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City
Profile
Pakistan's
largest city and financial hub is also the
country's largest sea port handling thousands
of tons of imports and exports every day.
Karachi is a truly metropolitan city which
is home to communities from the far corners
of the country as well as a large number
of foreigners who work in the diplomatic
sector or industry.
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Country
Rankings
Pakistan
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| Ease
of Doing Business World Bank '05 |
60
of 155
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High*
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Corruption
Perception
Transparency International '05 |
144
of 159
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Low
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Growth
Competitiveness
World Economic Forum '05 |
83
of 117
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Low
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| National
Literacy |
45.7%
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Low
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GDP
Growth
(2004 est.) |
6.1%
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Med
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The
benchmark KSE index which is housed by the Karachi
Stock Exchange has had a strong showing in the
past year posting an almost 40% return.
After
the earthquake catastrophe that hit Northern Pakistan
October 8, 2005, the KSE proved resilient as it
closed up on the first day of trading following
the three day mourning period. The World
Bank in its recent report, "Doing Business
in 2006" has noted, "Pakistan was the
top reformer in the region and the number 10 reformer
globally - making it easier to start a business,
reducing the cost to register property, increasing
penalties for violating corporate governance rules,
and replacing a requirement to license every shipment
with two-year duration licenses for traders".
Most Pakistani banks have their headquarters in
Karachi. Most of these are located on the I.I.Chundrigar
Road. Also, the headquarters of nearly all the
MNCs (multi-national companies) based in Pakistan
are in Karachi. Most Pakistani corporations are
headquartered in Karachi as well.
The
city is home to over 25 nationally accredited
degree-granting institutions and is serviced by
almost 30 ISPs as well as the internationally
known Agha Khan Hospital.
Recent
attempts have been made to make the area in and
around the city more favorable to foreign investors
allowing more discretion to the government in
the allotment of land to foreign business groups
which include current bidders from Germany, China,
Britain and the Agha Khan University, Karachi.
Projects include electric power plants,
a taxi cab assembly plant, a produce export zone
and a chain of retail stores, with packaging and
processing facilities in and around Karachi.
Karachi
is home to an emerging Call Center Outsourcing
services industry. It recently hosted
the first ever International Conference on Call
Centre Investment Opportunities in Pakistan.
However, a number of problems still exist.
On the national level earlier this year Pakistan's
only internet connectivity link was broken for
several weeks which hampered call center operations
significantly damaging the marketability of Pakistan's
call centers.
One
of the country's leading business schools, the
Institute of Business Administration (IBA), is
also in Karachi. IBA produces top class graduates,
many of whom have continued to lead business in
the city.
Source:
Population:
2004 or latest: http://www.citypopulation.de;
GDP Data: 2004 CIA Fact Book estimate; Literacy:
UN estimate
*
Country Ranking Codes: A relative color coding
of where the country falls compared to the 20
other Muslim countries represented in this list.
Hgh/Green=Top 3rd; Med/Yellow=Mid 3rd; Low/Orange=Bottom
rd
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