Sunday, December 19, 2010

What's Billions of Dollars Between Friends?

Kudos to Pakistan Today for increasing the potential GDP of Pakistan by US$10 Billion. Alternatively, shame on the Express Media Group for causing a loss to the national exchequer of over US$10 Billion.

Seriously, though, if you look at the differing valuations of the accords signed during the visit to Islamabad of Chinese premier Wen Jiabao in the various papers, you are likely to be scratching your head.



Chinese PM Jiabao with PM Gilani at Pak-China Business Summit (Photo: AFP / Dawn)


Here is the differing monetary worth of the Pakistan-China accords as papers across Pakistan quoted them:

Express Tribune: Up to US$30bn
Express: Up to US$30bn
Jang: US$30bn
The News: US$30bn
Daily Times: US$35bn
Nawai Waqt: US$35bn
The Nation: US$35bn
Dawn: US$36bn
Pakistan Today: US$40bn

I guess when you're playing around with tens of billions of dollars, what's ten here or there. But consider for a moment what even one billion dollars means for Pakistan at this stage. I mean, is it really so insignificant an amount that different valuations can be off by that much? Can someone please explain to me these discrepancies?
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6 comments:

  1. Nadir HassanDecember 19, 2010 at 6:13 PM

    The Pakistan-China accords were made up of 43 different MOUs and an agreement to increase bilateral trade to $15 billion. Since they are just MOUs and not final agreements, there aren't exact numbers. So, everyone, including the government, is just estimating numbers right now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Muhammad Wasif JavedDecember 19, 2010 at 6:22 PM

    I second you Nadir :-)
    I would like you to give the below link a read;
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2010/12/101219_baat_se_baat_si.shtml
    [A view of Pak-China trade in different prospective in Urdu lingo]

    ReplyDelete
  3. Muhammad Wasif JavedDecember 19, 2010 at 6:25 PM

    *perspective

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousDecember 20, 2010 at 4:58 AM

    From my perspective, this deal is one-sided, mostly in favor of China. Pakistan currently faces a trade deficit with China. Pakistan owes China billions for projects being build in China. We in Pakistan do no how much we owe China since it is mostly off the books. We owe China for billions in defense purchases.

    The media tends to underreoport what effect this is having on Pakistan.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousDecember 20, 2010 at 8:24 AM

    Cheap imports from China are putting many independent Pakistani factories out of business idling many workers. The frequent load shedding and many other problems also do not help. Pakistan's fawning over China leaders are in poor taste.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousDecember 23, 2010 at 1:38 AM

    Here is Najam Sethi explaining the figures in detail on Dunya TV

    Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9iv7sD-XNQ
    Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1vtSsdeRVA
    Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDZCilcDmJ0
    Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdSux_vN5ZI

    ReplyDelete

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