Economy is all about facilitations and opportunities it creates for common men. People do not mind seeing others getting rich as long as the economy fulfils their basic needs only.
Economy is all about facilitations and opportunities it creates for common men. People do not mind seeing others getting rich as long as the economy fulfils their basic needs only.
Everyone sees the economy from a different lens. For the government, any sign of growth depicts the success of its policies, opposition tries to dig out negatives in economic policies. For men on the streets, decent earning is a sign of a growing economy. More than growth, the right economic policies ensuring equitable distribution of resources are essential to ensure that every segment of society gets a fair share from growth. Experts say that Pakistan would have to maintain a sustained growth of six percent or above for a long period to bring smiles on the faces of the poor.
Bangladesh with almost the same population two decades back pulled millions out of poverty when its growth rate was around four percent (its economy started growing at a higher pace only seven years back). Bangladeshi families said goodbye to poverty for good.
Our growth has remained lopsided- accelerating and decelerating after every three to five years. Many families go out of poverty during the accelerated growth phase, but become poor again when the growth slows down. Bangladesh which was the poorest part of our country 50 years back, grew at a low but sustained pace in the first 20 years of its independence.
Its growth started picking up slowly, but steadily in the next 30 years. Today, it is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. It is worth noting that Bangladesh is starved of natural resources when compared with Pakistan. Still it went ahead of its former more affluent part.
The reason behind its success is continuity of policies, irrespective of the government in power, empowerment of its women, enrichment of its human resource and simple living of its political elite.
In Pakistan’s case, economic policies change along with every government. In the past 50 years, we saw 12 different governments including two military regimes that ruled for 20 years. Each government pursued its own policy, while discarding the policies of its predecessor.
Most governments even tinkered with some sector-specific long-term policies they were announced after consultation with all stakeholders. This eroded investor confidence in Pakistan.
Since 1993, most of the investment in Pakistan was made on sovereign guarantees. These sovereign guarantees assured stability of policies at least for those investors. Still the urge to change policy forced many governments to breach those sovereign guarantees, which always resulted in Pakistan paying heavy fines imposed by international arbitrators. The uncertainty of policies hurt the spirit of entrepreneurship in the country.
Today, instead of innovative entrepreneurs, we have investors operating on government sovereign guarantees that either assure them of a certain return on investment or protect them through duties and exemptions. The remaining investors are provided government subsidies to survive in the shape of finance on subsidised rates and subsidies on power and energy.
Leading Pakistani businessmen Mian Muhammad Mansha told this scribe few years back that he was invited by the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Hasina Wajid to Bangladesh. He said before the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, his family had large business interests in the then East Pakistan and they had good relations with the family of Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman (Hasina Wajid’s father).
Mansha said when he went to the PM’s office he was surprised to see that there was a lone bulb lighting the corridor leading to her office. The office itself was modest. He said Bangladeshi PM wondered what was wrong with political parties in Pakistan that took a U-turn on policies when they replaced each other in power.
She said Bangladesh has been ruled by two political parties- one led by her and the other by Khalida Zia. She said both of us are bitter rivals. However, she added as far as the economic policies were concerned, “we have no differences”.
“When either of us is in power, we pursue the same policies.” The investors have confidence in the government of Bangladesh and not in any particular party that comes to power.
Pakistan has been unkind to women. We have paid only lip service to gender parity. The workforce is dominated by men and only 26 percent of women are economically active. Most of them are doing menial low paid jobs requiring little or no skill.
Women account for almost 50 percent of the total population of Pakistan. In Bangladesh women are a major part of the workforce. They overwhelmingly dominate the workforce in value-added textile, accounting for 90 percent of the total. This is in line with international norms as women are a major workforce in apparel everywhere except Pakistan.
In Pakistan, only 15 percent women are employed in the apparel industry, the rest are men. Apart from this industry, women in Bangladesh dominate the small enterprises sector, as they were empowered by the microfinance institutions operating in that country since early 90s. Many of them have taken their enterprises to a higher level.
This approach has helped Bangladesh reduce poverty drastically even when their growth was low. It is cited as an example for poverty reduction in international forums. We have depended on the trickledown effect in our poverty reduction strategy. Trickledown keeps people in transition as families fall back in poverty during slowdown.
Women have been neglected in our poverty reduction strategies as well.
Delivery of services in education, health, law and order and justice determine the extent of inclusive and equitable growth. When Bangladesh was part of Pakistan, its health indicators were the worst in united Pakistan. In education there was parity, but law and order always remained a problem.
Today, Bangladesh has better health indicators than Pakistan and India. Its infant mortality rate is lowest in the region and its average age expectancy is highest.
In education too, Bangladesh is far ahead of Pakistan. In fact, education in Pakistan has now been limited to high fee private schools while most government schools are dysfunctional. The school dropout rate is the highest in the region, while Bangladesh tops in school enrolment. Law and order in Pakistan is the worst in the region.
Institutions in Pakistan are weak. The delivery of public services is at its worst. Corruption is increasing with every passing day. There is lack of political will on part of rulers. There is a crisis of leadership. We have developed a corruption tolerating culture.
The writer is a staff member
