Pakistan considers limiting IMF loan package to $10b

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is considering restricting the $11.3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout programme to less than $10 billion and wants to delay the IMF Executive Board meeting in a bid to gain more time for tax reforms.

Finance ministry sources told The Express Tribune that the government is mulling over taking the meeting of the IMF Executive Board to November instead of end-September or early October. The move is said to have two objectives.

“The primary aim is to deliver on the commitment of tax reforms by buying more time and secondly it will leave no time for the last meeting before the end of $11.3 billion programme in December,” said a key government official on condition of anonymity.

“Pakistan does not want to avail of the last tranche of $1.2 billion due to better position of foreign exchange reserves,” the official added. The IMF loan cannot be used for budgetary support and the money can only be spent on import bills.

Pakistan and the IMF will enter into staff-level talks on August 23 in Washington DC to review the economic performance in the last quarter (April-June) of financial year 2009-10. During the year, the country missed the budget deficit target by a wide margin and ended up with a deficit of Rs909 billion or 6.2 per cent of GDP instead of the target of Rs769 billion or 5.1 per cent. It also could not levy the Value Added Tax (VAT) from July 1.

Pakistan is committed to implementing the reformed GST, which includes withdrawal of tax exemptions on goods and levy of the tax on services, by October. The issue remains unresolved as the Centre and provinces have been unable to sort out differences.

BMW’s latest 5 Series model launched in Pakistan

LAHORE: Dewan Morors Lahore pulled no stops when it launched the new BMW 5 Series sedan on Sunday. Amid the life-sized posters of the car, the numerous plasma television sets, roaming spotlights and sharply dressed sales executives stood the sixth generation of the manufacturers world renowned 5 Series.

The event was a classy black tie affair, living up to the executive appeal of the car itself. The guests, BMW’s clients and car enthusiasts, sampled delicious hors d’oeuvres as they were a given a thorough tour of the car.

The new model in the 5-series comes after a hiatus of eight years and is a huge improvement on its predecessor. Built on an entirely new platform the new 5 Series boasts the largest wheelbase in its class, though it borrows some of its deign cues from the current 3-series.

The manufacturer continues to offer its customers more advanced technology built vehicles as it incorporates eight years of research into the new model. A Flex-Ray high-speed vehicle network architecture (for more agility), new torque splitting all-wheel-drive (also known as Dynamic Performance Control), refined i-Drive (for an additional driving aid), and BMW’s Efficient Dynamics technology for minimizing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are just a few of the new high technology features that come along with this vehicle. It also comes with increased horsepower and an 8-speed dual-clutch gear box (i.e. DSG).

High budget deficit puts financial stability at stake

Economic managers have surprised the prime minister, saying a high budget deficit last fiscal and a delay in taking immediate corrective measures have put the country’s financial stability at stake. This may also lead to blocking of foreign funding and depreciation of rupee.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani visited the Q-block on Friday where finance ministry officials gave a comprehensive presentation, depicting a true but frightening picture of the state of economy, sources said.

The ministry officials said the overall budget deficit during financial year 2009-10 stood at an unprecedented Rs909 billion against a revised target of Rs769 billion.

Announcing the last budget, the government had fixed the budget deficit target at 4.9 per cent of gross domestic product or Rs724 billion. Later, it revised the target to 5.1 per cent but, according to provisional estimates, it ended up at 6.2 per cent.

In 2007-08, the budget deficit was recorded at Rs777 billion, equal to 7.6 per cent of GDP.

So You Want to Be a Project Manager?

You’ve worked on a project, and you think you’d like to have a try out at doing the project management role. It doesn’t look too hard, or maybe it just looks exciting.

So what does it take to become a project manager? What skills do you need?

From my experience of over 25 years in project and programme management, I always look for the following skills in any project manager I hire.

An innate leader – by innate leader, I mean one appointed by their peers, rather than by management. It’s not necessarily the one with the title “manager.” Look at any team and one person will stand out as being the “ring leader,” I want that sort of leadership, leadership that comes naturally and is innate to that person and situation. Someone who can become an innate leader has a certain level of confidence, and most of the other skills listed below.

Well Organised

By definition, a project manager needs to be well organised. They need to be able to determine what needs to be done, in what order, so as to achieve a desired outcome. They need to be like a juggler keeping many different balls in the air at once, without taking their eyes off any one of them.

