Remittances sent by expatriate workers make economy resilient
Experts say people need to create sense of belonging to Pakistan
PHOTO:FILE
A major support to national economy comes from the foreign remittances sent by expatriate workers, experts said at a roundtable session on Economic Resilience and National Character: Harnessing the Human Capital and Skilled Diaspora on Thursday at a local hotel.
Challenges aside, the economy of Pakistan has proved resilient with the supports of home remittances by overseas Pakistanis which fill up the gap between balances of payment to a significant extent, experts said at the roundtable session organised by Center for Global & Strategic Studies (CGSS), Islamabad.
The participants argued that national character is a multidimensional issue and serves as strength of the nation.
They said that Pakistani nation must learn from the past without dwelling into the past. The national character has transformed from inclusive to exclusive, tolerant to aggressive. Extreme polarization has divided the Pakistani society into segments which further lead to political, social and economic divisions.
The speakers reminded that Pakistan was at the pivot of the world and the nation, owing to skewed policies, had converted its geostrategic asset to geostrategic curse.
The Pakistani people need to start national character building and create sense of belonging to Pakistan. The speakers said people are in a habit of believing and hoping that God will sort out our all difficulties. However, they must create policy objectives and actions must be according to these objectives. It is need of the time to engage youth, there will be no success unless the youth was harnessed in the nation building process.
Experts at the round table said that Pakistan can only develop if its gross domestic product growth rate is 7% consistently. Our current foreign debt rate is approximately Rs100 billion. Foreign reserves are not at satisfactory level. There has been a decrease of 8% in imports of oil and petroleum. There is a need to increase competitiveness and capacity. We need to rationalize our FTAs. We are not taking advantage of GSP plus status. While talking about the FATF, participants stated that we might get out of the Grey List because of the action taken by Government. The target is set about 5 billion for next year regarding revenue generation.
Experts said that despite all the challenges the economy of Pakistan has proved resilient. The primary factor that supports the economy of Pakistan is the foreign remittances by overseas Pakistanis which fills up the gap between balances of payment to a significant extent.
At a personal level, migrants experience gained abroad is linked to self improvement in terms of the circumstances prior to immigrating and this may be revealed in better living standards, higher education level.
Furthermore, the participants deliberated that we need to work on what is required and which resources Pakistan has in its kitty. We lack in planning in our economy. We have to phase our planning. There must be a joint monetary committee headed by the Prime minister with the representation of three major political parties of Pakistan. The key lessons for future are management, personnel/ national character.
Trade is the key and there is no wealth without connectivity. Furthermore, the participants were of the view that we have to identify high impact industry that can deliver in return.
We have to device aggressive growth policy and think out of the box. Few of the important speakers of the session included NACTA Ex-Coordinator Ihsan Ghani, Former Federal Tax Ombudsman Abdur Rauf Chaudhry, Islamabad Stock Exchange President Zahid Latif.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 31st, 2019.
Challenges aside, the economy of Pakistan has proved resilient with the supports of home remittances by overseas Pakistanis which fill up the gap between balances of payment to a significant extent, experts said at the roundtable session organised by Center for Global & Strategic Studies (CGSS), Islamabad.
The participants argued that national character is a multidimensional issue and serves as strength of the nation.
They said that Pakistani nation must learn from the past without dwelling into the past. The national character has transformed from inclusive to exclusive, tolerant to aggressive. Extreme polarization has divided the Pakistani society into segments which further lead to political, social and economic divisions.
The speakers reminded that Pakistan was at the pivot of the world and the nation, owing to skewed policies, had converted its geostrategic asset to geostrategic curse.
The Pakistani people need to start national character building and create sense of belonging to Pakistan. The speakers said people are in a habit of believing and hoping that God will sort out our all difficulties. However, they must create policy objectives and actions must be according to these objectives. It is need of the time to engage youth, there will be no success unless the youth was harnessed in the nation building process.
Experts at the round table said that Pakistan can only develop if its gross domestic product growth rate is 7% consistently. Our current foreign debt rate is approximately Rs100 billion. Foreign reserves are not at satisfactory level. There has been a decrease of 8% in imports of oil and petroleum. There is a need to increase competitiveness and capacity. We need to rationalize our FTAs. We are not taking advantage of GSP plus status. While talking about the FATF, participants stated that we might get out of the Grey List because of the action taken by Government. The target is set about 5 billion for next year regarding revenue generation.
Experts said that despite all the challenges the economy of Pakistan has proved resilient. The primary factor that supports the economy of Pakistan is the foreign remittances by overseas Pakistanis which fills up the gap between balances of payment to a significant extent.
At a personal level, migrants experience gained abroad is linked to self improvement in terms of the circumstances prior to immigrating and this may be revealed in better living standards, higher education level.
Furthermore, the participants deliberated that we need to work on what is required and which resources Pakistan has in its kitty. We lack in planning in our economy. We have to phase our planning. There must be a joint monetary committee headed by the Prime minister with the representation of three major political parties of Pakistan. The key lessons for future are management, personnel/ national character.
Trade is the key and there is no wealth without connectivity. Furthermore, the participants were of the view that we have to identify high impact industry that can deliver in return.
We have to device aggressive growth policy and think out of the box. Few of the important speakers of the session included NACTA Ex-Coordinator Ihsan Ghani, Former Federal Tax Ombudsman Abdur Rauf Chaudhry, Islamabad Stock Exchange President Zahid Latif.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 31st, 2019.