Pro Poor Growth in Pakistan: An Assessment of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s

This study assesses the impact of economic growth on absolute poverty in Pakistan over the last four decades. The paper attempts to answer the question; is economic growth in Pakistan pro poor? In addition, an attempt is made to evaluate the distribution of income within the poor to determine the sensitivity of different income groups, below the poverty line, to economic growth. The assessments are conducted through Growth Incidence Curves, a calculation of the Rate of Pro-Poor Growth (RPPG) and the Ordinary Rate of Growth (ORG). it is found that the economic growth in Pakistan is not intrinsically pro poor. Although it was strongly pro poor in the 1980’s and pro poor in the 2000s, growth in the 1970s was neutral for poverty whereas growth in the 1990s was anti poor. The analysis shows that the first decile is most sensitive to economic growth and most vulnerable to economic shocks as well.Pro Poor Growth, Pakistan, Growth Incidence Curve

Computational solution of atmospheric chemistry problems

Extensive studies were performed on problems of interest in atmospheric chemistry. In addition to several minor projects, four major projects were performed and described (theoretical studies of ground and low-lying excited states of ClO2; ground and excited state potential energy surfaces of the methyl peroxy radical; electronic states ot the FO radical; and theoretical studies S02 (H2O) (sub n))

The study on the integration of Activity Based Costing (ABC) system and six-sigma principle

Manufacturing organizations are facing much more challenges as compared to the earlier years. The important and crucial decisions have to be taken by the management in continuous basis in order to ensure the survival and competitiveness of company throughout the journey to become a successful organization. In order to make these decisions fast and correct, they need more accurate information related to financial and non-financial aspects. The conventional cost management systems, which were developed decades ago are unable to provide all information required to make right decision, justify the cost reduction and process improvements (Chen, 1996). This is because they were based on labor-intensive production system while today’s production processes are more sophisticated and faces constant changes. An alternative costing system, Activity Based Costing (ABC) has emerged to the new solution to costing system. It provides financial and non-financial information not only for product costing but also for each activity of manufacturing process. It can list and measure the cost of each activity individually in production and in supporting activities to deliver of a product or service right to customers (Sohal & Chung, 1998). ABC focuses on the activities performed to produce the products throughout the manufacturing process (Gunasekaran et al., 1999). By assigning other costs, such as marketing and administrative to cost object, ABC able to provide more accurate product costs. It helps to improve the operational performance by allocating overhead costs correctly. It provides cost information based on the actual consumption of the resources by each particular activity. The goal of ABC is to reveal cost allocation information by tracing the production costs accurately to activities and product (Gunasekaran et al., 1999). The implementation of ABC has provided many benefits, such as more accurate product costing, providing of cost behavior information and tracing resources consumptions. Realizing many benefits gain from implementation of ABC, many companies have embarked in applying ABC system. However, there are many problems and barriers they encountered during the implementation, which made some has decided to abort this system and not be able to exploit its advantages. It is the objective of this study to help foster the growth of Malaysian companies by helping them to provide better understanding,knowledge and skills to take advantage of using ABC as a tool to improve their manufacturing process. The title of the project is The Study on Integration of Activity-based Costing and Six-sigma Principle. The specific objective of the study is to determine success factors for ABC implementation in manufacturing companies based on Six-sigma process improvement principle. The focus of the study is to identify and understand the critical success factors in implementation of ABC, to identify and specified the problems and barriers and to understand their relationship with the ABC success. In order to identify, understand and formulate the proposed solution, this study will use a survey approach to get required data for further analysis. The survey will be based on mailed questionnaires to selected manufacturing industries in Malaysia. In order to formulate a comprehensive and relevant set of questionnaires, a comprehensive review of literature will be studied, followed by validation and verification process,which involved expert opinions and a pilot study. The next phase is where data from the study will be analyzed to identify areas related to the level of acceptance of ABC,the critical success factors and also to determine the relationship between the organization’s factors and the success of implementation of ABC system. The tangible outcome of this project is to provide a set of proposed guidelines and support tools for manufacturing organizations in applying Activity-based Costing for process improvement efforts as suggested by Six-sigma improvement principle

Financial Development and Textile Sector Competitiveness: A Case Study of Pakistan

Kletzer and Bardhan (1987) argue that countries with a relatively well-developed financial sector have a comparative advantage in industries that rely on external finance. Beck (2002), and Fanelli and Medhora (2002) find that well-developed financial sector translates into a comparative advantage in the production of manufactured goods. There has been no attempt so far to explore the relationship between the financial development and international trade competitiveness in the case of Pakistan. We construct Balassa’s Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index for textile sector of Pakistan. Using ratio of credit extended to the textile sector to the total non-government credit of the banking system (TCS) as proxy for external finance we estimate long run relationship, and ECM, between RCA index and TCS while controlling for other determinants of the international trade competitiveness of textile sector of Pakistan. In line with the findings of Beck (2002), and Fanelli and Medhora (2002), our results suggest that recourse to external finance has a strong positive impact on the country’s textile sector competitiveness both in the short and the long run even when we control for traditional determinants of competitiveness.Financial Development, Competitiveness