What Makes a Successful Project Manager?

Over the past few days, I’ve been writing about some of the characteristics that make a great project manager. I don’t think anyone disagrees that delivering projects on-time, on budget, and on spec are important. I certainly think they are. That being said, I was thumbing through some old notes last night and found these six leadership attributes. I’m not sure where I stumbled across them originally, but they are leadership skills that can take a good project manager and make them great.

As companies turn to project based work to help make and keep their organisations competitive and profitable, the need for skilled project leaders will continue to increase. Regardless of your particular work management methodology or business project management software, do you take time to foster the following skills and attributes?

• The gift of foresight. I’m not suggesting that membership in the Psychic Friends Network is required, but being able to look down the road and make some reasonable predictions based upon practical assumptions is an important skill.
• Organisation. I don’t think this needs much explanation. Keeping information, schedules and team members organised is critical. Fortunately, most project managers I know are very organised and detail-oriented people.

Project Managers Need Leadership Skills

Yes, if you are a project manager you really need leadership skills! Today’s project managers must have leadership skills in order to effectively perform their roles in the organisation and stand out from the crowd. Something must make you distinct from the others, especially if you are currently job searching or worried about your job security given the current economy.

While this has certainly always been the case; it is even more important today in an economy where project managers (PMs) are being asked to do more with less, educed budgets for their projects, fewer resources available to work on the projects, and reduced timelines to get the products/services to market, in order to ensure their organisations remain competitive in a global economy.

Many project managers have strong technical skills, but are sometimes lacking in the critical soft skills necessary to be truly effective.

The Responsibilities of a Project Manager

Introduction

The purpose of this article is to discuss the main responsibilities of a project manager. These three main responsibilities are planning, organizing, and controlling. Performing these responsibilities requires many skills. Some of these necessary skills will be outlined.

Planning

The planning function includes defining the project objective and developing a plan to accomplish the objective. The project manager should work with the project sponsor in order to define the specific objective of the project. Working with the sponsor is beneficial in many ways. For example, the sponsor is the person responsible for the resultant project and thus has a stake in the success of the project. Therefore, the sponsor should be very helpful in defining the project objective. In addition, “sponsors often can help secure interdepartmental cooperation and influence contractors and suppliers” (Davies, p. 83). This can be helpful throughout the life of the project.

The project manager must also develop a plan to accomplish the objective. The project manager should include project team members in this phase. Including members of the project team in the plan development phase “ensures a more comprehensive plan than he or she could develop alone (and) gains the commitment of the team to achieve the plan” (Gido & Clements, p. 292).

Provinces receive Rs439b from Centre in July-March

ISLAMABAD: The Center transferred Rs439 billion from the federal divisible pool to provinces during July-March 2009-10, which is more than two-thirds of total allocation.

Punjab being the most populated province was the largest recipient as it got Rs224 billion, according to official documents.

Punjab’s total share in the divisible pool is Rs334.4 billion under the Distribution of Revenue and Grant-in-Aid Amendment Order of 2006.

The resources are being distributed among the provinces solely on the basis of population. However, distribution from the next financial year

Inflating Pakistan’s football industry

KARACHI: Soccer or football is the most popular sport in the world. And for many, this means great economic opportunity. At one time, Pakistan’s export city of Sialkot was catering to 85 per cent of the total world demand for high-quality hand-stitched inflatable balls.

A workforce of 85,000 was employed to produce 60 million balls per year worth $210 million. In Fifa World Cup years the demand for stitched balls rises by 70 per cent. Consecutive governments however, ignored this industry and failed to plan ahead to tackle the growing competition from China, India and Japan.

For a long time this vital industry also faced criticism from European countries and especially from United States with allegations of using child labour. The Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry took prompt measures to curb child labour from the soccer ball industry in accordance with the Atlanta Agreement signed with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Unicef in February 1997.

VAT plan to go ahead: Finance Adviser

ISLAMABAD: Dr Hafeez Sheikh, the prime minister’s Adviser on Finance and Revenue, has said that the government is not considering any alternative plan in lieu of value-added tax because it was determined to introduce the levy in July.

Talking to media after a seminar here on Saturday, Dr Sheikh said that plans had been prepared to book non-filers of tax returns and there would be no compromise over tax evasion.

He said it was in the interest of the country to improve tax collection and work out methods to document the economy.