Expensive Pakistani Habbits , for a Economically Poor nation

[CrazyZ]

Every one is obsessed with tea in this discussion. The main thing that needs reduction is oil. Hydro power and Thar coal projects need to ramped up to reduce oil generation. Thar coal can produce fertilizer...we should get a project up and running ASAP. it will take many years to build this kind of plant.

If you want to grow plant to reduce imports try bio-energy crops. Sugar cane can produce ethanol....a petrol alternative (Brazil is a world leader in this). We can even use recycled waste water from large cities for the crops since it wont be for human consumption.

 

[Bouncer]

491 dollars that insane ... I recommend to put a ban on tea

Do you want a civil war? Because thats how you get a civil war. JK.

But seriously paai jaan. Chae k baghair koi nai kaam nai hona.

 

[ps3linux]

PART 2

Computers / Electrical Machinery:

Problem here is the same we import computers, memory, hard-drives, casings, keyboards, mice, washing machines, grinders, ACs, solar panels, solar inverters, monitors, TVs, just to name a few many a cases as CBU (completely built units), there have been no studies no planning as to what our future demand in this area is going to be, plan how to shift from imports to local manufacturing, unfortunately the local built if any lacks quality because the assembler/manufacturer cuts corners by acquiring cheapest raw material and they ultimately switch to importing CBU import from china as they are cheap, majority of businessmen in Pakistan unfortunately have no interest in capacity building or decrepit words as nationalism or patriotism it’s all about money, so what if the country is crewed or precious forex reserves dwindle.


Honestly I do meet business people on a very regular basis and so far I have not been able to find a single case where they have invested in R&D or capacity building. The only case was chashma sugar mills which was a Greenfield project, they did not compete for existing sugarcane production rather developed area/farmers to cultivate sugarcane in an entirely new area.

There are of course exceptions particularly in the defense production where efforts have been made for capacity building and local manufacturing but they too are highly import dependent specially when it comes to electrical parts.

Just to give a perspective the price differential from the perspective of a businessman if I want to get a double sided FR-4 prototype PCB (printed circuit board used in electronics) with a dimension of 10x10 cm it will cost me $5 with a minimum order of $25 from china with small shipping charges, NIE on the other hand will have lower quality boards often faulty with almost same dimension having setup charges, manufacturing which will go up to Rs.7000 for a single board, and from another public sector organization located on Islamabad expressway around Rs.30,000 due to setup charges.

It is difficult but not impossible to build capacity and expertise all it requires is the focus, planning, resources and commitment on a public private partnership basis, Thailand nowadays the world leader in hard drive manufacturing and export a decade or so back they were net importers, same goes for Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and to an extent Philippines as well. Few decades back they had nothing and now they have either become huge exporters in electronics/electrical equipment or moving in that direction.

I did meet one engineer who made setup for a solar assembly unit in Rwp/Isb almost a decade ago, whose aim was to move from assembling to manufacturing ultimately, but due to various factors discontinued the same and moved on to UAV development. The solar assembly unit was collecting dust and rust at the time.


Raw Items:
Iron, steel: Less said the better Pak steel one of the largest in Asia at onetime was never upgraded, due to corrupt politicians and bureaucrats now has become a constant drain of national income.

Had it been upgraded and operated inline with international best practices, developed as a training institute for local capacity building we would have been exporting iron, steel instead of importing. We have no shortage of iron ore even if we had to import ore it would have been much cheaper as compared to value added ingots or other material we import.

A joke one of my friends told me warsak dam was constructed in the 60’s its original equipment was Italian, back in the 90’s one of its key electrical component failed, a query was raised with the Italian company for furnishing the component, the company replied with an interesting phrase the component became obsolete 20 years ago, you are still using it.

We don’t fix until it’s broken, upgrade is not the word.

Organic Chemicals
Chemicals used in various end products like pharmaceutical (medicine), paints, food. If we do a detailed analysis we will find that a major portion of this import is from India. We never developed our basic manufacturing (manufacturing of raw material) and we are paying the price, this import is in-avoidable.

Vehicles & Automobile

This is one import which could and should be immediately banned except where it means defense purpose vehicles. Import of CBU vehicles must be banned along import of reconditioned vehicles Long time ago in a meeting by State Bank I did suggest that SBP instead of allowing opening a LC (letter of credit) in PKR and the parting with precious forex, SBP should bring in change in the regulations that anyone who wants to import a reconditioned/CBU/luxury vehicle should purchase forex from open market deposit it in the bank account and then open LC on it, this will not only discourage import but take pressure off of SBP precious forex reserves, but I never heard that this idea was even considered.


Rest tomorrow.

