Business | Opinion
Three keys essential to revive flagging economy
Pakistan's economy may be largely moribund, but there is at least one bit of good news for the country's top finance managers.
- By Farhan Bokhari, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 23:52 September 16, 2008
Pakistan's economy may be largely moribund, but there is at least one bit of good news for the country's top finance managers.
Remittances from expatriate Pakistanis helped surge overall overseas remittances by a significant 23.8 per cent to $1.219 billion (Dh4.48 billion) in the first two months of the present July-June fiscal year.
The trend may appear to be surprising to some, given the uncertainties in the midst of several months of political turmoil. Even government leaders accept that the challenge of reviving Pakistan's economic outlook is profound to the extent that there is a Herculean task up ahead.
"The government is seeking out-of-the-box solutions to overcome the economic challenges the country is facing and there is need to take bold initiatives to meet these challenges" Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told members of a recently established government task force to recommend ways of reviving the economy.
Tough times
"Pakistan is passing through a difficult and challenging era and bold initiatives are imperative to overcome the pressures on the economic front, which include rising inflation and slow growth," he added.
The sudden surge in the remittances theoretically should not have come about unless there was some silver lining along side an otherwise bleak picture.
For those who have decided to send more money back to their native country during the first two months of the just begun financial year, the key motive must be the belief that some good will come out of their effort.
At the same time, some of Pakistan's key indicators continue to suggest turbulence on the horizon as the country remains surrounded by uncertainty in spite of the government claiming to have taken charge conclusively of affairs all around.
As Pakistan struggles to overcome its challenges, a range of stakeholders, from policymakers to ordinary businessmen, must embrace all a three-pronged set of realities.
First, the current economic turmoil has presented a difficult challenge for Pakistan. However, it is equally true that Pakistan has been in the habit of facing and overcoming challenges during different periods of its history, and the obstacles the country faces at the moment are no different from previous ones.
There must then be hope that the current challenges will eventually end and a new round of relative prosperity stands to emerge at the end of the day.
Lessons
Second, valuable lessons must be learnt from the flaws during the era of economic recovery seen between 2003 and the end of 2007. Some of the unique features of that era are worth to be recalled.
For instance, that was a period when foreign investors began coming to Pakistan in large droves while the country's privatisation programme achieved unprecedented success.
But the dark side of the Pakistani economy was equally profound. Abject poverty continued to plague the country, as seen from estimates that over one-third of the population lived below the poverty line.
Going forward, a model where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer must never be seen as evidence of sustained economic progress and long-term prosperity, for any prosperity whose fruits do not trickle down to the masses remains only incomplete.
Finally, there must be a belief in the future of Pakistan as the country strives to overcome its challenges. A central feature in that belief must be the idea that Pakistan's current set of challenges notwithstanding, its future remains tied to having the capacity to perform much better than at present.
The writer is a journalist based in Pakistan.
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