We can put our country on radar of foreign investors only when we succeed in ensuring peace, rule of law, security.
QUETTA: This is with reference to Dr Akmal Hussain’s article “Budgeting on a knife edge” (June 8). Resource mobilisation is the key to unlocking the stagflation that has inflicted the economy for so long. Agricultural reforms and the taxation of agricultural income is a vital area, which has remained out of sight of politicians and academics. It is not only that 20 per cent of the economy is out of the tax net, but also that this provides a means to help hide income of other sectors also.
Most importantly, foreign investment has been historically low due to issues related to security and terrorism. This necessitates that all those misplaced policies of seeking strategic depth must be abandoned and we need to come to terms with ground realities of our feeble economic strength rather than pursuing such exotic notions. China and India have transformed their economies by attracting foreign investment. We can put our country on the radar of foreign investors only when we have succeeded in ensuring peace, the rule of law and security.
Munir Ahmad
Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2013.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
