PARIS: Russian and Belarusian athletes, competing at the Paris Olympics as neutral individual athletes without their flag and emblem, will be allowed to take part in the Games closing ceremony on Sunday, the International Olympic Committee said on Saturday. The athletes were not allowed to take part in the opening ceremony on July 26 when teams paraded on boats down the river Seine. “The IOC Executive Board has decided that the Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs) can participate at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” the Olympic body said in a statement. “The decision of the IOC EB…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Saturday confirmed that the Bangladesh squad will arrive in Lahore on Aug 13 for a two-Test series, scheduled to be held in Rawalpindi and Karachi later this month. The Bangladesh squad was due to arrive in Pakistan for the series on Aug 17. However, due to the ongoing political turmoil in Bangladesh whose prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid resigned and fled to India earlier this week as a result of mass protests across the country over government job quotas, the schedule had to be changed. The PCB had requested the Bangladesh Cricket Board…
ISLAMABAD: Middle-income countries will need progressively greater economic freedom and political courage to bring change in the persistence of institutions and long-standing arrangements. With rising debt and ageing populations at home, growing protectionism in advanced economies, and escalating pressures to speed up the energy transition, today’s middle-income countries are facing growing headwinds, warns the ‘World Development Report 2024’, which provides the first comprehensive roadmap to enable developing countries to escape the “middle-income trap”. Today, 108 countries are classified as middle-income and many of them aspire to reach the high-income status within the next two or three decades, the report says. It added…
KARACHI: Memorandums of understanding (MoU) worth $107 million were redeemed while MoUs worth $434m were signed on the first day of FoodAg at Karachi Expo Centre, federal Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan said on Saturday. “This goes to show that trade and business in Pakistan is up and running, belying the perception that this country is not seen as a good investment destination by the international community,” the minister said. The three-day FoodAg kicked off on Friday and would conclude on Sunday. “Today’s event is a testament to international interest in Pakistan as a trading partner. Foreign delegations are eager…
KARACHI: Despite government assurances for bank financing with risk coverage, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are unlikely to receive higher funding in the current fiscal year, banking sector sources told Dawn on Saturday. They said the interest rate was still unfavourable for financing SMEs, while the government itself was in trouble due to a liquidity crunch and would have to borrow Rs9.3 trillion for deficit financing in FY25. “There is no room for SMEs to get higher financing from banks at the current position despite the fact the overall economic growth would face the consequences of the low financing to the SMEs,” said a senior…
ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has issued two concept papers to further the development of the short-term listed sukuk (Islamic bonds) market. These papers aim to initiate public consultation on key issues and suggest customised regulatory interventions to promote listing short-term sovereign and corporate sukuk instruments. Pakistan’s capital market provides Shariah-compliant borrowing solutions to the government and the corporate sector. Therefore, a vibrant, listed short-term sukuk segment would enable various Shariah-compliant financial solutions and would better cater the needs of issuers and investors, said an SECP press release. Since December 2023, Pakistan has been actively raising funds…
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will unveil an economic plan on August 14, which will focus on devising the main principles for real-time export-led growth and removing decade-old economic bottlenecks. The plan was evolved by a task force constituted by the premier, later joined by Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford Stefan Dercon over the past two months. The local team collated the facts and shared them with the professor to create a consensus document. Well-placed sources told that the last meeting on the draft policy titled ‘Home-grown economic plan’ took place on Saturday and is now…
LONDON: Dozens of Russian military personnel are being trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 close-range ballistic missile system, two European intelligence sources told Reuters, adding that they expected the imminent delivery of hundreds of the satellite-guided weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine. Russian defence ministry representatives are believed to have signed a contract on Dec 13 in Tehran with Iranian officials for the Fath-360 and another ballistic missile system built by Iran’s government-owned Aerospace Industries Organisation (AIO) called the Ababil, according to the intelligence officials, who requested anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters. The two countries are…
TOKYO: Authorities in Japan urged people to avoid hoarding as anxiety over a possible megaquake triggered a spike on Saturday in demand for disaster kits and daily necessities. In its first such advisory, the weather agency said a huge earthquake was more likely in the aftermath of a magnitude 7.1 jolt in the south on Thursday which left 14 people injured. At a Tokyo supermarket on Saturday, a sign was put up apologising to customers for shortages of certain products it attributed to “quake-related media reports”. “Potential sales restrictions are on the way,” the sign said, adding that bottled water was already…
MOSCOW: Struggling to put down a major Ukrainian incursion for a fifth day, Russia on Saturday said it had evacuated tens of thousands of people from its border region, launched a “counter-terror operation” and warned that the fighting was endangering a nuclear power plant. Ukrainian units stormed into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday morning in a shock attack, the largest and most successful cross-border offensive by Kyiv of the two-and-a-half-year conflict. Its troops have advanced several kilometres and Russia’s army has rushed in reserves and extra equipment — though neither side has given precise details on the forces they have committed. Kyiv has maintained…