 

[Manidabest]

http://www.worldstopexports.com/pakistans-top-10-imports/
* Note these figures were from 2016 when dollar was around $80 for 1 rupee

TEA
Pakistanis Drink Too Much Tea—Imports Increased By 3.19 Percent. According to statistics Pakistan has imported Tea worth $491 million in the last 11 months form July, 2016 to May, 2017 to meet the current rising demand of Tea in the country

More rupees now are needed to import same amount


Mineral Fuel:
Mineral fuels including oil: US$17.1 billion (28.4% of total imports)
Was expecting it to be just 5 billion , isn't 17 Billion a bit high ????
When we live next to Iran cheap oil source !!! Come on people come on!!!

it is a necessity and best is to build more and more green technology in generating technology and mix fuel with ethanol petrol just like in brazil made out of sugar cane's waste .

Computers:
Machinery including computers: $6.3 billion (10.4%)

instead of importing computers and machinery why not we ask investors to manufacture computers and other electronic stuff in the country and for that thegovernment must facilitate them and give them incentives.

Electric Machinery:
Electrical machinery, equipment: $4.3 billion (7.2%)

it should be allowed to import but should people and or companies should get permission on case by case basis

Raw Items:
Iron, steel: $3.7 billion (6.1%)

we need to explore our provinces which we have not done yet and fata and balochistan is full of such minerals.

Organic Chemicals
Organic chemicals: $2.8 billion (4.6%)

Vehicles & Automobile
Vehicles: $2.6 billion (4.3%) [Killing our state bank foreign reserves]

again we need to bring in more companies and accommodate them and give them incentives. also we should put some strong regulations regarding environment too.
Plastics
Plastics, plastic articles: $2.5 billion (4.1%) [Ban Plastic Bottles and Bags !!!]

these should be totally banned ..... textile based or traditrional bags should b introduced
Animals / Vegetable Oil
Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: $2.1 billion (3.5%) what??????

domestic animals should b banned from outside and exotic animals must b regulated ......

Oil Seeds:
Oil seeds: $1.5 billion (2.4%)


Cotton:
Cotton: $1.3 billion (2.1%)
Come on man we are agricultural country we are importing cotton for 1.3 Billion wtf

cotton should b produced locally and if needed then under Economic Cooperation Organisation ( ECO) we can import cotton from Turkmanistan and Uzbekistan.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Immediate Avoidable Items

** Ban Cotton Import -----------------------------------: Save 1.3 Billion Dollars
** Ban Vegetable/Animal Fat , use local animal fat----: Save 2.1 Billion Dollars
** Ban Automobile Import------------------------------: Save 2.6 Billion Dollars
** Ban Plastic Imports ----------------------------------:Save 2.5 Billion Dollars
** Reduce Oil Imports by 50% -------------------------:Save 8.0 Billion Dollars


We can save almost 15 Billion dollar from our Books by just , banning stuff we don't need!!!

 

[Moonlight]

Murcia puhanch Ke btaty

@Moonlight chai piyogi?

 

[El Sidd]

Murcia puhanch Ke btaty

aap chai kay liye saat samandar paar nahi jarahi?

 

[Wa Muhammada]

In my knowledge, the best Cotton producing areas (around south Punjab) have no real Textile industry. However, there are numerous Sugar mills and since sugarcane given more profit, farmers are inclined toward Sugarcane crop.

Tea is also possible to harvest in KPK and northern areas in Pakistan. But it needs financial support from Government. I was told that it needs a slope area so that water is flown away quickly from roots. Also, a plant takes 5-7 years to mature and farmers usually don't have enough capital to wait for this long for RoI

Cotton crop if successful is more profitable than sugarcane but in the last few years cotton crop has ravaged by pests

 

[wali87]

http://www.worldstopexports.com/pakistans-top-10-imports/
* Note these figures were from 2016 when dollar was around $80 for 1 rupee

TEA
Pakistanis Drink Too Much Tea—Imports Increased By 3.19 Percent. According to statistics Pakistan has imported Tea worth $491 million in the last 11 months form July, 2016 to May, 2017 to meet the current rising demand of Tea in the country

More rupees now are needed to import same amount


Mineral Fuel:
Mineral fuels including oil: US$17.1 billion (28.4% of total imports)
Was expecting it to be just 5 billion , isn't 17 Billion a bit high ????
When we live next to Iran cheap oil source !!! Come on people come on!!!

Computers:
Machinery including computers: $6.3 billion (10.4%)

Electric Machinery:
Electrical machinery, equipment: $4.3 billion (7.2%)

Raw Items:
Iron, steel: $3.7 billion (6.1%)

Organic Chemicals
Organic chemicals: $2.8 billion (4.6%)

Vehicles & Automobile
Vehicles: $2.6 billion (4.3%) [Killing our state bank foreign reserves]

Plastics
Plastics, plastic articles: $2.5 billion (4.1%) [Ban Plastic Bottles and Bags !!!]

Animals / Vegetable Oil
Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: $2.1 billion (3.5%) what??????


Oil Seeds:
Oil seeds: $1.5 billion (2.4%)

Cotton:
Cotton: $1.3 billion (2.1%)
Come on man we are agricultural country we are importing cotton for 1.3 Billion wtf


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Immediate Avoidable Items

** Ban Cotton Import -----------------------------------: Save 1.3 Billion Dollars
** Ban Vegetable/Animal Fat , use local animal fat----: Save 2.1 Billion Dollars
** Ban Automobile Import------------------------------: Save 2.6 Billion Dollars
** Ban Plastic Imports ----------------------------------:Save 2.5 Billion Dollars
** Reduce Oil Imports by 50% -------------------------:Save 8.0 Billion Dollars


We can save almost 15 Billion dollar from our Books by just , banning stuff we don't need!!!

