HYDERABAD, Nov 23: The human development is vital for national development and development without human resources is simply unthinkable.

This was stated by the vice chancellor of Sindh University, Mazharul Haq Siddiqui, while presiding over a lecture programme organized by the university’s Institute of Business Administration (IBA) here on Friday.

The former pro-vice chancellor and the founder-director of the IBA, Punjab University, Prof Dr Khwaja Amjad Saeed, delivered the keynote address on the occasion.

Dr Saeed said that economies of members of the World Bank have been divided into four categories: Low Income (LIC), Lower Middle Income (LMIC), Upper Middle Income(UMIC) and High Income (HIC) economies.

He said that the cumulative export of 133 countries as reported in the World bank’s World Development Report 2003 (for the year 2001) stood at $6,163 billion against $6,350 for the year 2000 depicting a decline of three per cent.

Dr Saeed said that 21 economies constituted 77 per cent of the total global exports.

The first position, he said, had been bagged by the United States with $731 billion constituting 15 per cent of the total world exports, followed by Germany with $570 billion and 12 per cent of global trade and Japan with $405 billion, constituting nine per cent of the total exports.

He said that other major exporting countries were France, the United Kingdom, and China.

He said that only 21 countries, constituting 16 per cent of the total number of global exporting countries, exported 77 per cent of the total value of exports.

Enumerating the regional trade blocs existing in the world, he said that they included the OECD, NAFTA, G-8, D-8 and the Saarc.

He said that the OECD comprised 24 high-income countries, while the NAFTA consisted of three North American countries and the D-8 was set up by eight Muslim countries, whose share in the 2001 global exports accounted for 3.89 per cent, 4.05 per cent for 2000 and 3.89 per cent for 1989.

Describing the export performance of the Saarc countries dismal, he said that it was most unfortunate that Saarc’s total share in global export amounted to only 1.07 per cent in 2001 despite the fact that the region accounts for 22 per cent of the total world population.