IDEAS FOR PAKISTAN

Recent visit of our Prime Minister to US for UN meeting and the response we received from USA made me write this article. I am neither a Financial/Political Analyst nor a Economist but I guess being a Pakistani I have every right to share my opinion.

There is a lot for discussion but I’d try to keep it short, simple and straight forward.
Basically there are number of areas where I’d like our “Leaders” to put emphasis.

1) Education

When we talk about education, I mean the education in general. We do have number of good universities and institutes but overall the numbers are not so commendable. The country which has produced the gems like Babar Iqbal, Arfa Karim, Mehroz Yawar and Ali Moeen Nawazish to name a few, means we have the talent to compete at international level but to nurture such talent you need quality educational institutes and superior quality teachers.

Institutes like TCF – The Citizens Foundation are providing quality education for the under privileged but I feel that our Government schools should be of such caliber that we could provide quality education to everyone on limited fees.

2) Technical Education/Diplomas

Technical diplomas gives ample exposure of practical experience to make a skilled individual in a short span of time and therefore Government’s focus on Technical diplomas/certifications/Apprenticeships would give skilled labors to the organizations and job opportunities for the people.

Europe’s industrial giant plans to start vocational training in Karachi through AMANTECH. The dual training system combines theory and practice via vocational education at schools and apprenticeships at a company for a specific course that could last for 1 to 2 years.

German multinational giants such as Siemens, BASF, Linde, Mercedes-Benz, Merck, Lufthansa Cargo, DB Schenker and DHL have decided to act as partners in the program that aims to generate a regular stream of dedicated workers. Metro, a retail chain in Pakistan, will also be part of the project.
Ref: Express Tribune (Oct 2012)

Apprenticeships like of PIA, Atlas Honda, Steel Mills, Fauji Fertilizers , PAK – SWISS Training center etc are providing Job based apprenticeship. KPT have their own apprenticeship training institute at Manora. The college offers: 3 year Marine Engineering apprenticeship plus 2 year bond service on KPT vessels.

3) Transfer of Technology

I remember few years back our President asked for aid for flood affected relief campaign and in return one of our friend nation offered “Dates (Khajoor)” rather than financial help and the reason was that they could not trust our people. Similarly when Japan was hit with tsunami and there was a lot of destruction, the response from Japan was memorable that “We do not need financial aid, they needed business opportunities.”

The point that i want to mention is that rather than asking for financial aid (that would result in more debt and hence more interest to be paid), we should ask for transfer of technology. This would help us get both financial as well as technological benefits. Few of the cases that I felt are worth sharing are:

• The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) transferred latest wheat sowing technology to Pakistan with an aim to enhance healthy wheat production in the country.
  Ref: The Nation (March 2014)
• China to provide one million dollars to Pakistan and other member states for setting up the center and research laboratories for technology transfer and development.
  Ref: Pakistan Today (June 2013)
  
  • Such kind of technology transfer benefits the country in longer run.

4) International Investment

The term FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) is directly proportional to the country’s political condition as well country’s overall environmental condition. Therefore asking foreign investors to come to Pakistan before stabilizing our own Political and internal issues is useless.

I recommended all my readers to read the below mentioned an excellent webpage covering all the aspects on how to accommodate your Foreign investors, from inquiry to execution.
Make In India

5) I Own Karachi

 

Few years back, there was a campaign which rocked Karachi. I OWN KARACHI, I personally remember being a part of such enthusiastic campaign like many other youngsters that covered number of areas like cleanliness, road sense, traffic handling, planting campaign, medical knowledge and awareness , social media campaigns etc .

Can we have such campaigns again, utilizing the energy of young volunteers in the right directions?

I saw an image of Narendra Modi following the same campaign recently with his “CLEAN INDIA” campaign

6) Foreign Policy

Well Well, Foreign policies and all such higher level matters are beyond our understandings but few things that we could also adapt for our better foreign policy is that:

Narendra Modi invited Japanese business leaders to partner in India’s growth and conveyed a simple message of 3Ds.

Democracy, Demography and Demand.

The Obama administration reached an agreement with India on measures intended to accelerate that country’s shift to renewable fuels, steps that officials say will reduce carbon emissions while helping India’s new government extend electricity to all of its 1.2 billion citizens.

• Narendra Modi’s 3 month public relations and image management course from USA has helped him a lot so its never too late to learn or adapt.

These are the few things that I personally believe would help Pakistan in the longer run and I feel that most of these are implementable and executable. Lets strive for the best for the nation and hope for the best from ALMIGHTY ALLAH !

The reason why I have taken India’s example in most of the cases is that we share Independence year, culture, mindset, political influences etc and I am not associated to any of the political parties by any means.