Risk management utilizes the right tools, methods and processes to manage risk. Risk is defined as the probability of an unforeseen incident and its penalty. For a business, exposure to risk could lead to disaster.

Risk can range between over-reliance on a single customer, to the merger of two competitive companies in a business. You can safeguard your business and increase its success rate by having an effective risk management policy in place. By identifying the risks before they occur, you will have the time and space to prepare and to put solutions in place if needed.

A Risk Management Process Involves

• Methodical identification of the risks surrounding the activities of your business.
• Reviewing the probability of the occurrence of events.
• Identifying the events before they create problems and dealing with them accordingly.
• Understanding the events and ways to respond.
• Systematizing the tools required to tackle the penalty.
• Supervising the risk management approach, effectiveness and control.

Risk Management Process Results In

• Improving your decision-making, planning and prioritizing skills.
• Well-organized allocation of the resources and the capital.
• Allows you to anticipate the problems and utilizes the best minimizing amount of fire fighting and
preventing a disaster, which could lead to sever financial crunch.
• Risk management significantly improves the probability of the delivery of the business plan,
within your time frame and budget.

If You Are Venturing Into Something New, Then Risk Management Helps In:

• Risk Identification- Risk management outlines various categories of risks faced by new business
including operational, financial, strategic, compliance related and environmental, political, safety
and health risks.

• Risk Management- Clarifies the importance and events for tackling the risks that your new business establishments may face. This includes the information about the evaluation of various risks and four options for managing each risk. This also helps in outlining some preventive ideas to decrease the likely hood of risks immobilizing your business.

• Business recovery planning- Outlines disaster planning and also minimizes the impact of the disaster on your business and this includes aspects such as data security, employees, insurance policies and equipment.

• Prevention of crime- This outlines crimes disturbing small businesses and derives some simple steps to tackle it.

• Scams-Risk management discusses scams and how they could hamper your business. It also lists the methods that could help to avoid scams such as investigating the source of the scam, keeping and maintaining proceedings and filtering the scam.

• Shop Theft- Risk management discusses theft problems in a business and the areas to protect, such as adopting simple safety measures and by keeping track of the staff and inventory.

• Data Security- This offers a variety of information, which protects the businesses and also secures data. Includes disaster recovery, risk assessment, backups and policies regarding data security.

Risk management may seem scary when you are planning your business. But by having such a plan in place, you can ensure that you protect the viability of your business for the long term.

(Taken from : http://www.morebusiness.com/running_your_business/management/Risk-Managment.brc)

Previously upto tax year 2008 when minimum tax u/s 113 was payable, the company has to pay “no” tax u/s 113 if tax already deducted against export sales was more than 0.5% of the combined turnover from export sales and local sales.

Dr Baig said that vide Finance Act 2009, the companies have been made liable to pay minimum tax of 0.5% u/s 113 on the component of their local sales even if their withholding tax of 1% on export proceeds is more than 0.5% of the combined turnover from export sales and local sales.

Speaking on the occasion, Irfan Siddiqui said that this agreement shows that businesses in Pakistan are cognizant of the fast changing trends in the banking industry and are re-evaluating their business structures to provide their customers excellent services in a Shariah-compliant manner.

He stated that this also reflects on the immense growth potential in the Islamic way of doing business.

The Hamdard Laboratories, which are already banking with Meezan Bank, have now further strengthened their relationship with the bank by utilizing its Cash Management Services, under which Meezan Bank, using its Online services and large branch network, will manage the entire deposits and payments workload with the dealers and clients of Hamdard Laboratories across Pakistan.

The statement further pointed out that Meezan Bank and Hamdard Laboratories are also considering the possibility of installing Meezan Bank’s ATMs at Hamdard’s factory premises.

All remarks made during the conference call will be current at the time of the call and will not be updated to reflect subsequent material developments.

Second quarter 2009 financial results will be available through the Investor Relations section of the company’s website concurrent with the SEC filing. An archived edition of the conference call also will be available on the website within several hours after the call is completed.

ABOUT OXY

Occidental Petroleum Corporation is an international oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, Middle East/North Africa and Latin America regions. Oxy is the fourth largest U.S. oil and gas company, based on equity market capitalization. Oxy’s wholly owned subsidiary, OxyChem, manufactures and markets chlor-alkali products and vinyls. Occidental is committed to safeguarding the environment, protecting the safety and health of employees and neighboring communities and upholding high standards of social responsibility in all of the company’s worldwide operations.

Occidental Petroleum Corporation Contact information
Media Incharge : Richard S. Kline
Phone: 310-443-6249
Email : richard_kline@oxy.com
Investors Relations : Chris Stavros
Phone : 212-603-8184
Email : chris_stavros@oxy.com
Web Site : www.oxy.com

Those who attended the meeting included Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, Governor Baluchistan, M.Salman Faruqui, Secretary General to the President and Maj General Faris Al- Mazrooi. The President said that Pakistan values its relationship with UAE and urged for further strengthening the bilateral ties between the 2 countries in all fields.

