Day: July 7, 2021

Pakistan sold another $1 billion worth of Eurobonds on Tuesday.

These bonds were issued in a reopening of existing three-tranche bonds that were launched in March and had raised $2.5 billion while being the first international bond sale by Pakistan since late 2017.

Bonds worth $300 million were issued as five-year bonds at 5.875 percent – due in 2026, $400 million worth of bonds were issued for 10-year at 7.125 percent – due in 2031, and $300 million worth of bonds were issued for 30-year at 8.450 percent – due in 2051. The total subscription was over $3 billion for all the three denominated bonds.

The bonds were tightened from initial price guidance of six percent to 6.125 percent for the notes due in 2026, around 7.375 percent for the tranche maturing in 2031, and around 8.75 percent for the paper due in 2051 after they drew more than $3 billion in combined orders.

The issue in March had five-year bonds issued at six percent, the 10-year bond at 7.375 percent, and the 30-year bond at 8.875 percent.

Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, JPMorgan and Standard Chartered arranged this launch of the Eurobonds. Meanwhile, the Minister for Finance, Shaukat Tarin, is on leave for five days.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Pakistan may be facing annual revenue losses of Rs. 30 billion (approximately $193.37 million) due to low taxes on the tobacco industry while the health of its youth is at stake, as claimed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

It stated in its report ‘Enhancing Regional Health Cooperation under CAREC 2030, A scoping study’ that Pakistan has a complex three-tier tax system that indirectly supports cigarette production and consumption, and the WHO has called upon the country to increase the tobacco taxation (currently at 60.3 percent) to 70 percent.

The report further stated that access to available, affordable, and quality medicines in the CAREC region remains challenging. In some countries such as Pakistan where the public procurement of medicines has been efficient in achieving low prices, the supply is insufficient to cover the needs of patients from government health facilities; and medicines in countries like Mongolia and Pakistan are much less affordable when purchased in the private sector.

HIV/AIDS is a major public health concern in the CAREC region, especially in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the PRC. A broad range of risk factors and health determinants may have to be considered, including changing social norms, public education, migration, and unemployment.

The report noted that the 2018 United Nations human development index of these countries ranged from 0.496 for Afghanistan to 0.817 for Kazakhstan, while the inequality-adjusted human development index ranged from 0.386 for Pakistan to 0.759 for Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, gender equity continues to be a major challenge in the region, and the gender development index is low at 0.663 for Afghanistan and 0.747 for Pakistan.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are in the early stage of transition with a declining but high burden from infectious diseases and an increasing burden from the NCDs and accidents and injuries, which has resulted in a triple burden of disease for all the CAREC countries. While the burden of infectious diseases has declined substantially in most of the CAREC countries, all the countries need to continue investing in prevention, control, and treatment efforts to sustain the control of infectious diseases. Pakistan and the PRC also have significant mortality that is attributed to indoor and ambient air pollution.

The report further detailed that rabies, anthrax, brucellosis, leishmaniasis, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever are long-established zoonotic diseases of public health concern in Pakistan

The CAREC countries are also exposed to outbreaks of other communicable diseases that may spread regionally. Among the more acute infections that persist in Pakistan and the PRC are malaria, dengue, and Japanese encephalitis.

Hepatitis, and viral hepatitis B and C in particular, are highly prevalent in all the CAREC countries. The PRC (14 percent) and Pakistan (10 percent) account for almost a quarter of the hepatitis C (HCV) burden among the 28 countries accounting for 80 percent of the global HCV burden.

Pakistan and the PRC are on the WHO’s list of the top 30 countries with the highest estimated numbers of tuberculosis (TB) cases (PRC) and MDR-TB cases (Pakistan), while Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan have the highest MDR-TB burdens in the WHO European Region.

A prominent example in the CAREC region is the facility building and service improvement project along the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) — the China-Pakistan Fraternity Emergency Care Centre that was inaugurated in Pakistan’s port city of Gwadar in July 2017. It is the first facility (out of seven planned ones) under the China–Pakistan Life Rescue Corridor running along the CPEC from Gwadar to Kashgar, a PRC border city in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region more than 2,000 kilometers away.

