Properties of concrete containing coal bottom ash and fine coconut shell as partial sand replacement

The consumption of natural sand in concrete production is very high around the worldwide and it caused the shortage of natural fine aggregate which is suitable for construction in many countries [1]. This problem gives the chance for reuse by-products materials as a source of fine aggregate by partial or full replacement in construction activities. Hence, it can reduce the demand for extraction of natural raw materials and save landfill space other than reduce the consumption of natural resources [1]. Moreover, all over the world aimed at increasing the reuse and recycling suitable material for effective replacement of cement and fine aggregate in construction sector due to lack of natural resources.

Fine recycled concrete aggregate as a material replacement in concrete production

As a fast and rapid growing nation, Malaysia undergoes a lot of development especially in construction field. Most of the building nowadays are being made mainly using concrete as it provides many favorable features such as satisfactory compressive strength, durability, availability, versatility and cost effectiveness. However, in pursuing the development era, sometimes the authorities overlooked about the construction and demolition (C&D) waste that had been created along the development progress. Construction and demolition waste is becoming a vital issue especially to the environmental aspect in many large cities in the world (Chen et al., 2002). Shen [1] describe C&D waste as the waste which generated from renovation, site clearing, demolition, construction, roadwork, land excavation and civil and building construction. Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste constitutes a major portion of total solid waste production in the world, and most of it is used in landfills .

An Analysis of Public Expenditure on Education in Pakistan

Achieving economic growth is an important goal of any country. However, in recent years it has increasingly been realised that economic growth is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for human development. Pakistan provides a good example of a country which has historically enjoyed a respectable GDP growth rate and yet failed to translate this positive development into a satisfactory level of human development. Since its independence in 1947, Pakistan’s development policies have focused primarily on realising high economic growth and only incidentally on the task of providing social necessities. Such a process has given rise to a structure of production and distribution which has been only indirectly responsive to social goals. However, there is now a growing realisation that we could have done much better had we stressed human resource investments relatively more.

Analysis of Public Expenditure on Education in Pakistan

This study attempts to analyse the priorities accorded to Education by the federal as well as the provincial governments. Since education is in large part a provincial responsibility, a comparative analysis of the performance of the public sector education in the four provinces of Pakistan would be useful to provide feedbacks to the provincial administrations of relative strengths and weaknesses of their educational system. Also, differences in priorities and performance among provinces provide useful insights, and, more importantly, raise many questions for planners. Such an analysis is also necessary for overall resource allocation. The analysis will be extended to district level but confined to Punjab and Sindh due to data constraints. The study will also examine the disparities in budget allocations to education in the two provinces.Education; Public expenditures; Pakistan

Labour Market Dynamics in Pakistan: Evidence from the Longitudinal Data

The bulk of research on labour market conditions in Pakistan has concentrated on the economic activity rate, the number of employed persons, or the unemployment rate at a particular point in time. These stock measures of labour market situation are useful from a policy viewpoint as they give a broad indication of the dimension of the problem. For example, the recent labour force surveys show an increase in the level of open unemployment from 5.9 percent in 1997-98 to 7.8 percent in 1999-2000 [Pakistan (2001)]. There is also an emerging consensus that during the 1990s poverty has increased at the national as well as for rural and urban areas of the country [Qureshi and Arif (2001)]. Labour market is considered as the main route for establishing the link between macro policies, the resulting GDP growth and poverty alleviation [Rahman (2002)]. Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (IPRSP) and other development plans have suggested various targets of employment creation for poverty reduction. The stock measures of labour market conditions, such as unemployment rate, are considered to be inadequate from the viewpoint of developing appropriate policy responses. There is a need to gain further insights by examining the structure of labour market in terms of its dynamic components: these being the turnover of persons into and out of the labour force and turnover into and out of employment and unemployment pools

Estimation of Export Supply Function for Citrus Fruit in Pakistan

There is strong evidence in the literature that export and economic growth have a positive relationship. In Pakistan, with an agrarian economy, earnings from primary agricultural exports are vital for the overall growth process. Fruits are the traditional export commodities, which contribute more than half of total export earnings from primary agricultural commodities. The persistent instability in world market prices for primary commodities has depressed the export earnings from these commodities over time. This poses great challenges to a country like Pakistan. The present study aims at examining changes in the volume of export of citrus fruit from Pakistan caused by such factors as changes in domestic and export prices, national product, foreign exchange rate, etc. The study uses time series data for the period 1975–2004 for citrus exports and related domestic price, export price, GDP, and foreign exchange rate, employing the co-integration and error correction techniques for analysis purposes.