. The textile group accounted only 4% of the total imports during the Jul-Oct 2019.

During Jul-Oct 2019, the overall exports of textile group witnessed an upsurge of 4.10% YoY to $4.58 billion. Within the textile group, the major exportable goods include Knitwear, Readymade Garments, Bed wears and Cotton Cloth.

The exports of Knitwear and Readymade Garments went up by 9.49% YoY, 5.72% YoY and 12% YoY to $1.05 billion, $817 million and $906 million respectively. Whereas, the exports of Cotton Cloth dipped by 4.83% YoY to $678 million during the period under review.

On yearly basis, the textile group’s exports were recorded at $1.21 billion, up by 7.44% when compared to $1.13 billion of October 2018.

Moreover, on month-on-month basis, the export of textile group showed a significant growth of 13.69% as the exports during September 2019 were recorded at $1.06 billion.

Meanwhile, the data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics revealed that imports of raw cotton, synthetic fibre, synthetic and artificial silk yarn decreased by 39.72% YoY, 23% YoY and 16.76%, valued at $46 million, $144 million and $ 163 million respectively during Jul-Oct 2019.  

On yearly basis, the textile group’s imports witnessed the significant decline of 27.85% to $153 million when compared to $212 million of October 2018.

On month-on-month basis, the import of textile group dropped by 19.89% as the imports during September 2019 were recorded at $127 million.

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November 20, 2019: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has said that Pakistan wanted to reach four percent of GDP through biotechnology exports and planned to hit $20 billion biotech exports in the next ten years.

“I would encourage the companies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to come and join us, it’s a huge market for the world,” Chaudhry said.

We are ready to send formal proposals to Saudi Arabia and UAE to become partners in the field of biotechnology as it aims to expand research and innovation in science and technology, the minister said.

“I have asked both Saudi Arabia and the UAE to join hands with us in the field of biotechnology,” he said .

“The UAE ambassador has shown interest in Pakistan’s offer to join hand in biotechnology projects but I am looking for practical steps as we have just completed our legalities. We will now send a formal proposal to both Saudi Arabia and UAE to join hands,” Fawad Chaudhry said in an interview with Arab News.

“Biotechnology is the field that will capture international economy more than anything else. For example, herbal medicine extraction is the area which is not explored properly in this part of the world.” “UAE and Saudi Arabia have their own herbs but the potential of their medicinal herbs has not been explored through proper research,” the minister said. “I would like to encourage both Saudi Arabia and UAE to start mutual projects with Pakistan on herbal medicines and similar areas.” Chaudhry said Pakistan was planning major innovations in agriculture, Hydroponic agriculture and precision agriculture are a huge area of interest for us; we are developing 150 acres plots of hydroponic agriculture,” he said. “Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia are the biggest importers of hydroponic agriculture and we would like to be part of this by exporting to these countries.” Chaudhry said Pakistan was finalizing a memorandum of understanding with Dubai future city and Dubai museum for help in revamping Islamabad museum. “I talked to the concerned authorities during my UAE visit in September and now we are finalizing the details,” he said.

“UAE’s space program is very advance and we are very keen to work closely with UAE to benefit from their experience of space mission,” Chaudhry said.

He said Pakistan also wanted to sign an MoU next year with the first artificial intelligence (AI) university set up in the UAE.

“Once it will be fully functional next year, we would like to sign some MoU with this UAE university to work together,” Chaudhry said. “Pakistan has 11 centers of excellence in AI and I will ask NUST to approach AI university in Abu Dhabi to work on joint projects.” He said Pakistan wished to collaborate with Saudi Arabia to tackle the challenge of cybersecurity.

“Saudi Arabia has arranged international conferences and also taken measures to deal with cybersecurity challenges. Pakistan would like to collaborate with the kingdom to benefit from its experience,” Chaudhry said.

“I will take up the issue with the ministry of information technology as well so that in future we can participate in international conferences on cybersecurity arranged by Saudi Arabia”.

He said Pakistan, UAE and Saudi Arabia should start exchange programs for professionals, scientists and universities students, adding that the brotherly countries could benefit from Pakistan’s talent in software development.

Speaking about his recent visit to China, the minister said Pakistan was looking to increase its exports to China, and had set up a high-powered commission for that purpose.

“This commission will identify the industries in Pakistan with the capacity to export products to China and with the help of China we will upgrade those industries,” Chaudhry said.

APP