Philip Morris International, the international unit of the US tobacco giant Philip Morris often described as a merchant of death, is building a new massive cigarette plant in Pakistan.
Philip Morris is expected to spin off PMI as an independent company to be unconstrained by the U.S. tobacco regulations and out of reach of American litigators. Importantly, its practices would no longer be limited by American public opinion, paving the way for trying out new products.
As the smoking rates in developed countries have slowly declined, they have risen dramatically in some developing counties, where PMI is a major player. These include Pakistan (up 42% since 2001), Ukraine (up 36%) and Argentina (up 18%), according to the Wall Street Journal.
The World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an international public-health treaty, has 152 participating countries, including China, Brazil and Pakistan. While it has led to greater regulation in many of the world's markets, countries such as Indonesia and Russia haven't signed on. It should be noted that Pakistan was derisively named as "The Winner of Marlboro Man of The Year Award" by anti-tobacco activists for stalling these negotiations but ultimately signed the treaty.
In addition to targeting Pakistan, India, Brazil and Russia, one of PMI's immediate goals is to harness the huge potential of China's smoking population, as well as some of that country's own brands, reports the Wall Street Journal.
After negotiating for three years, PMI is expected this year to begin marketing three Chinese brands. The smokes -- selected from hundreds of varieties produced by state-run China National Tobacco Corp. -- will be sold in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Latin America, according to PMI.
The launch is planned for sometime in the next six months. It is part of a December 2005 deal in which Philip Morris agreed to market Chinese brands internationally in exchange for the right to produce its own Marlboro brand at state-owned factories. At the moment, Philip Morris is limited to importing its cigarettes for sale in China and is restricted by stringent quotas.
While Philip Morris investments in Pakistan, Brazil, Russia, India and China are expected to bring in much-needed capital and create thousands of new jobs, the proven health risks posed by smoking will also cause widespread disease and death in future years. This does not appear to be a good bargain for these emerging economies with young populations.
Threre are more reasons to migrate to Canada
1 year ago
6 comments:
people are going to black heart and heart damage. marlboro cigarette is bad things
pakistan people are going to death in these day and population are going to down
irtaza
I heard that tobacco is haram. If so, how come some Muslim clergyman doesn't declare a fatwah against Philip Morris?
I just heard US Billionaires Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg are providing $375m to launch a campaign for anti-smoking projects in the developing world. This is welcome news, given how the predatory tobacco giants have been targeting the developing nations to enhance their profits. Kudos to Gates and Bloomberg.
The News is reporting on the lack of progress in fight against smoking in Pakistan.
The Coalition for Tobacco Control (CTC-Pakistan) has termed 2008 as the worst year for tobacco control in Pakistan.
Talking to ‘The News’ here on Thursday, the Coordinator of CTC Pakistan, Khurram Hashmi said, “The only success story we have had during 2008 is a raise in tobacco taxes — that too nominal. The tobacco industry, on the other hand, is fiercely engaged in organising campaigns in the name of public health, the latest examples being the holding of a blood donation camp in collaboration with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society right in the heart of the capital city and a one-day free medical camp in district Swabi, which was praised by NWFP’s minister for social welfare and women development.”
Khurram said, the civil society has feasted their eyes on new year with high hopes for a better response from the government in tobacco control “but there has been little development in implementing the tobacco control ordinance,” he regretted. “So far, we have not only delayed the introduction of a new set of rotational health warnings from January 2009 to June 2009, but have also allowed designated smoking areas in the country.” Khurram said.
The CTC coordinator emphasised that Pakistan is a high priority country when it comes to tobacco control, and with the rest of the countries in its region introducing new mediums to contain the tobacco epidemic, “it is about time we should consider where we stand” in relation to implementation of the guidelines adopted by the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which held its third session (COP-3) in Durban, South Africa, in November 2008.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=155066
Here's a Nations newspaper story about rise in smoking deaths in Pakistan:
KARACHI - Chest specialists strongly criticised the government on its failure to take effective measures for the control of tobacco use in the country. They demanded that the “Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of non-smoker Ordinance of 2002†be strictly enforced in order to protect the public health from tobacco, the single largest preventable cause of death in Pakistan.
Shahzad Alam from WHO said that 5.4 million people died last year as a result of tobacco and unless some urgent actions are taken by 2030 more than 8 million people will be dying every year from tobacco.
He said that in Pakistan about 100,000 people die every year as a result of tobacco. Lung cancer is a vital cause of cancer deaths in males followed by mouth cancer. Both these cancers are tobacco related and can be prevented if this powerful addictive substance is avoided. Tobacco use is also a major risk factor for heart attacks, stroke, pneumonia, Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD) as well as 20 other serious diseases, he added.
