Former State Bank of Pakistan governor and Karachi IBA Director Dr Ishrat Hussain called for bridging the gap between policy-making and research. He was chairing the book launch of ‘Pakistan: Moving the Economy Forward’ edited by Dr Rashid Amjad and Shahid Javed Burki at the Lahore School of Economics on Thursday.
Hussain appreciated the editors of the book for publishing it in a short period of time and for its timeliness and the potential assistance it could provide to the new government in Islamabad. He said that implementation and delivery of services was the crux of the problem rather than ‘good’ economic policies. He also recommended minimal role of federal government and a separation between regulatory bodies and policy-making.
LSE Graduate Institute of Development Studies Director Dr Amjad said that the central question which the book addressed was how to reverse the current prolonged period of low growth and high inflation in the country over the past five years, and to suggest and implement measures that would decisively move the economy onto a higher, more sustainable growth path.
He put forward eight key messages namely to revive investment, the structural rather than cylical nature of Pakistan’s problems, overcoming growth constraints, the major growth drivers, improving economic management and reducing corruption, inclusive as opposed to merely sustained and higher growth, the responsibility of federating units and the role of state and private sector. He also recommended increasing investment from the current 12.5% of GDP to 30% to generate enough productive employment to compete internationally.
Former Minister of Finance and Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Beaconhouse National University Dr Hafiz Pasha, speaking about his book chapter on Pak-India trade, he opined that the time had come to replace the failed formula of ‘peace first, trade later’ with India by ‘trade earlier’ and to create a constituency of peace through trade.
Summing up the discussion, the discussant former Chief Economist Planning Commission Dr Pervez Tahir said that the most important message of the book was the rehabilitation of investment as a key driver of growth. He praised the chapter on remittances market co-authored by Dr Amjad as well-researched and contributing important insights into the way black money was being whitened in the country.
