Right direction: Privatisation Commission chairman rallies support

Opening trade with India, privatisation the only way forward: Zubair.

KARACHI: Opening trade with New Delhi and privatisation of loss-making state-owned enterprises is the only way forward, Minister of State for Privatisation and Privatisation Commission (PC) Chairman Mohammad Zubair told the audience during the 2nd CIO Summit at Marriot Hotel on Tuesday.

The CIO Summit is an annual event that gathers Pakistani as well as international experts to discuss the latest trends in IT. However, Zubair, also the event’s chief guest, utilised the platform to build the case for open trade with India and the job he was trusted with by the premier: privatisation of state-owned companies like Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Steel Mill for example that lose between Rs400 billion to Rs500 billion of public money.

His speech was preceded by a presentation about the need for data centres and smart cities, but the privatisation minister changed the overall mode by criticising the audience – as well as the whole nation – for being obsessed with our eastern neighbour.

Referring to a meeting held at the Prime Minister House two weeks ago, Zubair said there was a major breakthrough on trade liberalisation with India but some officials talked about the possible backlash of going ahead with the decision. “We have to change this mindset as we can’t go anywhere without trading with India,” he said.

Making full use of the platform, the minister also pushed the government’s agenda for privatisation of the loss-making public entities.

Borrowing an analogy from cricket, Zubair said Imran Khan was a very good leader and an outstanding cricketer but it was a team effort that won the 1992 World Cup – the other 10 players played an important role. Likewise, he said, fixing the country’s ailing economy is a team effort.

All the country’s social indicators – tax as percentage of GDP, education spending as a percentage of GDP and healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP – are the worst in the world, the minister said. By contrast, military spending is exactly the opposite, he said.

“We have to make our choices. If military spending can’t be reduced, we should accept the results,” Zubair said. The country has already fought four wars and wars are fatal for the economy, he said. There have been four coups already while two constitutions remained suspended for 20 years, he said.

This year’s federal income is about Rs3.4 trillion of which Rs1.5 trillion has been allocated for provinces, Rs1.100 trillion for debt servicing and Rs800 billion for the military, the minister said. “We need fiscal space to invest in energy, education and healthcare,” he said.

If the government can give power to the industries, the latter’s productivity will increase, resulting in more jobs and more taxes to the government, the minister said. Take the example of a recent increase in large scale manufacturing, he said – the government only added about 1,800 mega watts to the national grid.

While pushing his case for privatisation, Zubair said mobile phones and other technologies became cheaper and the quality of services improved because these businesses were run privately. “Our experience with the banking sector would have been worse, had they not been privatised,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2014.

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