03:02
Unknown
LAHORE: Economists point out that reforms in India have delivered, aided by the Indian Diaspora, while more liberal Pakistani economy has remained in limbo because frequent tinkering in rules by both authoritarian and democratic governments here continues to keep overseas Pakistanis at bay, said a senior economist Naveed Anwar Khan.
Talking to The News, he said: “Real reforms provide level playing field while bypassing the reform agenda at the discretion of ruling elite turns the economic system into a rent seeking structure.”
The litmus test for checking the confidence on reforms is to see how Pakistani expatriates having huge foreign saving react to policies in the country.
‘Pakistan has a number of successful entrepreneurs operating in European Union, the U.S. and Canada. They have since long been waiting for the opportune time to go back and invest in their home land,’ he added.
However, he said, in his interaction with many expatriate Pakistanis he found Pakistan’s policies made no sense to them, which they think had diminished our standing in the world.
Naveed said India’s Diaspora had similar sentiments about the policies of their government in the1990’s, but the reforms introduced by Manmohan Singh during the Narasimha Rao regime instilled confidence in them. “Today more than 50 percent of foreign investment in India comes from Mauritius where large numbers of Indian immigrants reside.”
“If we analyze the foreign investment coming to India from Europe and the U.S., we come to know, this is coming mainly from Indians who migrated to these regions,” he said and added Pakistan is among the world’s top ten recipients of workers remittances, which indicate the strength of overseas Pakistanis.
However, he said, they send petty amounts to their relatives in Pakistan. They are reluctant to establish industrial projects from their huge savings as they have no trust in the system, he added.
A Canada-based certified public accountant, Asif Ali Shahid, said elites from Pakistan on their visit to developed economies increasingly experience disjunction between their sense of Pakistan’s ancient culture and glory and their realization that our foolish economic policies had led us to a situation where only few took us seriously.
He said Pakistani Diaspora ceaselessly brought home the fact that these policies had little rationale; they lived often in countries where our policies would have been laughed out of court.
Zafar Iqbal who has been living in Chicago since 1976 said some brilliant Pakistanis have demonstrated that if only they are given the chance and the opportunity, they can work our way to the top, a possibility that the U.S., a land made by immigrants which welcomes immigrants more than any other country, offers them in spades. “Offer us similar opportunities and do not reserve them for favored one and we will perform miracles,” he said.
Zafar said clearly there was nothing special about Pakistan that doomed it to its low growth rate: not its size, not its culture, not its geography, and not its history. “The problem lays in our choice of wrong policies; when the policies were good Pakistanis could have performed at the most enviable levels, second to none,” he added.
He said in case of Japan, its transformation through major initiatives throughout the Meiji era was accomplished rather by sending gifted Japanese abroad to bring back ideas that were adapted to Japan’s culture and needs. “In our case, the Diaspora could serve that function if we genuinely and sincerely engage them,” he insisted.
Talking to The News, he said: “Real reforms provide level playing field while bypassing the reform agenda at the discretion of ruling elite turns the economic system into a rent seeking structure.”
The litmus test for checking the confidence on reforms is to see how Pakistani expatriates having huge foreign saving react to policies in the country.
‘Pakistan has a number of successful entrepreneurs operating in European Union, the U.S. and Canada. They have since long been waiting for the opportune time to go back and invest in their home land,’ he added.
However, he said, in his interaction with many expatriate Pakistanis he found Pakistan’s policies made no sense to them, which they think had diminished our standing in the world.
Naveed said India’s Diaspora had similar sentiments about the policies of their government in the1990’s, but the reforms introduced by Manmohan Singh during the Narasimha Rao regime instilled confidence in them. “Today more than 50 percent of foreign investment in India comes from Mauritius where large numbers of Indian immigrants reside.”
“If we analyze the foreign investment coming to India from Europe and the U.S., we come to know, this is coming mainly from Indians who migrated to these regions,” he said and added Pakistan is among the world’s top ten recipients of workers remittances, which indicate the strength of overseas Pakistanis.
However, he said, they send petty amounts to their relatives in Pakistan. They are reluctant to establish industrial projects from their huge savings as they have no trust in the system, he added.
A Canada-based certified public accountant, Asif Ali Shahid, said elites from Pakistan on their visit to developed economies increasingly experience disjunction between their sense of Pakistan’s ancient culture and glory and their realization that our foolish economic policies had led us to a situation where only few took us seriously.
He said Pakistani Diaspora ceaselessly brought home the fact that these policies had little rationale; they lived often in countries where our policies would have been laughed out of court.
Zafar Iqbal who has been living in Chicago since 1976 said some brilliant Pakistanis have demonstrated that if only they are given the chance and the opportunity, they can work our way to the top, a possibility that the U.S., a land made by immigrants which welcomes immigrants more than any other country, offers them in spades. “Offer us similar opportunities and do not reserve them for favored one and we will perform miracles,” he said.
Zafar said clearly there was nothing special about Pakistan that doomed it to its low growth rate: not its size, not its culture, not its geography, and not its history. “The problem lays in our choice of wrong policies; when the policies were good Pakistanis could have performed at the most enviable levels, second to none,” he added.
He said in case of Japan, its transformation through major initiatives throughout the Meiji era was accomplished rather by sending gifted Japanese abroad to bring back ideas that were adapted to Japan’s culture and needs. “In our case, the Diaspora could serve that function if we genuinely and sincerely engage them,” he insisted.
Posted in: Business
0 comments:
Post a Comment