The world is growing smaller day by day as powerful forces of politics and economics have sped-up the globalisation of markets. On the economic side, technology is the driver; the relative cost of ocean, air, and road transportation continues to fall, removing an obstacle to cross border merchandise transactions. The revolution in information and communication technology has even more dramatic impact on trade in services. The improved availability of information and declining transaction costs has further stimulated international flows of capital, labour and technology. None of this would have been possible, of course, in the absence of political decision to pursue policies consistent with globalisation. Governments should remove overt and hidden barriers to international commerce and trade. They should abolish exchange controls and liberalise capital account transactions. Governments should also accelerate domestic capacity to produce for foreign markets and to make their economies an attractive destination for foreign investments.
In the fully globalised world where the probability of purchasing goods and service from domestic and foreign suppliers was the same, the countrys trade should be the main source of its income. We are clearly away from this benchmark of globalisation, the developed countries place a much higher proportion of their savings in domestic assets rather to invest in the under developed country.
The point of these observations is that the globalisation is unlikely to roll back and that it has considerably further to go. It is a fact that technology marches only in one direction and that is forward. Further technological progress will deliver further reduction in the cost of acquiring information, communications and transactions across the distances and in other countries.
This revolution is already radically changing business irrevocably. Experts are consistently warning that any company which thinks it can wait until new concepts or applications are more developed runs a great risk of being left behind. The decision to move into new technology is a strategic one. It will satisfy your overall business objectives and will help you meet future needs.
SALMAN ANWAR MALIK
Lahore
