Day: November 3, 2021

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Strong Growth Figures Hotel Industry good for investors

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Barrows, the provider of hotel investment and advisory services for hotels in the Middle East, is very positive for the global hotel industry and sees huge opportunities for investors and developers.

Last year, the company noticed lower sales due to restrictions imposed by travel restrictions and declining demand for global hotel bookings. The turnover decline in hotel room sales was a fact, but the differences with the advisory branch of the company were very large. Never has the company managed to achieve such significant growth.

Many Hotels across the globe had massive problems and hired Barrows as their regular advisory partner. Today, the development of new hotels and the sales of hotel rooms are stronger than ever before. Investors are massively signing up for new hotel projects and they really come from all over the world.

The company expects strong growth in the hotel industry for the last quarter of this year and for 2022. “The economies are slowly closing, and world trade is returning back strongly,” said Barrows Hotel Enterprises Chairman – Erwin Jager. The market has been recovering for a few months now and hotels are opening their doors to the public again, which is giving a huge boost to employment.

Barrows Hotel Enterprises internationally manages more than 10,000 hotel rooms in more than 10 countries. The company started in 2008 as a real estate investor in the residential market in Dubai. Since 2012, Barrows has changed its strategy and the company is fully focused on the fast-growing hotel industry in the Middle East and Africa.

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Govt Scrambles to Secure LNG Cargoes to Avoid Shortfall

The government has urgently issued fresh tenders to meet the peak LNG demand in winter as two suppliers chose to default on their November shipments.

Failing to secure new LNG shipments will worsen Pakistan’s expected shortage.

The government is in a state of confusion as two suppliers — Gunvor and ENI — failed to fulfill their contractual duties to deliver one cargo each in November. The country is already struggling to plug the supply-demand gap as only nine LNG cargoes have been secured against the demand for 12 or 13 in peak winter.

Consequently, the state-run Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) issued an urgent tender with a response time of fewer than three days (5 November) to replace the defaulted commitments for the 19 to 20 November and 26 to 27 November windows.

The tenders called for typical shipments of 140,000 cubic meters, around 100 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) for each cargo.

An official from the Ministry of Energy has revealed that the government is also seeking to revive at least one LNG shipment commitment through a diplomatic channel, and is hoping to convince ENI to revert its default position and honor its commitments after some rescheduling.

If Gunvor and ENI default on their contractual obligations, they are liable to face penalties of $3 per unit each. However, the LNG suppliers are willing to pay the penalty for a higher profit margin in the spot market — a range of $13 per mmBtu and $35 per mmBtu.

PLL has a 15-year contract with ENI for 11.95 percent of Brent while Gunvor has a five-year deal at 11.63 percent of Brent. Meanwhile, spot pricing has already surpassed 35 percent of Brent.

Source: Pro Pakistani

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Samina Alvi Welcomes Supreme Court’s Notice on Provision of Mammography Facilities at Public Hospitals

Begum Samina Alvi, the wife of President Dr. Arif Alvi, welcomed the notice taken by the Supreme Court on rising cases of breast cancer in the country, saying the joint efforts against the disease would lead to saving lives of thousands of women in the country.

Speaking at a breast cancer awareness seminar at the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industries (RCCI) on Wednesday, she commended the order passed by the Supreme Court on the provision of mammography facilities at all public hospitals.

A day earlier, Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, during the hearing of a case, had taken notice of the increasing number of breast cancer patients and ordered the availability of breast cancer screening facilities with female medical staff at the hospitals under the federal and provincial governments.

Begum Alvi, who is leading the nationwide breast cancer awareness campaign, said the survival rate of breast cancer patients across the globe was about 95-98 percent compared with 45 percent in Pakistan due to late diagnosis.

She proposed the installation of a mammogram machine at every teaching hospital to train the medical graduates about breast cancer screening. Pakistan has the highest rate of breast cancer deaths in Asia due to late diagnosis at the third and fourth stages. One in every eight women in the country is at the risk of breast cancer, besides one woman falling victim to the disease every 13 minutes, she added.

She pointed out that with a fifty percent female population, there is a need to shun the taboos affiliated with breast cancer to encourage women to seek timely medical consultation.

Begum Alvi urged the women to practice self-detection and consult the doctor immediately on noticing any abnormality in their bodies. She said a healthy lifestyle, balanced diet, and physical exercise could improve the health of women and could also contribute to minimizing the chances of a fatal disease. She stressed upon men to extend support to women in their families suffering from breast cancer or in need of medical advice.

Begum Alvi said a healthy and empowered woman could bring about a positive change in society. She invited the women to benefit from the business loans offered by the government and the State Bank of Pakistan.

On differently-abled persons, she said, the marginalized segment deserved special care and opportunities in all fields of life for their effective mainstreaming in society.

President RCCI Chaudry Nadeem Rauf said acknowledging the important role of women in society, the RCCI had taken several key initiatives to ensure their empowerment, including setting up business incubation centers.

He said to address the challenges pertaining to the wellbeing of women, the RCCI would continue to extend its support on the health issues such as breast cancer.

RCCI officer-bearers Sohail Altaf and Arooj Saqib said the RCCI would continue to raise the campaign on breast awareness to save the precious lives of women. The event was attended by parliamentarians, women entrepreneurs, and the girl students of colleges and universities.

Source: Pro Pakistani

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Rupee Strengthens Against the US Dollar for 6th Consecutive Day Closing Below 170

The Pakistani Rupee continued to improve against the dollar and posted strong gains against the USD on Wednesday. PKR gained 57 paisas against the dollar and closed at 169.97, posting a growth of 3.12 percent since crashing to an all-time low in October.

On Tuesday, the local currency continued its bullish run towards recovery, a trend previously observed in April 2020. PKR added 75 paisas against the dollar and closed at 170.54 in the interbank market yesterday.

PKR has appreciated Rs. 5.30 in the past six market closings since posting record lows of Rs. 175.27 on 26 October. The dollar at the interbank rates has fallen for the sixth consecutive day against the rupee and traded on levels as low as Rs. 169.50 during the early hours of today’s open market.

The former Treasury Head of Chase Manhattan Bank, Asad Rizvi, said that despite the gains posted by the local unit against the US dollar, it is still inadequate to say much about the competitiveness of Pakistani goods in the international market.

“Though #PKR continues to make gains, the impact of depreciation is skimpy to support the view that it has reinstated the competitiveness of Pakistani goods in the int’l market. This is why trade deficit continues to mount & import bill is a big threat, which needs to be fixed”, he explained.

PKR continued its six-day winning streak against other major currencies as well. It gained 95 paisas against the Euro, 134 paisas against Pound Sterling (GBP), 72 paisas against the Australian Dollar (AUD), and 66 paisas against the Canadian Dollar (CAD).

It also added 15 paisas against both Saudi Riyal (SAR) and the United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED) today.

Source: Pro Pakistani

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Petroleum Dealers Call Off Their Strike

Petroleum dealers called off their strike after a successful meeting with the Ministry of Energy on increasing the dealer’s margin from 2 percent to 6 percent.

The meeting ended with the conclusion that the Ministry of Energy will send a summary containing the necessary changes of the dealer’s margin to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

Energy Minister, Hammad Azhar, was also a part of the meeting that led to the abandonment of the strike.

The Pakistan Petroleum Dealer Association further announced that the strike had been postponed till November 17, and if the government fails to fulfill the promises, the strike will commence on November 17.

On Tuesday, the dealers had threatened to close down fuel stations on November 5 if the authorities did not increase the petrol dealers’ margin to 6 percent.

Source: Pro Pakistani