PENERAPAN ASAS-ASAS HUKUM EKONOMI SYARIAH DALAM PERJANJIAN KREDIT BAKU PEMBIAYAAN UMKM PADA DINAS KOPERASI DAN UKM KOTA PALEMBANG

ABSTRACT In general, the credit agreement which used in the UMKM financing is a standard agreement which clauses have been determined by the creditor, so that consumers as debtors are only have a choice between accepting or rejecting the contents of the standard agreement either in part or whole which affect the debtor for not receiving the UMKM financing credit. As for the problems in this study are: 1) How is the implementation of the standard UMKM financing credit agreement at Dinas Koperasi and UKM of Palembang city? 2) How to apply the principles of syariah economic law in the standard UMKM financing credit agreement at Dinas Koperasi and UKM of Palembang city?. This research is classified into the type of field research. The type of data that is used primary data and secondary data that is consisting of primary legal materials. Data collection techniques used are through interviews, documents and literature study. The collected data then would be analyzed into descriptively qualitative. This research result in this thesis conclude that in implementing the standard UMKM financing credit agreements set by Dinas Koperasi and UKM of Palembang city with standard operating procedures for strengthening capital loans will make it easier for consumers to apply for working capital loans for small and micro enterprises. Meanwhile, the contents of the UMKM financing standard credit agreement set by the Palembang BPR bank in collaboration with Dinas Koperasi and UKM of Palembang city still have not fully implemented the principles of syariah economic law, namely the principles of freedom (Al- Hurriyah) and principle of justice (Al-Adalah). Keywords: Agreement, Standard Credit, UMKM Financing, Principles of Syariah Economic Law ABSTRAK Pada  umumnya,  perjanjian  kredit  yang  digunakan  dalam  pembiayaan UMKM merupakan perjanjian baku yang kalusul-klausulnya telah ditentukan oleh pihak kreditur, sehingga konsumen sebagai debitur hanya mempunyai pilihan antara menerima atau menolak isi dari perjanjian baku tersebut baik sebagian maupun keseluruhan  yang mengakibatkan debitur tidak akan menerima kredit pembiayaan UMKM tersebut. Adapun permasalahan dalam penelitian ini adalah:1) Bagaimana pelaksanaan perjanjian kredit baku pembiayaan UMKM di Dinas Koperasi dan UKM Kota Palembang? 2) Bagaimana penerapan asas-asas Hukum Ekonomi Syariah dalam perjanjian kredit baku pembiayaan UMKM di Dinas Koperasi dan UKM Kota Palembang?. Penelitian ini digolongkan kepada jenis penelitian lapangan (field research). Jenis data yang digunakan adalah data primer dan data sekunder yang terdiri dari bahan hukum primer, bahan hukum sekunder dan bahan hukum tersier. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan yaitu melalui wawancara, dokumen dan studi kepustakaan. Data yang terkumpul kemudian dianalisis secara deskriptif kualitatif. Hasil penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa dalam pelaksanaan perjanjian kredit baku pembiayaan UMKM harus memenuhi persyaratan yang telah ditentukan oleh Dinas Koperasi dan UKM Kota Palembang dengan standar operasional prosedur pinjaman penguatan modal akan memudahkan konsumen dalam mengajukan pinjaman modal kerja bagi usaha kecil dan mikro. Sedangkan isi dari perjanjian kredit baku pembiayaan UMKM yang telah ditetapkan oleh Bank BPR Palembang yang bekerja sama dengan Dinas Koperasi dan UKM Kota Palembang   masih   belum   menerapkan   asas-asas   Hukum   Ekonomi   Syariah sepenuhnya, yaitu asas kebebasan (Al-Hurriyah) dan asas keadilan (Al-Adalah)

Financial Sector Reforms and International Trade Competitiveness: A Case Study of Pakistan

This paper explores the relationship between financial development and international trade competitiveness in the case of Pakistan. An earlier study on this issue, Hanif and Jafri (2008), has some empirical limitations as it is based on Engle-Granger (1987) two steps procedure while dealing with multiple variables regressions. In this study we have used ARDL model by Pesaran, Shin and Smith (1999). We have also applied Johansen test for cointegration and checked the robustness of results established by the ARDL model. We have estimated the cointegration vector using Stock and Watson (1993) dynamic OLS method. We find a stable long run positive relationship between international trade competitiveness of Pakistan and its financial sector development. The estimated external finance elasticity of international trade competitiveness of textile sector in Pakistan is found to be 0.26 which is significantly higher than 0.17 estimated by Hanif and Jafri (2008).Financial Development, Competitiveness

Fat and water distribution patterns in the flesh of the common cat-fish Wallago attu (Bl. & Schn.)

The quantitative distributional pattern of fat and water has been studied in the flesh of the various zones corresponding to the dorsal and ventral regions of the body of a common cat-fish, Wallago attu. The ventral aspect of the body showed more accumulation of fat than the dorsal aspect. The fat content in the ventral region also exhibited an increase from the anterior to the posterior zones. In the dorsal region, however, the back portion of the body, behind the dorsal fin, generally possessed low fat content. On an average, the highest fat accumulation was observed in the caudal peduncle region. The distribution of water followed an almost opposite pattern of distribution, indicating an inverse relationship with fat