Panel discussion: Scandinavian perspective on global issues urged

Hetland points out that transparency, equality, and democracy are the ethos which made Scandinavia successful.

Speakers at a roundtable session agreed that there was huge potential for cooperation between Pakistan and Scandinavian countries which needs to be capitalised on for their mutual benefit.

They also stressed the need to have an exclusive Scandinavian perspective and narrative on important global issues based on objective analysis and evaluation instead of looking at them through the US prism, according to a press release issued by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) on Friday.

The roundtable, titled “Pakistan-Scandinavia: Perceptions, Potential and Pathways”, was jointly organised by the IPS, Islamabad and the Pakistan-Norway Association (PANA). The panellists included Swedish Ambassador Lars-Hjalmar Wide, IPS Director General Khalid Rahman, former PANA president Amir Iftikhar Warraich, Norwegian social scientist Atle Hetland, Migration Group Executive Director Dr Sabiha Syed, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) Pakistan Country Representative Petter Eide, IPS National Academic Council Member Air Cdre (retd) Khalid Iqbal, and Pakistani-Danish Communication Consultant Hina Akhtar, while IPS-NAC Member Riazul Haque moderated the discussion.



Ambassador Wide realised the need to carry out dialogue on tricky issues between Pakistan and Sweden and explore the pathways to expand cooperation on areas of mutual interest. He said that there was a huge potential to work together in the sectors of infrastructure building, alternative energy solutions, and environment-friendly technologies.

He noted that public-private sector partnership and good governance were key elements for economic prosperity in any country. Dispersing the impression that Sweden was a neutral player in global issues, he argued that the country was keen to bring peace in the world and was no longer a neutral player on these issues.

Atle Hetland noted that other countries need to learn lessons from the Scandinavian model, which enabled Scandinavia to become probably the most prosperous and economically successful region of the world. He pointed out that transparency, equality, and democracy were the ethos which made Scandinavia successful.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2012.