It is almost certain that the average household, more specifically the typical housewife, has little awareness or appreciation of the supposedly profound advice that the World Bank has recently given to Pakistan.

The advice is that the level of domestic savings should be raised, instead of relying on foreign savings (that is international borrowing).

The household and the housewife both are more focused on and concerned about the price of petrol at the moment since there is an official hint that the price is going to be lowered by 10 per cent. They are hoping to benefit from this cut in prices so that they can spend it on something else.

In a way, that is the way it operates. The average Pakistani family and individual don’t save on a long term basis.

The general attitude is to spend today and not care about tomorrow. The uncertainty about tomorrow – be it fair or unfair – is a constant feature of our daily economic struggle. It is the inconsistency of our economic policies that is central to public perception.

And taking into account the brazen manner in which banks and financial institutions persuade and seduce their customers to spend, and overspend, is something that calls one’s attention here.

It seems that in their financial success stories and mergers, they are hell bent on outdoing each other to ensure that people spend; that they spend even what they have not earned!; that they spend tomorrow’s income today. That is the way banks and even government banks operate in our times.

I am reminded here of the school savings schemes and student bank accounts that were very much part of our school days. It was a foreign bank that was doing this in the ’50s, and school students were given money boxes by the banks.

These money boxes, with time, grew into small pass books, and I still remember the wonderful feeling that came as we knew that the saving was swelling.

I have often wondered why don’t banks think of this all over again, with a view to making schoolchildren realise the super feeling that comes when their money grows.

Sadly enough, banks play a major role in encouraging spending and not saving. This absence of saving, said one economic major, is because there is the fear of rising prices.

If one does not buy it at today’s rate, then the consumer goods may become still more elusive. Hence, it is better to chase the short-term, short-lived thrill, rather than a security and comfort that may not actually come.

This is the kind of psychology and sociology that determines, to a fair extent, the fact that the domestic savings rate in Pakistan has been low since 2003.

The World Bank has last month released a report titled: ‘Determinants of Savings in Pakistan’ and it has been argued that “if Pakistan wants to sustain its growth and increase its investment without paying increasing shares of income to interest or dividends, it has to finance this investment by raising its domestic saving rate.”

I spoke to the families undergoing varying degrees of anxiety and apprehension due to the eroding purchasing power of their salaries and the reality of the bite that comes from rising prices.

I also spoke to Syed Zafarul Haque, 30, who has just done his Masters in Economics, and asked him how he viewed this low saving rate in Pakistan. He at once listed three factors – corruption, poor economic planning and rising prices – as the factors responsible.

He specifically mentioned the country’s savings schemes and cited the example of the National Investment Trust, indicating that the marketing of the NIT had been inadequate.

Generally speaking, the effort towards creating awareness of the saving schemes has been negligible.

Like some others I spoke to, he was also of the opinion that the low returns offered by banks on savings was also a reason why people avoided depositing money in financial institutions and preferred buying gold, property, etc.

But above all, a kind of gnawing insecurity is behind the prevailing attitude of the people vis-à-vis savings. Purely as a matter of comparison, mentioned in the WB report, the level of savings in China is three times that of Pakistan, and the private saving rate in India is double than in Pakistan.

Finally, one returns to the good old conservative stance – that in a society where living beyond one’s means is acceptable, and where the means of income don’t really matter in ethical terms – it is inappropriate to expect savings rates to be any better.

THE project of “cleaner production techniques” in Sialkot’s tanning and leather industry shows overall 30 to 40 per cent reduction in tanneries pollution.

The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and the government of Norway had jointly launched the Cleaner Production Center (CPC) at Sialkot under the management of Pakistan Gloves Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PGMEA).

The main objective of this project was to control the indiscriminate discharge of potentially harmful solid waste and heavily polluted waste water and reduce production/treatment costs with the introduction and implementation of cleaner production techniques in the local tanning industry.

Former chairman of the Pakistan Gloves Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PGMEA) Muhammad Anwar Butt says that the Norwegian Agency for Cooperation & Development (NORAD) and Export Promotion Bureau (Government of Pakistan) have jointly contributed Rs 100 million for the timely completion of this project. Foreign funding by NORAD was Rs 76.7 million, while the Export Promotion Bureau provided Rs 23.3 million from the Export Development Fund (EDF).

The association says it introduced the cleaner production practices in the tanning industry through the vigorous training in cleaner production practices by establishing an analytical testing laboratory, physical testing laboratory, chrome recovery plant and info center (advisory/extension services).

The Sialkot district government has meanwhile `successfully’ started the implementation of a multi-phased programme for combating environmental pollution of tanneries.

According to district nazim Muhammad Akmal Cheema, the Punjab chief minister has released a special grant of Rs 90 million for the establishment of an `ultra-modern’ water treatment plant at the proposed tanneries zone near Sambrial-Daska with the collaboration of the Sialkot business community.

The construction of Sialkot Tanneries Zone on more than 300 acres of land will be started soon and more than 248 tanneries (including 79 big and 160 small ) will be shifted to this zone after its establishment.

According to the latest statistics collected by the Sialkot district government, all tanneries in Sialkot produce more than 90 million meters fine quality leather annually by using more than 65,000 tons of chemicals during the processing of leather. These chemicals are very dangerous and injurious to health.