Comments on: Chin up… http://blog.alchemya.com/index.php/2007/11/chin-up%e2%80%a6/ Home through Desi return eyes Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:00:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Sana http://blog.alchemya.com/index.php/2007/11/chin-up%e2%80%a6/comment-page-1/#comment-564 Sana Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:41:54 +0000 http://alchemya.com/wordpress2/2007/11/04/chin-up%e2%80%a6/#comment-564 and as I said to a friend.. I am more afraid of natural disasters.. I can handle political and manmade one, after all I was brought up in an era with bomb blasts and sniper shots.. its natural disasters that i can't see signs of that I am afraid off.. and then again, as a prof once said.. God takes care of Pakistan. No country has been though all that we have been through and we have survived.. so remember no matter what else comes our way we will survive yet again. and can u pls add this link dcdesi.wordpress.com :P and as I said to a friend.. I am more afraid of natural disasters.. I can handle political and manmade one, after all I was brought up in an era with bomb blasts and sniper shots.. its natural disasters that i can’t see signs of that I am afraid off..

and then again, as a prof once said.. God takes care of Pakistan. No country has been though all that we have been through and we have survived.. so remember no matter what else comes our way we will survive yet again.
and can u pls add this link dcdesi.wordpress.com :P

]]> By: Jawwad http://blog.alchemya.com/index.php/2007/11/chin-up%e2%80%a6/comment-page-1/#comment-556 Jawwad Sun, 04 Nov 2007 11:54:46 +0000 http://alchemya.com/wordpress2/2007/11/04/chin-up%e2%80%a6/#comment-556 I don't think that it will come to that. Despite the fact that I am really mad at Shaukat for letting things get to this stage he is a very competent private banker and finance minister. We also have a fairly competent team in the Exchange and Debt Management Group as well as a group of outstanding Bankers at the Central Bank. Money wise we have 16 Billion US in the bank, a (till yesterday) manageable current and capital account deficit and growing exchange remittances. This is not 1998 or a repeat of the Nawaz Sharif folly. It is a storm that will pass by (I hope). The investment front will take a hit as far money from the West is concerned. But our primary telco and financial services investments came from the Middle East, China and Far East. I don't think they are going any where, any time soon. If they can invest money in Vietnam and Sri Lanka (no offence intended), they can just as well invest in us. The other big thing is economic sanctions. As long as we don't get hit by those (which I don't think we will), the financial impact of this move will be significant but with limited short term consequences. Longer term I don't know. If the GDR offerings go through, we don't get hit by a rating cut, if we can still tap the Euro Bond market (I am not sure), then we will be ok. But I am not sure if that will or will not be the case. Lets see how this plays out next week. I don’t think that it will come to that.

Despite the fact that I am really mad at Shaukat for letting things get to this stage he is a very competent private banker and finance minister. We also have a fairly competent team in the Exchange and Debt Management Group as well as a group of outstanding Bankers at the Central Bank. Money wise we have 16 Billion US in the bank, a (till yesterday) manageable current and capital account deficit and growing exchange remittances.

This is not 1998 or a repeat of the Nawaz Sharif folly. It is a storm that will pass by (I hope). The investment front will take a hit as far money from the West is concerned. But our primary telco and financial services investments came from the Middle East, China and Far East. I don’t think they are going any where, any time soon. If they can invest money in Vietnam and Sri Lanka (no offence intended), they can just as well invest in us.

The other big thing is economic sanctions. As long as we don’t get hit by those (which I don’t think we will), the financial impact of this move will be significant but with limited short term consequences. Longer term I don’t know. If the GDR offerings go through, we don’t get hit by a rating cut, if we can still tap the Euro Bond market (I am not sure), then we will be ok. But I am not sure if that will or will not be the case.

Lets see how this plays out next week.

]]> By: Osama A. http://blog.alchemya.com/index.php/2007/11/chin-up%e2%80%a6/comment-page-1/#comment-555 Osama A. Sun, 04 Nov 2007 11:36:12 +0000 http://alchemya.com/wordpress2/2007/11/04/chin-up%e2%80%a6/#comment-555 Thanks Jawwad, and you're right -- I have frequently been involved in discussion about how companies in the west can still feel same sending their money to Pakistan despite a volatile security situation (this is speaking of pre-1999 and soviet-war era violence in isb and rwp that affected IT businesses here. The general answer I would give them is the same - yes we have bombs exploding in our cities which can be traumatizing but we have a choice on whether or not we want to be "terrorized" and freeze because of them. People in the local market continue to choose to pull our sleeves and keep working. The human spirit -- armed with the motivation of proving oneself in a world thats looking down at it -- can find ways of working in the toughest of environments. But I hope all of this doesn't freeze exports, travel and investments in the short to mid term. Thanks Jawwad, and you’re right — I have frequently been involved in discussion about how companies in the west can still feel same sending their money to Pakistan despite a volatile security situation (this is speaking of pre-1999 and soviet-war era violence in isb and rwp that affected IT businesses here.

The general answer I would give them is the same – yes we have bombs exploding in our cities which can be traumatizing but we have a choice on whether or not we want to be “terrorized” and freeze because of them. People in the local market continue to choose to pull our sleeves and keep working.

The human spirit — armed with the motivation of proving oneself in a world thats looking down at it — can find ways of working in the toughest of environments.

But I hope all of this doesn’t freeze exports, travel and investments in the short to mid term.

]]>