Pakistan plans to ease visa policy for 55 countries to revive tourism

Pakistan plans to ease visa policy for 55 countries to revive tourism

In an attempt to revive tourism, Pakistan is planning to ease visa restrictions for visitors from 55 countries, Reuters reported Saturday.

Fawad Chaudhry, the information minister, told Reuters that his government is reviewing the visa policies. “We are trying to bring 55 countries into a visa-free region, which includes most of the European countries.”

Earlier this month, Portugal declared Pakistan safe for travel and Fawad Chaudhry is happy about it. “I’m happy our (travel) advisories are changing,” he added.

He said that former Portuguese captain Luis Figo and Brazil’s Kaka were recently denied visas to Pakistan for a promotional visit.

The information minister told Reuters that he called the section officer and he told him that he never heard of Kaka. “I spoke to the interior secretary yesterday and gave him a piece of my mind.”

However, the football greats will be issued visas soon, the minister added.

Undersea pipeline: $10 bn Russian investment to benefit Pakistan

Undersea pipeline: $10 bn Russian investment to benefit Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Russian company Gazprom is to lay down a $10 billion undersea gas pipeline not specifically for Pakistan but for the region that initially will be laid down from the Persian Gulf up to India touching Pakistani waters and Bangladesh’s coastal areas.

The News

‘’So the impression that building a $10 billion undersea gas pipeline is investment for Pakistan is wrong, as it is for other regional countries as well,’’ a top official at the Petroleum Division confirmed to The News.

Pakistan and India have already signed MoUs and agreements with Russia separately for the project under which both countries would get gas from the undersea pipeline through the spur pipelines.

However, the three countries, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, will benefit from the $10 billion Russian investment as buyer countries. Managing Director Inter-State Gas System Mobin Saulat also confirmed that the undersea pipeline would be laid down with an estimated investment of $10 for the regional countries. However, in the same breath he said, “Since the undersea pipeline will provide gas up to 1bcfd, so it is investment for Pakistan too.’’

And more importantly, Pakistan will also get transit fee in dollar terms for the undersea pipeline that is to pass through Pakistan’s sea territory. He also said Russia-Pakistan economic corridor will also be set up and Russia will also invest in fiber optic link, roads and power projects as ancillary facilities.

Saulat said Pakistan will take the gas up to 1bcf per day when the said pipeline will come on stream with massive rollover impact on economy. Russia is already engaged with Pakistan on North South Gas Pipeline, which will cost $2-2.5 billion. However, Gazprom has also shown interest in building gas storages in Pakistan with investment of $400-500 million.

Russia is also interested in investing in exploration and production activities in Pakistan and to this effect Gazprom is currently engaged with the top management of OGDCL.

However, under the agreement, another top Petroleum Division official said Gazprom Company from gas deposits in Iran and in other Middle East countries owned by Russia will ensure gas sourcing in the pipeline for the said buyer countries. The buyer countries under separate agreements with the said Russian company will have gas intakes from the said pipeline.

The official said Pakistan will share its credible data with Russian company about the demand of gas with future projections in next one decade keeping in view existing pricing structure, and regulatory and taxation regimes. The data for demand would be worked out keeping view the renewable power policy and future LNG terminal being installed by private companies.

‘’The same data India will provide to Russian company too.’’ After having the required data from Pakistan and India, the Russian company will ink commercial agreements with buyer countries. Based on data from both the countries, Gazprom will carry out the feasibility and the whole process staring from sharing the data to completion of feasibility report will be finished in one year time and if the project is found feasible, then the pipeline will be laid down undersea in 3-4 years. The official said under TAPI gas line project, Pakistan will be having 1.3bcf per day.

To a question, the official said that Pakistan had the option to build spur pipeline to connect the undersea pipeline and the spur pipeline will be connected to S-N pipeline. Russia may build spur pipeline also and connect to S-N pipeline which is also to be constructed by Russian company.
source: The News

PIA reaches break-even in operating profit

Says it has come out of losses at operational level after quite a long time

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has claimed that it has come out of losses at the operational level after quite a long time as its revenues slightly exceeded the operating cost in the quarter ended March 31, 2019.
“PIA has achieved breakeven at the operational level,” Adviser to PIA CEO Air Vice Marshal Noor Abbas told The Express Tribune. “It, however, may take three to four years to report a net profit.”
The state-owned airline’s revenue surged to an average of Rs8-8.5 billion a month in the January-March 2019 quarter compared to around Rs7 billion a month in the same period of last year. “The operating cost was slightly lower than the monthly revenue or was almost equal,” he said.
18 new planes, new routes planned for PIA
The adviser said a notable improvement in financial management came after the seat occupancy rate per flight increased to around 90% in the period under review compared to less than 70% in the corresponding period of previous year.
Moreover, the addition of four planes to the operational fleet after repair, which took more than a year, reduction in the number of employees, drastic reduction in the ticket reservation cost, increased load factor of cargo and increase in the number of flights on profit-making routes helped achieve these results.
“Such improvement in operations came following the change of management in November 2018 when Air Marshal Arshad Malik took charge as CEO of the airline,” he said. “PIA is doing well under the five-year business plan, which got approval of the cabinet very recently.”
He revealed that PIA had been saving roughly Rs1 billion a month since it acquired the new ticket reservation software from Turkey-based firm Hitit in October 2018. “The new reservation software is costing half of what PIA was paying to the US-based firm Saber.”
“The saving is playing a major role in turning around the airline,” he said.
Grounded planes return to air
The adviser said seven aircraft had been grounded for repair and maintenance at the time the new management took over the airline. Some of them had remained in the hangar for over a year due to lack of finances. “We have now put four of them in the operational fleet,” Abbas said.
PIA business plan to be ready by March
It became possible after the government extended sovereign guarantees for commercial loans worth Rs5.6 billion for repair and maintenance in February 2019.
“Another two grounded aircraft – Boing 777 AP-BHV and A-320 AP-BLV – will start flying by mid-May,” he said. “The required parts have arrived from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the US and Europe.”
Cargo
load improves
He said the cargo load factor had also increased to over 70% these days compared to less than 50% about six months ago. “Accordingly, the share of revenue from cargo operations has increased to 7-8% in the total revenue compared to around 5% earlier,” he said.
New planes
He said the management had planned to increase the fleet to around 45 aircraft under the five-year business plan from 32 at present. “First of the new aircraft is expected to be acquired in the current calendar year.”
He, however, said it had not yet been decided whether the first aircraft would be narrow or wide-body plane. However, 60% of the 13 new aircraft would be narrow-body and the remaining would be wide-body.
HR rationalisation
He said the state-owned airline had started the process of human resources rationalisation. “We need to cut human resource by 25-30%. We may do so in the next two to three months. The rationalisation drive kicked off in January,” he said.
There are around 13,000 regular employees and another 3,000 outsourced employees of PIA.
He added the impact of HR rationalisation would not be at the mass level as 500-600 employees were leaving the organisation themselves every year including around 400 who were reaching the retirement age.
Routes rationalisation
He said PIA had increased the number of flights and started flying on around eight new international routes, mostly in the Middle East, since the change in management in November 2018. “PIA is also going to start flights on the Islamabad-Muscat route on April 23. This will be the ninth new route in less than six months.”
Besides, it has stopped and suspended flights on a couple of loss-making routes under the rationalisation programme
PIA reaches break-even in operating profit