The President invited the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development to avail the investment opportunities in Pakistan and invest in sectors like oil and gas, power generation, and infrastructure development projects as the government has announced incentive packages to encourage investment in these sectors.

The President appreciated the support and assistance of the UAE government in the relief and rehabilitation of the displaced people.
Suwaidi said that the Fund already finances development projects in Pakistan and assured the President that the Fund would extend cooperation and investment in financing a number of investment opportunities in Pakistan

Meanwhile, a delegation of Gulf General Investment Company (GGICO), UAE led by its Chairman Abdulla Juma Al Sari called on President Asif Ali Zardari here Wednesday at the Presidency.

The President said that investors could invest in housing sector of Pakistan particularly for displaced people of Malakand and Swat.
The President said that the government has already launched a housing scheme for the poor, the general public and the government employees to meet the growing demand of housing in the country and said the Gulf investors could also avail of this opportunity. Abdulla Juma Al Sari said GGICO was interested in investing in housing sector of Pakistan particularly the pre-fabricated housing units for the displaced people and affordable housing in the major urban areas.

The President said that the company should discuss the prospects of investment with relevant government ministries and avail of investment opportunity through a transparent competitive bidding process.

The IMF released its updated report on World Economic Outlook (WEO), projecting that the global output in 2009 will contract 1.4 percent, about 0.1 percentage points lower than projected in the April 2009 but the growth in 2010 will reach 2.5 percent, 0.6 percentage higher than the previous projection.

It also said the risks to the global financial system have moderated from the extreme levels identified in the April 2009 Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR), but vulnerabilities remain and exit strategies from the financial support policies need to be considered. “The global financial conditions have improved, as unprecedented policy intervention has reduced the risk of systemic collapse and expectations of economic recovery have risen,” the IMF said in its updated GFSR.

The interventions undertaken by central banks and governments worldwide have reduced the tail risk of another systemic failure similar to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, it said.

However, the financial sector continues to be dependent on significant public support, resulting in an unparalleled transfer of risk from the private to the public sector.

“Work will need to begin on exit strategies from the various financial, monetary, and fiscal support policies in order to address market uncertainty,” the Fund said. “Medium-term policies need to ensure that steps taken to normalise policies and markets are consistent with establishing a lasting framework of sound financial regulation, sustainable fiscal balances, and the maintenance of price stability.”
The IMF suggested that at this critical stage of emerging from the crisis, policy makers need to safeguard the gains made thus far. Both the unprecedented scope of the crisis and the measures taken to contain it will require a comparable policy response

Accenture’s 2009 Global Risk Management Study also identified a number of universal problems with risk management functions. For example, more than 80 percent of respondents identified ineffective integration of risk, return and capital issues on decision-making, Lack of alignment between the company’s strategies and its risk appetite, and Insufficient enterprise-wide risk culture as just a few of the common problems in their organizations.

A substantial percentage of respondents, 40 percent, reported that they have or plan to increase their investments in risk management over the next six months. And, 30 percent are considering an increase in future investment, Accenture reported.

William Laurent emphasized the role risk and compliance management plays in the overall survival of a business entity in an Information Management column earlier this year. “As more attention is paid to perfecting corporate performance measurement and risk mitigation, operational transparency and accountability are not always increasing as expected. However, governance, risk and compliance promises a more integrated and standardized approach to performance management and a better means of achieving a measurable improvement in accountability.”

Chalk replaces Kevin M. Blakely, who said last month that he would leave RMA to become chief risk officer of Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio.

RMA board chair Sonny B. Lyles, executive vice president and chief risk officer of Sterling Bank in Houston, said the board wanted to ensure that RMA has a continuity of leadership while it searches for a permanent CEO.

“We asked Ken to take a short break from his retirement to guide RMA as it addresses risk issues during these challenging times,” Lyles said.

“As we re-examine the risk management practices of the last several years, it is vital to the financial services industry that we learn from our successes and failures,” Chalk said.

Chalk has been an active member of RMA throughout his career. He joined RMA’s Carolinas-Virginias Chapter in 1976 and later served as its president. On the national level, he served as board chair in 2005, following four years as a board member. He also chaired the Credit Risk Management Council from 1995-1997.

After having served as chief credit officer of BB&T for 25 years, Chalk retired last September. He played a role in BB&T’s transformation from a one-time eastern North Carolina farm bank into the nation’s 10th largest financial holding company.

He is immediate past chairman of the East Carolina University Foundation and is co-chair of the BB&T Center for Leadership Development at ECU.

Chalk earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from East Carolina University. He also is a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University.

Founded in 1914, Philadelphia-based Risk Management Association is a nonprofit, member-driven professional association whose sole purpose is to advance the use of sound risk principles in the financial services industry. RMA has 3,000 institutional members that include banks of all sizes as well as nonbank financial institutions