Quoting a research conducted by the Agha Khan University (AKU), Prof Javaid Khan, Chair National Alliance for Tobacco Control, said that 24 per cent of male and 16 per cent of female college students were regular smokers in Karachi.
The prevalence of smoking in the youth of Islamabad is even higher at 28 per cent, adding that tobacco use is on the increase in the Pakistani youth because of aggressive marketing by the tobacco companies. He said that government of Pakistan was a signatory to Framework Convention on Tobacco control and according to this United Nation’s treaty our government was bound to take strong anti-tobacco measures in the country, but sadly our government was failing in its obligation.
Prof Khan regretted the recent decision of the ministry to allow designated smoking areas at indoor public places. He demanded that in order to protect its citizen from the hazards of passive smoking, government must ensure that all indoor public places are completely tobacco smoke free.
Dr Muhammad Irfan, Consultant Chest Physician at AKU, urged public to give up tobacco ‘use’ immediately, as most people when they are young do not think about quitting this habit and by the time they decide to give up this addiction it is often too late and permanent damage to health had already been done. By citing an example, he said that if one continues to smoke he is bound to lose 3 months/year of his life after the age of 40 every year. He informed that nicotine withdrawal symptoms only last for couple of weeks which requires strong will power, and by using certain medicines quitting smoking is now much easier than ever before.
Here's a Business Recorder report on Philip Morris in Pakistan:
Amongst the two multinational tobacco companies in Pakistan, Philip Morris Pakistan Limited (formerly known as Lakson Tobacco) stands at number two to Pakistan Tobacco Company.
Philip Morris Pakistan Limited is a public listed company on the Karachi and Lahore Stock Exchanges and is an affiliate of Philip Morris International Inc (PMI).
The company is involved in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes for Pakistan's domestic market.
It currently operates three cigarette factories with primary and secondary facilities and one tobacco leaf threshing plant, all located in various parts of the country.
It also runs an extensive tobacco leaf agronomy program in the tobacco growing areas of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa.
The company is also involved in CSR where it is engaged in undertaking various initiatives in the education, environmental sustainability and disaster relief sectors to give back to the community it operates in.
Brand Portfolio Philip Morris Pakistan has a portfolio of ten brands for the domestic market.
Of the main ones, it markets and sells both international brands like Marlboro and Red & White, and locally owned brands like Morven Gold, Diplomat, K2.
Highlights 2011 has been a challenging year for Philip Morris so far like the rest of the FMCGs due to the weakening economic situation fuelled by power crisis and rising inflation.
Moreover, the performance of the company is highly affected by the illicit cigarette market that accounts for almost a 20 to 25 percent market share.
The detrimental impact of the non-tax paid industry extends to not only the company but to the legitimate industry as a whole and also the government as it reduces government revenue.
Being a cigarette manufacturer and importer, the company has high taxes and duties expenditure.
The company's sales tax and excise duty as a percentage of its gross turnover for the 9MCY11 stood at a little above 61 percent as compared to 60 percent same period CY10.
The company saw weaker sales of 2,847 million cigarettes mainly attributed to the adverse impact of the non-tax paid tobacco industry.
Overall, compared to 9MCY10, the nine months ending September CY11 has shown declined profitability.
Its contribution to the national exchequer went down from 16,330 for 9MCY10 to 16,178 million for 9MCY11.
The company faces tough competition from not only the unaccounted for sector but also its peer and the biggest rival in the industry, Pakistan Tobacco Company, an associate of British American Tobacco Company
Profitability Gross turnover experienced a decline of 3.9 percent from Rs 25.7 billion for 9MCY10 to Rs 24.7 billion in 9MCY11.
The decline in gross revenue is not only due to the tough economic environment, high government taxes and illicit trade but also due to the successful launch by PTC of its brand, Capstan which alone has a market share of 14 percent.
Though the sales tax and excise duty were considerably less for the nine months CY11, the gross profit was seriously injured by a surge in the cost of sales by 9.8 percent for the 9MCY11 compared to the same period CY10.
This is mainly because of rising energy costs, security related expenses and high inflation.
GP margins had a steep decline to 23.7 percent for the 9 months of 2011 compared to 35.5 percent for same period CY10.
As if to compensate to some extent, the distribution and marketing expenses demonstrated a fall of approximately 12 percent for periods in comparison.
The company recorded a loss after tax of Rs 284 million with an NP margin of -2.8 percent compared to the profit after tax Rs 767 million for the same period in 2010.
This was primarily due to an increase in the finance costs by approximately 270 percent.....
http://www.brecorder.com/component/news/single/592/0/1260461/
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