February 28, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 29, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will be the keynote speaker at the Asia2015 conference being held in London March 6 to 7, British High Commission official Yusuf Samiullah disclosed here on Monday.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will open the conference called by the British Department for International Development (DFID), in collaboration with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, to focus attention on building “new forms of partnership” to eradicate poverty in Asia, said the official who represents DFID in Pakistan.

Last year a similar conference had focused the development issues of Africa.

In a roundtable discussion with media persons and senior bureaucrats, Mr Samiullah observed that in spite of its strong growth Asia had more poor than Africa. He invited comments from the audience on the situation in Pakistan.

British High Commission Mark Lyall Grant wished to know why Pakistan’s GDP did not grow as fast as Thailand’s did when 20 years ago both were at the same level of development. He hinted at the role regional cooperation played in the latter’s case.

The overwhelming response from the media persons was that the economy had grown but not trickled down because the country lacked good governance and participatory development.

Development of human capital has long suffered as the key sectors of education and health figured very low in the allocation of funds.

Government officials present agreed with this view but said things had been improving with tax to GDP ratio increasing and more attention being paid by the government to agriculture, the sector most afflicted with poverty.

Central Board of Revenue chairman Abdullah Yousuf observed that the contribution of direct and indirect taxes to the national income which stood at 18 per cent and 82 per cent respectively in 1990s had improved to 32 per cent and 68 per cent.

“Change is inevitable for attaining higher growth,” he said, and to explain the phenomenon reminded that customs duties which were once the major source of revenue are “a dying tax now”.