Although the economy is not in a good a good state but the solution but certainly be an out of the box one. For a number of reasons. Banning import of the items you mentioned will not do much.

1. Do you realise that our country’s cotton production is down by 60!percent from what it used to be in 1990s? So there is no other way but to import it. Since I belong to the textile industry i know a bit about that. Thanks to the sugar mill mafia cotton production in our country is ruined.

2. Taxes on the import of luxury cars in 267%!!! That’s the highest in the civilised world. The government makes million off of It. So by the time you own a land cruiser you have already more than made up for what the economy is losing in terms of import.

3. If you ban 50 percent oil import what the hell is our economy gonna run on? False promises from khan and duas from bushra bibi? So unless we are producing our on oil or some other alternative, that’s a no go.

 

[Cmdr Keen]

nukes?

 

[JF-17ThunderBlock3]

Please post about petrol prices too. Pakistan petrol prices are way cheaper than neighboring countries like China, India, Afghanistan (I think), even Bangladesh.

Stop subsidizing petrol for residential folks especially. Driving is a privilege and luxury not necessity or a right. Public should use public transportation or bicycles.

Stop thinking like nomad
Driving is need of hour.
We are not sheep to stand all day long in the buses.
Shrink our blood in sweat of sunlight.
Quality of life is necessity not luxury
Stop non sense just like on minister said few days back.said geezer is luxury in response to high bills

Geezer is luxury?
What are we
Cavemen????
Have you seen map of cities and rural areas
What makes you think everyone can have access to public transportation.

Have some mercy on common man for God sake.
Consider from your own house and family before applying the ban on the rest of nation without feeling their pain.

It's not Public who needs tuning
It's government who needs to be tuned well

Baning this Banning that
World's 6th in population a country which is far behind the world's 3rd countries.
Reasons might hurt you but none of them faulty due to nation ( a common man)

Give a hammer to industrialists
Give a hammer to politicians
Give a hammer to judicery
Give a hammer to laws and police
Give a hammer to white collar criminals
Give a hammer to doctors

And all those institutions should hammer and bleed a common man. And then do the job of a vampire or leech.

 

[nahtanbob]

I totally reject American free for all crony capitalism, pakistan should never ever imitate that sh1tty system. Actually before the collapse of soviet union we had strong mix of capitalism and socialism in Bhutto's time which continued until Zia' regime. But then policy makers started aping American crony capitalism and the result is the modern economic crisis since more than 2 decades now. Money means nothing, it is just papers printed in a state printing press, the real things are tangible assets and money notes are ticket to grab those assets, we must not allow accumulation of most of the assets in the hands of the few.

Whatever you are doing is not working

 

[zn426]

Remember 2000 when Pakistan had only one Tv channel which used to broadcast from evening to midnight only? Remember how Pakistanis used to watch Indian dramas? Remember then all of a sudden different Pakistani channels started showing up? Now, do you see any Pakistani even knowing the name of a single Indian drama? I guess not. Though the similar thing didn't happen when it comes to movies and many Pakistanis are still watching them till a lot of good Pakistani movies start popping out. Same thing is with the Pakistani products. They are not enough and lack quality. So for now your be Pakistani buy Pakistani slogan don't really work.

It has to start somewhere.

It's ironically cute that this comment is coming from someone living abroad. Very cute.

Born abroad, living abroad, licensed as a CPA abroad, running a business...all abroad! Don't make assumptions about people you haven't met. I donate to NGOs working in Pakistan, I buy Pakistani products-even here-as available, and yet somehow your problem is that I'm not a Pakistani citizen,but rather the child of Pakistani immigrants?

I as a minimalist support austerity but I also know that you cannot force it on others.

Maybe you can't force it on others but you can enact policies to encourage growth in Pakistan.

Whoa.... slow down there buddy..... are you actually trying to give example of our failed, isolated, terrorist neighbour as a role model??

I don't see Iran begging every country in the region for loans, despite 1/3 the population of Pakistan they have a larger economy, and are you seriously arguing they're isolated? Fine, they have oil, yet it's not the only thing powering their economy.

You know what? Don't quote me again.

Why, don't appreciate someone providing another perspective? Pretty rude to think you can post on a public forum and not have your views discussed?

 

[Abdussamad]

nukes?

The gift that keeps on giving. Nukes let us extort money from the rest of world.

 

[Cmdr Keen]

The gift that keeps on giving. Nukes let us extort money from the rest of world.

Hahhahaha.....good one mate...

 

[Abdussamad]

Hahhahaha.....good one mate...

It's not a joke man. It's literally how the country survives. The US has been bailing us out for decades because they are afraid our nukes will fall into the hands of our terrorists and lead to global apocalypse.