ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: Building international partnership in population development will fail unless there was free flow of qualified and skilled manpower from third world countries into developed nations to acquire advance education, training and grooming and jobs on merit.

This was stated by Pakistan Steel Chairman Lt-Gen (retired) Abdul Qayyum here on Thursday while speaking as chairperson at the Plenary Session of International Population Summit organized by the Ministry of Population Welfare at a local hotel.

“If advanced countries want to utilize third world markets for the consumption of their industrial products under the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime then there should be no restrictions on flow of qualified and talented labour force from under-developed countries for advanced education, training and to find jobs on merit. Without this the slogan of building international partnership in population development will remain a hollow slogan,” Mr Qayyum said.

Deliberating on the current population concerns, the Pakistan Steel chairman said quality of human wealth was a single factor that could make or break a country. World population had crossed the 6.4 billion mark. Increase in population was more in Asia and Africa than in the West.

Another change in demographic profile was taking place as largescale migrations from villages was threatening the delicate infrastructure of cities and also breeding urban poverty.

To arrest this trend and combat population changes both in urban and rural areas, public and private sectors could play a pivotal role by cooperating with governments in social uplift programmes, he said.

Lt-Gen (retired) Abdul Qayyum said in Pakistan tremendous progress was being made as strong institutions such as the armed forces, POF and Pakistan Steel Mills, Hamdard Foundation, Lums and many more were contributing towards the welfare of people.

He said nonetheless, 70 per cent of Pakistani population was living in the villages. In these regions there was dire need to raise population development centres in the form of educational institutions, vocational and health centres, cottage industry and other SMEs to arrest rural migration to cities.

Pakistan’s rural sector had inadequate road infrastructures, housing, electricity, gas and water supply, he informed the meeting. The chairman stressed the need for cooperation between the population ministry, private sector and international organizations to overcome population issues.

He said Pakistan Steel had recently earned an international accreditation “Social Accountability 8000” from renowned Swiss- based company SGS which was only held by five metal industries in the world.