DNA

KARACHI, APR 16 – Chairman of National Business Group of FPCCI, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid on Friday said for the first time in the history of country monthly exports and remittances have surpassed five billion dollars.

Moreover, foreign exchange reserves are at $23.22 billion, the highest since July 2017 while the rupee is continuously gaining strength against the US dollar and the credit of these positive development goes to the Government and SBP, he said.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that coronavirus has damaged economic activities across the world including Pakistan but some sectors are showing positive sings while over one hundred thousand people have invested in Roshan Digital Accounts, a recent initiative of SBP chief Dr Baqir Raza.

Remittances have remained over 2 billion dollars per month pushing its share in GDP to 10 percent and annual receipts can hit the mark of 27.28 billion dollars.

Exports have also remained over 2 billion dollars since last six months while the monthly exports in March were highest in a decade.

Mian Zahid said that imports are also picking up; March imports were one billion dollars more than that of February indicating increased economic activity.

World Bank has recently said that Pakistan can enhance exports to 88.1 billion dollars which should be taken seriously as it will provide jobs to five million people and increased revenue by 1.74 billion dollars.

The export jump will require continued supply of energy on regionally competitive rates coupled with enabling policies, he said.

BEIJING, APR 16 (DNA) – The Communist Party of China has led Chinese people to win the poverty alleviation battle in the past 30 years, which deserves global praise, said an official of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB).

John Foster, International Secretary of the CPB, said via video link at the “Stories of CPC – Zhejiang’s Achievements in Practicing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” thematic briefing that he was amazed by China’s technological achievements in recent years, especially in the fields of artificial intelligence and aeronautics.

Co-hosted by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, the thematic briefing, held in Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang province, on Wednesday, was themed on “Drawing up and Following through the Blueprint”.

“Over the last two decades, the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee has been following through on the Double-Eight Strategy initiated by President Xi Jinping in 2003 when he was Party Secretary of Zhejiang, and has created a better life for all,” said Song Tao, head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, who added that Zhejiang’s achievements vividly epitomize of how the CPC is following the blueprint.

The Double-Eight Strategy identifies eight strengths Zhejiang possesses in terms of economic structure, geological position, industries, coordinated development of urban and rural areas, ecology, mountain and ocean resources, environment, and culture, as well as eight measures the province is taking to take further advantage of these strengths.

Echoing Song, Yuan Jiajun, the incumbent Party Secretary of Zhejiang, highlighted the province’s achievements in digitalization, environmental protection and coordinated regional development in recent years and expressed hopes that all the guests from home and abroad will be able to come to Zhejiang to feel its development and charm.

Nearly 400 representatives of political parties from more than 70 countries were present at the event online.

Some participants visited Hangzhou-based automaker Geely Holding Group and New H3C Group, an information technology solution provider.

Carlos Miguel Pereira Hernandez, Cuba’s ambassador to China, said that he was astonished at Geely’s breakthrough in the automobile making industry.

“I visited Geely’s factory in Shanghai in 2008. In just over a decade, it has become an influential automaker brand in the world, which is a good indicator of the speed and quality of China’s development in recent years,” he said.

In the context of major changes unseen in a century, coupled with a once-in-a-century pandemic, the “Stories of CPC” thematic briefing on Zhejiang will be conducive to exchanging experience in country governance among participating political parties, and will promote economic recovery after the pandemic and further world peace and development.=DNA

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JEDDAH: The international community bears responsibility for prolonging the crisis in Yemen, and Saudi Arabia should not simply wait for the Iran-backed Houthis to cause a disaster, according to a Saudi expert in international relations.

Political analyst Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri said on Thursday that although a number of proposals had been put forward to put an end to Yemen’s ongoing conflict, there had been a lack of will from the international community to implement those initiatives.

“If the international community was honest, it would have (acted on) UNSC Resolution 2216, demanding the Houthis relinquish the arms they seized from military and security institutions and cease all violence. The international community is delaying taking action against the Houthis for its own interests,” Al-Shehri told Arab News.

“The international community’s regional interests are its top priority, not Yemen or the Yemenis,” he added.

Al-Shehri believes that, in the face of continued silence from the international community, Saudi Arabia should ‘confront power with power’ when dealing with Houthi attacks.

“We should not wait until the Houthis (cause) a disaster. We count on the Arab coalition and the Yemeni army, especially after the UN’s leniency with regard to putting pressure on the Houthis to accept diplomatic solutions,” Al-Shehri said.

He added that if attacks on the Kingdom continue, then Saudi Arabia should take military action. “The Houthis are using power and this power should be confronted with power. We have tried the international community for seven years, but unfortunately (nothing has been done).”

The Arab coalition destroyed five ballistic missiles and four explosive-laden drones launched by the Houthis toward Jazan, Al-Ekhbariya reported on Thursday.

Those attacks were the latest in a long line of hostile actions against the Kingdom by the Iran-backed Houthi militia.

Jazan University was one of the targets, as well as other civilian sites protected under international humanitarian law, coalition spokesman Turki Al-Malki said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency, adding that such actions amount to war crimes. He also said that the attacks originated from Yemen’s Saadah governorate and were a “continuation of the Houthis’ systematic and intentional hostile attempts to target civilians.”

The Houthis, who took over the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in 2014, have been widely condemned for their actions against the Kingdom.

                Paris, Stopped in their tracks by the pandemic, citizens around the world are once again bracing to mobilise for the planet in a year marked by several major international summits on climate and biodiversity.

                  In 2019, millions of people, led by student and youth organisations, flooded the world’s streets to demand that governments act to stave off the worst effects of global warming.

                  But then came Covid-19, bringing the global movement to a screeching halt, with lockdowns and travel restrictions forcing mass events to be cancelled and activism to shift online.

                  “The pandemic hit right at the moment when we were peaking in terms of mobilisation,” said Nicolas Haeringer, from the environmental group 350.org.

                  Youth activists quickly adapted to online activism, and the pandemic may even have helped groups based in richer countries to devise better ways to include activists from developing nations.

                  The School Strike for Climate movement “was deeply rooted in European youth,” said Haeringer.

                  “The pandemic has been used to rebalance things and build real leadership in global south nations.”

                  While the internet is ideal for laying plans, it is clear that the impetus has waned from movements unable to protest in real life.

                  “It has been hard for movements,” said Clare Farrell, a co-founder of the civil disobedience Extinction Rebellion movement.

                  “We build relationships through face-to-face work often so we are really looking forward to getting back out to do actions in public space, to meet new people and build the movements again.”

                  Dana Fisher, professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, said that climate activists have spent the last year also campaigning for similar causes in solidarity with other movements.

                  This includes participating in activism against systemic racism and in helping people of colour gain better access to Covid-19 vaccines.

                  In the US, “the movement is definitely not stopping, but the tactic of the climate strike is not a dominant form of activism right now and it may never return,” said Fisher.

                  But many youth strikers are undeterred by the turbulent last 12 months.

                  “We’re keeping in touch, it’s great and I believe that there will be another youth mobilisation,” said Michel Villarreal, a Bolivian student activist.