MAJYD AZIZ

Chairman: SITE ASSOCIATION OF INDUSTRY

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Pakistan’s policy makers need to develop a positive mind-set when initiating programs for national growth. The country has to be involved in the global scenario and it is not possible to delink Pakistan from the global economy. Notwithstanding the mantra of deregulation, liberalization, and privatization that the World Bank strongly emphasizes, Pakistany policy makers must take into account human resources and social sector development and also substantial institutional reforms if there has to be a pragmatic and purposeful trade policy at the threshold of the next millenium.

There is an imperative need to shy away from blindly imposing the dictates of the WTO framework without taking into account the obvious ramifications if global integration is attempted in piecemeal fashion or done on an adhoc basis. Pakistan’s economy is beset with decades of political mistakes, bureaucratic indifferences, and private sector misuse. It is essential that the national economy be imbued with sensible guidelines of transparent policy presentations, profound concern for social values, and insistence for collective action for the nation’s benefit.

The challenges that are paramount for Pakistan’s advent into the 21^st century are important parameters and tools for basic consideration of the Trade Policy. The world market will necessitate deep understanding of the process of globalization that include, inter alia, the ability to functionally compete, the appreciation of consumer preferences, and the value-added efficiency of products and services. The stress on the culture of total quality management will have to be respected. The organized consumer attitudes will be a force to reckon with and this will be an inescapable trend for developing countries. The overflow of international investment will depend on a sustainable environment devoid of whimsical handling of economic policies. Those countries where cheap, skilled, and conforming labor is available will be able to attract investment and will be able to have an advantageous edge in the global scenario. There will be a marked dominance of service sectors and this will gain importance in the coming century.

Pakistan has to concentrate extensively on the importance of the information highway. It is essential that there is a concerted effort to establish software development zones to train personnel and to provide them opportunities to utilize their expertise and skills to develop software for exports and to manage the nation’s progress into the ranks of the developed countries. More importantly, there has to be a revamping of the country’s infrastructure, such as water provision, power supply, gas distribution, and telecommunications network. The continued shortage of water and the ever-persistent power loadshedding have ensued into a dismal scenario that does not brood favorably for Pakistan’s determined march on the avenue of economic prosperity.

The government must ensure that the imbalances in macro-economic variables such as inflation, production, and employment have to be dealt with thru workable measures and sustainable actions. The government must ensure that economic deterioration, economic volatility, and economic inequality are substantially eliminated thru the proper re-evaluation of these economic positions. The government must ensure that the dependence on external loans, on foreign donors, and on alien short-term capital flows does not bring about a financial meltdown as was demonstrated in the economies of the Asian Tigers.

The plain fact is that the government must now establish confidence building measures that will allow the industrial and business community to develop significant directions for positive yields in the global village. This will be the correct approach to attain the stature of accepted importance in the world market. And more fundamentally, this will be the panacea the country is desperately seeking to achieve financial and economic respectability on this planet where globalization is the resounding buzzword.

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