Last year, trade volume between China and countries along the Belt and Road amounted to $1.1 trillion, up 14.8 percent year-on-year, which is 3.4 percentage points higher than the growth of the country’s total foreign trade. Over the past five years, the initiative has been positively echoed by over 140 countries and regions, and fruitful cooperation achievements have been yielded under its framework. Praising a more diversified investment portfolio, China had altogether invested over $60 billion to on-route countries in various sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure. A group of big projects were making steady progress as well, including the construction of railways, expressways and ports, cooperation programs on energy and resources and the operation of manufacturing projects. China has established 75 zones for economic and trade cooperation in countries along the routes, with a total investment of more than $27 billion.

Unilever has announced an investment of USD 120 million (PKR 11 Billion) in Pakistan, acknowledging the country’s high potential for long-term growth. A majority of the investment will be made to enhance manufacturing operations across Unilever’s four factories in Pakistan over the next two years. This is a testament to Unilever’s commitment to growing the business in Pakistan and highlights the increasing uptake of consumer good products across the country. Ms. Shazia Syed, Chairperson & CEO, Unilever Pakistan Limited, highlighted that Unilever has been a part of Pakistan’s growth for nearly 70 years; it has witnessed its business growth to over 30 brands in areas of Home Care, Personal Care, Foods, Beverages and Ice Cream. Unilever takes pride in the fact that over 95% of its brands are produced locally, creating employment for thousands, contributing to the exchequer of the country and simultaneously creating a better future every day for the people of Pakistan. Unilever’s operations in Pakistan are counted amongst the best performing businesses units within Unilever’s global operations. In 2013, Unilever Overseas Holding, which is a majority shareholder in Unilever Pakistan Limited, invested over Euro 400 million (USD 530 million) in Pakistan which is the single largest foreign direct investment in the recent history of Pakistan. This investment re-affirmed Unilever’s strong commitment to local operations and to Pakistan’s economic potential.

China remained Dubai’s biggest non-oil trade partner in 2017 with 176 billion dirhams ($47.95 billion) worth of trade. This accounted for 13.6 percent of Dubai’s total non-oil foreign trade, which grew 26 billion dirhams to reach 1.302 trillion dirhams in 2017, from 1.276 trillion dirhams in 2016. China, the world’s second largest economy, has been Dubai’s biggest trade partner since 2014. It was followed by India, with a bilateral trade of 99 billion dirhams, and the US, with 85 billion dirhams. Dubai’s re-exports grew 9 percent in 2017 to 360 billion dirham, while its imports totaled 798 billion dirham and exports totaled 144 billion dirhams. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council said ‘Dubai’s competitiveness plays a key role in attracting investors from around the world, who seek to take advantage of Dubai’s position as a regional and international trading hub.

Another turbulent year in the Middle East has drawn to a close, but there will be no respite in 2018 from the regional chaos that is underpinned by the inflamed rivalry of Saudi Arabia and Iran. The young crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has consolidated power, embarking on an unprecedented cultural revolution and economic reforms in Riyadh, but his foreign policy ambitions have yet to bear fruit. Instead they will continue to sap lives and resources in neighboring Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, unless a political settlement is reached. That possibility appears farther away now with the death of Sana’a’s longtime strongman and president for 30 years Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose killing at the hands of Houthi rebels leaves the country with no clear end to the conflict. Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of backing the Houthis. Iran has its own domestic challenges to contend with. Hundreds of people have been arrested and at least 21 killed in the biggest challenge to the Islamic Republic’s ruling clerics in recent years, in a week of protests that began against rising prices and developed into broader demands for political change. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 1,021 new companies in February 2018 this year, showing growth of 19% as against the corresponding months of the previous year. This has raised the total number of registered companies to 84,809. The massive increase in number of new companies is the direct result of various reforms measures introduced by the SECP, i.e. simplification of incorporation procedure, reduction of fee, assistance of incorporation by facilitation wings of CROs etc. Around 81 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, while around 17 percent were registered as single-member companies. Two percent were registered as public unlisted, non-profit associations, trade organization and foreign companies. The services sector took the lead with the incorporation of 162 companies , trading with 145, IT with 120, construction with 111, tourism with 47, food and beverages with 39, corporate agricultural farming with 38, education with 30, engineering and real estate development with 27 each, communication with 24, textile with 22, pharmaceutical with 17, mining and quarrying with 15, healthcare, cable and electric goods and fuel and energy with 14 each, auto and allied with 13, logging with 11 and 131 companies were registered in other sectors. Moreover, 3 foreign companies were also registered by the CROs in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Foreign investment has been reported in 40 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Argentina, China, Denmark, Germany, Jordan, Kenya, South Korea, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Sweden and the US.

Punjab government has launched 5-year crash program for improved plantation and production of dates under which date trees would be planted in nine districts of Punjab. According to Project Director of the program, date plants would be provided free of cost by Punjab government and farmers are expected to earn Rs 2 million from each acre of date farm. He said that farmers would be trained for packing and exporting of dates to access local and international markets. He told that Bahawalpur and other districts are chosen for date farming due to their suitable weather and conditions.