| 04 February 2005 | Friday | 24 Zilhaj 1425 |
Saarc summit postponement
Price of VIP security
Billed as a landmark event, Expo Pakistan 2005 has been meticulously organized and so timed as to draw a strong response from the global investment and trading community both from the North and the South.
As many as 600 participants from 77 countries are here for a brainstorming session with their local peers on how to mutually benefit from a wide range of economic activities, including more trade, joint ventures, technology transfers, relocation of industries and franchise of reputed brands.
Proposed to be an annual event, Expo 2005 coincides with an enabling economic environment, created painstakingly over the past five years by a package of economic reforms, now being followed by the second.
The outcome of these reforms, made more meaningful by massive foreign capital inflows, is evident from a GDP growth rate of over 6.5 per cent along with sharply rising domestic industrial investment and robust foreign trade.
Good corporate profits and an economy awash with money have created an unprecedented boom in the stock and real estate market. The high growth rate is likely to continue at least for the medium term, offering opportunities for local and foreign trading partners to benefit from.
Pakistan's economy today is far more deregulated, liberalized and integrated with the global market than ever before. Foreigners are allowed an even playing field and do not suffer from any discrimination.
Security of foreign capital and profits are guaranteed by the state. Policy-makers are fully convinced that they need to carry on with the reform process. Sovereign risks are down. Regional tensions are on the wane.
The recent years have witnessed expanding trade and economic cooperation with countries in the region, particularly with the Middle East, Afghanistan and also India. This is opening up avenues for triangular deals involving Arab investment, western technology and stakes and indigenous business expertise.
The state of industrial development, entrepreneurial skills and its physical location have placed Pakistan in a unique position to become a manufacturing hub in Asia. The much bigger markets of Pakistan's neighbours, India and China, have tended to overshadow the significance of a smaller economy with potentials to serve the regional markets.
Aware of the handicap, policy-makers are making a major effort to formulate an export-oriented industrial policy, expected to be in place soon. This includes measures to reduce the cost of doing business and training of workers in skills required for efficiency of production and higher productivity.
These policies have the support of the international lending institutions and are being formulated with the help of a World Bank consultant. A business-friendly environment has helped attract corporate executives to have a fresh and deeper look at the potentials of trade and investment.
They include entrepreneurs from the saturated developed economies of the United States, Europe and Japan, where the cost of production is high. There are thus compelling reasons to relocate their investments in developing countries with a "feel good" factor.
Pakistan can emerge as a model for economic growth for its neighbours to emulate and to give hope to the region's teeming millions currently in the grip of poverty. However, it needs to do more to attract foreign investment by speedily setting up proposed industrial parks for one-window infrastructural facilities.
A crash programme is also needed for training of people in various trade skills. It is time for Pakistan as well as foreign investors to make up for the lost opportunities in this region over the past many decades.
Saarc summit postponement
For the second time in less than two months, the Saarc summit conference has been postponed. While the one scheduled for Jan 9-11 in Dhaka had to be put off because the region and the world had to cope with the tsumani disaster, the second postponement has been caused by India's decision to stay away.
This is the fifth time that India has been the cause of a Saarc summit postponement. In 2003, too, the conference scheduled in Islamabad had to be called off because New Delhi refused to confirm its participation.
Wednesday's Indian decision came in the wake of political developments in Nepal, but the official reason given by New Delhi for its decision was the security situation in its "neighbourhood".
This is an affront to Bangladesh, which has spent 160 million takas on the summit. Press reports say that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not wish to sit at the same forum with King Gyanendra, who has declared an emergency in his kingdom after dismissing the government.
The argument does not hold much water, because in every Saarc summit Indian leaders had no qualms about sitting with the king of Bhutan, which is far behind Nepal in terms of political development.
Besides, in all international groupings of which India is a member- say, the non-aligned forum- New Delhi has been having interaction with some of the world's worst autocrats. The decision, thus, to stay away from Dhaka lacks substance politically and morally.
India does not enjoy good relations with Bangladesh, too, and accuses it of harbouring infiltrators, who allegedly have training camps for terrorists. Mostly from Manipur-Tripura, these secessionists are India's headache in its north east.
India could deal with them politically and sort the problem out instead of blaming Bangladesh for its troubles. Besides, this is not a new problem, and New Delhi has been breathing down Dhaka's neck for quite some time.
It could have continued to remain engaged with Bangladesh without having to torpedo a forum where leaders of the seven South Asian nations meet to focus on regional cooperation. Also to feel disappointed are those who were expecting a meeting between Pakistan and Indian prime ministers on the sidelines of Saarc.
Price of VIP security
Security measures adopted by the Karachi police over the past three days to ensure visiting VIPs' safety have bordered on paranoia. Consequently, the entire exercise has been a living nightmare for motorists and commuters who were stuck in traffic jams on city roads for hours.
Several roads, including Sharae Faisal, were closed for traffic from time to time. For the safe passage of the president's motorcade and the visiting foreign investors, the police lifted all vehicles parked in the service lanes of Sharae Faisal and moved them to undisclosed locations.
This caused additional anguish to those who had to run around looking for their cars and motorcycles hours after the dignitaries had passed. Undue hardship was endured by many others, among them patients who needed to get to the hospital but got stuck in a sea of stationary traffic in side streets instead. The question is: does it really have to be this bad?
While providing security for the visiting dignitaries is very important, there ought to be some method to the madness that is invariably witnessed on such occasions.
Gross excesses are committed against ordinary citizens' right of way when the state machinery gets so obsessed with ensuring safe passage for a few at the expense of all others.
The security measures enforced around Hasan Square in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, too, have become another sore point for area residents. The latter have been told not even to step out on their apartment balconies or to entertain guests during the on-going trade fair at the Expo Centre there.
Under the circumstances, unfortunately, the impression many visiting investors may take back of Karachi will be one of artificially enforced calm in this bustling city when there is really no cause for it. This is surely not the face of Pakistan we want projected abroad.