Each center is planned to be established according to the model of a community hospital in the PRC, with medical personnel, medical and communication equipment, and an ambulance. It was built to provide medical services to the PRC workers along the CPEC. Prior to 2018, the ratio of patients from the PRC to the patients from Pakistan was 8:2. It has since reversed to 2:8.

As of 2020, the center was serving a population of 70,000 to 80,000, with the number of patients varying depending on the security situation. It had treated about 290 cases within the first two weeks of March 2019.

The trends in the total health expenditure as a percentage of the GDP show that most countries have either increased or maintained similar levels over the last decade. Pakistan has maintained a similar level at almost three percent, while Afghanistan has had small increases since 2009. On the other hand, Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan have shown the strongest growths.

Source: Pro Pakistani

As online marketplaces continue to take root in Pakistan, e-commerce -slowly but consistently – continues to replace the traditional brick-and-mortar model for retail. While Pakistan has seen somewhat mushroom growth in online retail outlets, one particular fintech decided to take their retail business and digitize the wholesale distribution process. This start-up is called “Dastgyr.”

Dastgyr was founded in May 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. While even the most seasoned investors chose to sit on their money and wait for the economy to get back on track, Muhammad Owais Qureshi and Zohaib Ali decided to put their combined finances of $300,000 into launching an online retail business platform.

The founding team had its fair share of challenges, from having to bootstrap the initial pilot phase to test-proofing the concept and product-market fit. Supply operations also had to be run from the living room of one of the founders during the early days. Many teammates made customer deliveries themselves.

Fortune favors the bold, and eventually, as the company started to scale operations in two cities – Karachi and Lahore – investors came onboard after noticing the company traction. Within a few months, the efforts of these two entrepreneurs started bearing fruit – not only in terms of the organic expansion of their business but also in catching the interest of other investors.

By August 2020, the B2B e-commerce marketplace had landed six-figure funding from angel investors in the US, UAE, and Pakistan. And by February 2021, the startup raked in an undisclosed 7-figure USD seed round from international venture capital firms.

The literal meaning of Dastgyr is “helper,” and that is the tagline the business chose. It provides the retailers with the convenience of ordering inventory in a matter of clicks, and the suppliers can grow their business multiple folds with little to no operational burden. In an interview with ProPakistani, the fintech said, “We are in the business of making our retailers and suppliers lives easier.”

For the more technically proficient, the operational model of Dastgyr is as a tech-enabled ecosystem supported by an impressive technology stack, which connects suppliers with retailers and handles logistics and payments. Retailers get competitive prices and convenience in a few clicks, while suppliers have access to an enormous customer base with reduced operating costs.

For the uninitiated, Dastgyr is an Android (mobile) application that brings together suppliers and retailers, selling and purchasing products in bulk.

Transportation of goods, plus the movement of money between sellers and purchasers, is handled by the employees of Dastgyr. The platform works as a consolidated marketplace for suppliers, looking for potential customers – without having to do the leg work, especially during lockdowns caused by COVID-19. Dastgyr is a one-stop-shop for retailers who don’t need to carry out the physical act of looking for suppliers.

To sweeten the pot, Dastgyr offers additional value-added services such as the promise of 24-hour delivery, as well as telephonic assistance through their helpline.

Refusing to share any details on monetary values of revenues and costs, the start-up claims to have fulfilled orders worth billions of rupees since its formal launch in August last year.

The founding members of Dastgyr brought experience and expertise to other successful start-ups like Airlift, Careem, and Daraz. The co-founder of Dastgyr, Muhammad Owais Qureshi, happens to be a founding member of Airlift and a former employee at Careem. Asad Qamar, who is now the commercial lead at Dastgyr, is also a former employee of Careem, Daraz, and Airlift. Zohaib Ali also brought his experience from the launch of Airlift.

With this experience of other online platforms and good momentum built in the first year of business, Dastgyr now has its eyes on newer markets. The founders want a presence in the whole MENA region down the line. For now, their target group remains the under-served retailers and suppliers within Pakistan.

Source: Pro Pakistani