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HBFCL Zonal moot deliberates critical issues

KARACHI: HBFCL held its Zonal Conference at Arabian Sea Country Club, Karachi where key delegates from all over Pakistan participated along with the senior management from Head Offices. The participation discussed and deliberated all business issues of critical significance and realized the need to carry out changes in terms of orchestrating future business strategy. The participants made unequivocal commitment to transform the institution to make it commercially viable on sustainable basis and to do whatever that will help achieve this particular objective. The Zonal Conference was presided by Mr. Azhar Jafri, Chief Executive Office & Managing Director of HBFCL. staff report

LCCI constitutes standing committees

LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tuesday constituted 128 sector-specific Standing Committees to supplement the government efforts aimed at economic revival of the country. The LCCI President Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, Senior Vice President Ejaz A Mumtaz and Vice President Faisal Iqbal Sheikh jointly gave away letters to the newly appointed Conveners of the Standing Committees at an impressive ceremony held at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI President said that an extra care has been taken while appointing the Conveners of the LCCI Standing Committees on basis of the feedback of these sector specialists. staff report

Wi-tribe bags six awards

KARACHI: Wi-tribe, the focused wireless internet provider in Jordan, clinched six awards at the glittering Jordan Advertising Awards 2009 (JAA). The six awards included: Gold for the best telecom campaign received for the launch campaign “There’s something in the air”, Silver in both Best Giveaway and Best Radio Teaser Campaign. Bronze Awards were received for Best Radio Ad and Best Outdoor Ad for their playful “Internet is our game” campaign. Bassam Hannoun, Wi-tribe Jordan CEO was delighted with the outcome and full of pride for his team, “winning all these awards has shown Jordan that collectively as wi-tribers we can all achieve something great. We are positive that our communication campaign breaks the clutter and talks and appeals to our consumers.” staff report

APEC to focus on protectionism, trade imbalances

SINGAPORE: Leaders of Asia-Pacific nations will focus on protectionism, trade imbalances and the ease of doing business when they meet in Singapore next month, the director of the APEC grouping said on Tuesday. These are issues that have emerged as threats to a global economic recovery for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group of countries, which include the United States, China, Japan and Russia. “For the coming summit we are not past the crisis,” APEC’s executive director, Michael Tay, told the Singapore Foreign Correspondents Association. “They’ll be looking at whether subsidies constitute protectionist measures ... the market is now more imperfect.” reuters

Chief auditor blasts Russian companies

MOSCOW: Russia’s chief auditor accused unnamed major companies on Tuesday of paying dividends at the start of the financial crisis to create liquidity problems and allow them to get bailed out by the state. Sergei Stepashin, a former prime minister who heads up the powerful Audit Chamber, was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying these actions were “an abuse by the owners of Russia’s largest companies at a time of crisis.” “Last autumn when the coming of the crisis was evident, all the big Russian companies organised assemblies where they decided to pay out dividends. “Large sums were paid out” of up to 20 billion rubles ($686 million, 458 million euros) per company, he said, without naming the firms concerned. “So many major companies found themselves without liquidity... and then asked the state to help them. In many cases, the state helped them,” he added. The Russian government has recently paid out billions of euros (dollars) in aid to struggling sectors including the auto industry and diamond mining. afp

Italy’s industry orders plunge deeper

PARIS: Industrial orders in Italy plunged deeper in August, falling more than a quarter compared to a year ago, national data showed on Tuesday, a further sign of weakness in its recession-hit economy. Orders to industry fell by 27.5 percent in August from the same month in 2008 and fell back sharply by 8.6 percent compared to July 2009, the national statistics institute Istat said in a statement. It had logged 12-month falls of 23.2 percent in July and 22.7 percent in June. The seasonally-adjusted month-on-month figure meanwhile was a shock reversal after slight gains in previous months. Italy’s central bank last week forecast a return to growth in the third quarter (Q3) but cautioned that any recovery would be fragile. Analysts saw Tuesday’s data as a sign of ongoing weakness for Italian industry overall. afp

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