'Call to make investment for better future of youth'
By Our Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: Globalization is not only bringing a host of opportunities for those having sufficient human and social capital, but it is also causing rising inequality within developing countries.
Investments should be made in a manner to enable parents, governments and societies to ensure a safe future for about 1.5 billion young people living in the developing countries by providing them education, employment and health facilities.
These views were expressed by New York Population Council's Director Social Science and Research Cynthia B. Lloyd here on Tuesday. She was reading her paper on "The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Comparative Perspective: The Case of Pakistan," on the second day of the three-day 20th annual general meeting and conference of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists (PSDE).
According to UN estimates for Pakistan in 2005, over 32 per cent of the population in the age group of 10 to 24 - roughly 52 million - consisted of young people, Ms Lloyd said. In the next 25 years, she said, Pakistan's population in the same age group would rise to 81 million - the size of the total population of the country in 1980.
Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar stressed the need for extended homework to prepare for the challenges of free trade regime as Pakistan's economy had only two options: either to be eliminated or to be improved.
He said de-regulations, privatization and domestic economic reforms were a must for exploiting the opportunities provided by the WTO, and the government was making efforts in this regard.
Indra Nath Mukherji, professor at South Asian Studies School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, presented his paper on South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement (Sapta) and Indo-Pakistan Trade. He said the two countries exchanged the largest number of concessions in the second round of Sapta.
Unfortunately, the third round, instead of accelerating the exchange of concessions, marked a concession to Lesser Developing Countries only. Even though, he said, India's total bilateral imports from Pakistan declined significantly between 1999 and 2000, and 2002 and 2003, its share of preferential imports in total showed steady increase during the same period.
Pakistan's export of products offered trade preference by India performed much better than its bilateral exports in general which was reflected in the increasing share of such exports in total since 2000-01.
