No economy in the world can be run without a system of thought rooted in the real lifetime authenticities of its existence
The year 2011 and its events had put up numerous pointers or signals showing effects of an economy not properly governed. Nevertheless the year has in its wake the potential and the strength to brighten the economic outlook for 2012 in many ways. This is possible only if we are prepared to think outside the box to solve troubling issues of the economy by building a balanced opinion on the real state of the union situation. In the year 2011 there was a phenomenal increase in home remittances that helped the local economy to meet its trade requirements.
In a decade home remittances enhanced from about one billion US dollars to more than 11 billion US dollars in the last year. The inflow helped bridge the trade deficit but this also generated a debate on this aspect of the economy. There is a point of view that due to inflationary factors in the indigenous economy the remittances registered an upward trend. But there is also a point of view that though remittances helped the local economy but they also resulted in producing an inflationary trend. The truth is obviously somewhere in the middle of these two opposite views.
There has been some uncertainty in many international economies as well and this factor in many ways helped to balance the negative effect. But let us remember that this opportunity must make us ponder and plan better for the future. Every year a large percentage of professionals like engineers, doctors and others migrate for education or jobs abroad. Along with efforts to boost exports it is important the planning for provision of higher education must take precedence.
No economy in the world can be run without a system of thought rooted in the real lifetime authenticities of its existence. In all likelihood, we are heading towards an electioneering regime and we are never really prepared for this. Every few years and in any political system people go to polls to elect a government. Unfortunately even after more than six decades of experiencing many major upheavals in our development in historic and economic terms we do not seem to have learnt much in the way of conducting our political economy and the way we do our politicking.
We should be quite clear in our mind that the whole idea of conducting an election is to help develop political economy of the state. There is no reason for the arguments or the debate to be bursting at the seams. Election time is a great opportunity for the nation to streamline its ideas about the political economy of the state. Just as in any private enterprise an annual general meeting is always an opportunity for the stakeholders to refresh its thinking and improve upon the way the enterprise does its business. The business of the state is spread over a large canvass where it needs to steer the economy and work on managing relations with other countries of the world for the maximum benefit of the people living in the country.
For all practical purposes the electioneering time can in fact help the economy to improve if we are only prepared to think the political and economic links in terms of workings of a modern state. In these fast changing times it is imperative we pull up ourselves to discuss socio-economic and political issues in the spirit of a nation that can learn to live decently with a variety of thought. The year 2012 is indeed opening a vista of opportunities for an economy to steer itself out of its trouble by following rational planning and taking politicking in its true spirit.
The writer has served as consultant to the United Nations and other developing economies on the issues of trade and development. He can be reached at amjadriazzz@yahoo.com