PIA’s accord with Sabre: probe
ordered
Secretary Aviation Muhammad Ali
Gardezi has ordered an inquiry into an agreement of Pakistan International
Airlines with a world’s leading airline
solutions provider Sabre as it has
been found against the interest of
PIA. PIA’s five-year agreement with
Sabre expired in 2010 but it was renewed by the management of the airline for
another seven years. According to the details, the master agreement was signed
between PIA and Sabre in October 2000 and renewed in 2005, while the agreement
period was for five years starting from October 11, 2005. As per the agreement,
per passenger cost was $0.42 for solutions, including SabreSonic Reservation,
ACSI, StadyState and SmartFlow Revenue Integrity systems. The passenger volume was assumed
at five million passengers per
year with the
increase rate of 3.5 percent
per year whereas the
same should have been
on actual number of
passengers. ‘In the last
year of the agreement (from October 2009
to October 2010), the impact in terms of amount was
calculated at $3.673 million for the assumed passenger volume of 5.737 million.
The malafide intention could be gauged from the fact that in the first year of
the extended agreement (2010-11) this impact calculation reached
to $8.1 million
with even lower
assumed passenger volume
of 5.4 million.
It is beyond
comprehension why there is this
much increase in passengers’ volume when it is quite clear that PIA is fast
losing its share both in international and domestic sphere due to inefficiency,
flight delays, shortage of fleet, maintenance issues etc.
Pakistan slips to 133 on
competitiveness ranking
At a time when the new government is
striving to re-strengthen institutions, Pakistan has slipped down to 133 on
competitiveness ranking among 148 countries reflecting weaknesses in its
institutions and capacity of the economy to create space for innovation. The
competitiveness ranking is part of the Global Competitiveness Report 2013-14,
which was released here on
Wednesday by Mishal Pakistan, a
local partner institute
of the World
Economic Forum. Pakistan
was ranked at
124 in 2012-13 and 118 in
2011-12. The gradual slipping of Pakistan’s rank shows the areas of public and
private partnerships for cooperation for improving competitiveness are also
diminishing as well. This indicates increasing mistrust between the public and
the private sector due to increase in corruption and policy instability issues.
The report for the year 2013-14 also includes
views of more
than 14,000 business leaders
globally to measure competitiveness of 148 countries.
More than 200 business leaders in Pakistan identified
corruption as the most problematic factor for doing business, followed by policy
instability, access to financing, inadequate supply of infrastructure,
inefficient government bureaucracy and high inflation.
52,000 tons of urea to reach Gwadar
port tomorrow
The first shipment of 52,000 tons of
urea, imported by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), will reach Gwadar
port on Friday. In July this year, the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC)
of the Cabinet had directed the TCP to import urea on an urgent
basis aimed at
ensuring sufficient urea
supply during upcoming crop
season. As per schedule
given by the supplier, the first ship namely "MV
Global Brave" carrying about 52,000 tons of urea will reach Gwadar port on
Friday evening. The ship has already sailed from China for Pakistan. Another
shipment is scheduled to arrive on September 12, 2013 from China. Besides
import of urea from international market, the TCP is also importing the commodity
from Saudi Basic Industries Corporation
(SABIC) against $100 million
credit grant of
Saudi Fund for Development. Under the
credit facility so
far some 164,000 tons of urea has
reached Pakistan, while remaining some 40,000 will arrive till December 2013.
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