ISLAMABAD, July 24: Youth are the most important resource and represent Pakistan’s prospects for socio-economic development.

This was stated by Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Shaukat Aziz at the launching ceremony of a report on “Adolescent and youth in Pakistan 2001-02” here at a local hotel on Thursday.

He said, if today’s adolescents and youth were educated, they would be better placed tomorrow to contribute to the economic growth.

Demographic transition provides an opportunity for raising economic growth and increasing prosperity, the minister said.

“It is not automatic, it will depend on whether Pakistan succeeds in providing better education, minimizing gender gap and creating job opportunities for today’s adolescent and youth in the country.”

The report has been prepared by the Population Council Pakistan, highlighting various demographic issues of the Pakistani youth.

A survey conducted by the population council is the first ever comprehensive study of Pakistani youth. It also marks for the first time that young people were directly asked questions about their lives, rather than having adults speak for them.

Recognizing the dearth of information on the situation of young people in Pakistan, the population council undertook the survey from October 2001 to March 2002.

The survey sought information from young people (aged 15-24) and adults (parents, where possible) in the household, in each of the 254 communities where the survey took place.

During the survey, a total of 8,074 young people and 6,585 adults were interviewed. The survey was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, Department for International Development, UK, UNFPA and Unicef Pakistan.

The finance minister said in 1947, 32.5 million people were living in Pakistan and by the end of the current fiscal year, the population was estimated to have reached 145 million, thus, roughly in two generations, the country’s population had increased by almost 113 million.

“We have seen East Asia witnessing a dramatic and rapid demographic transition over the last three-and-a-half decades,” he said.

Empirical evidences suggest that a large part of East Asia’s spectacular economic growth derives from the demographic transition i.e. from working age population bulge, Mr Aziz said.

He said in the countries where an increasing share of the population was of working age, economic growth per person was the highest and national saving rates tended to rise.

Pakistan has not yet experienced demographic transition, he said, adding that, in fact, the country was currently facing the largest adolescents population because of its high level of fertility over the last few decades.

The future of Pakistan, he said depended on this generation of adolescents and youth. He said it was imperative that this generation was well equipped to meet the challenges of the future.

“Investment in people, reducing social gap, maintaining macroeconomic stability and achieving higher economic growth on a sustained basis should form the basic principle of realizing potential benefits of large adolescents and youth population,” the minister maintained.

This is the principle, the government is following, he said.

Given our difficult past, “we have made considerable progress on macroeconomic stability and economic growth front. We have to do more on investing in people and on reducing the gender gap,” he said.

The finance minister said the government had already prepared a strategy to improve human capital and reduce social gap. He lauded the efforts of the population council in preparing the report and the financial support of the DFID, Unicef and UNFPA in this regard. He termed the report useful for policy makers and researcher in the country.

The other speakers also appreciated the population council for preparing a comprehensive report on an important issue. They called upon the government to incorporate the recommendations of the report in the formulation of youth policy.— APP