21st
Annual General Meeting and Conference of the
Pakistan Society of Development Economists (PSDE)
Hosted by Pakistan
Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad
1st Day Press
Release
Mr.
Shaukat Aziz inaugurates the 21st Annual General Meeting and
Conference of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists
The 21st Annual General Meeting and
Conference of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists was inaugurated by
the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Shaukat Aziz, at
9.30 a.m. at Marriott Hotel,
Islamabad. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, Chairman, Higher Education Commission, and
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Science and Technology presented his keynote
address on “Skill Development, Productivity, and Growth”. Dr. A.R. Kemal
presented his presidential address on “Skill Development in
Pakistan”.
The Conference is co-hosted by the Department for International Development (DFID),
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), United
Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), National Bank of Pakistan (NBP)
and Zarai Traqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL).
Speaking on the occasion, the
Prime Minister said that earthquake had struck Pakistan on October 8 leaving
behind widespread devastation and enormous loss of life and property. But we are
determined to provide relief for the destroyed infrastructure and the lost
livelihood in the shortest possible time without affecting our economic growth.
While highlighting the theme of the Conference i.e. “Skill Development,
Productivity, and Growth, he said that the above three elements are
inter-related. We recognize that an efficient and innovative economy is critical
if we are to achieve sustainable growth and prosperity for Pakistan. The real
key to sustained higher growth is higher productivity but several factors impact
productivity growth, which include education and skill technology and
operational physical infrastructure. Therefore, productivity growth requires
focus at the whole economic paradigm and not just one or few elements if we have
to remain competitive and a fast growing economy. We must realize that the
innovation and know-how of a highly skilled workforce are the economic edge of
the 21st century. Consequently, when we talk of strengthening the
education and skills of our people, we mean to strengthen our economic
advantage. We have huge human capital with ingenuity and innovativeness. All
they need is skills and opportunities to harness their full potential. We are
also strengthening democratic institutions of governance and mobilizing and
using all development resources more effectively. By sticking to our reform
regime and policies of stabilization, we are opening our economy further to
growth and preparing businesses for unforeseen shocks; providing freedom,
security, and hope for present and future generations; providing all people with
the opportunity for healthy, productive and fulfilling lives; and serving as
enablers for efficient resource allocation. Our focus is on establishing
national technical and vocational training authority bringing all institution
under one umbrella, sustained increases in investment, promoting information
technology, upgrading our industry, building National Trade Corridor, investing
in human capital and promoting the social sectors, accelerating the creation of
knowledge, reforming and automating our tax regime, strengthening institutions
and improving the competitiveness of our industries, earning energy and water
security; and plan to invest Rs.319 billion in IT and ICT.
We must recognize that economic stability we
have achieved during the last six years is only a foundation. The key is to
build on this – an economy based on knowledge; on the partnership between
technology and human capital; on the alliance between skills enhancement and
higher productivity; to enable our firms to produce more high value-added goods
and services. Unless we accelerate the transformation of our economy to one of
higher skill, higher value, and higher wages, we have little chance of
exploiting these opportunities to our advantage. To do so we need to innovate.
The digital age has made it within our reach. An effective strategy in this
regard demands an effective relationship between government, business, training
providers and all our partners. Working together in partnership we can put in
place the building blocks to create a demand-led system. Our mission is to
convert our progress into meaningful gain for all segments of our society. We
are committed to building our country economically, socially, and politically so
that we bequeath to our children and grandchildren a stronger, more vibrant and
prosperous Pakistan.
Earlier Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman,
Advisor to the Prime Minister on Science and Technology and Chairman Higher
Education Commission (HEC), while delivering his keynote address, said that in
this rapidly changing world, science and technology has become great divider as
the rich are becoming richer and the poor, poorer. However, there is a hope as
education and skill-development can help improve the situation rapidly. Dr.
Rahman said that now socio-economic development is no longer dependent on
natural resources, therefore the vision for the future is knowledge-driven. In
this scenario the key challenge for Pakistan is to become a significant
competitor in the ‘global knowledge economy.’ To this end, he said, there is a
need for research to meet our needs. He said that Pakistan should learn from the
experiences of countries like
China,
Korea, and Japan, especially from China which is the fastest growing economy in
the world. The basic pillar of the China’s strategy is massive human resource
development. Dr. Rahman said that to achieve the objectives of industrialization
and socio-economic development a number of steps has been taken, but still there
is a lot more to be done. Dr. Rahman stressed that children are our real wealth
and Pakistan is blessed with a huge pool of creativity as
Pakistan
has 100 million of population below the age of 25. However, the challenge is to
empower them with quality education and skills and provide them opportunities to
contribute to the process of socio-economic development.
Dr. A.R. Kemal, President of
Pakistan Society of Development Economists (PSDE) and Director, Pakistan
Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) while delivering his presidential
address entitled “Skill Development in Pakistan” said that there has been
significant improvement in the human resource development indicators of Pakistan
in the past few years but still we are way behind. Similarly, in the last few
years Pakistan has improved in the field of technology as indicated by the World
Economic Forum Report but still our economy is lagging in this respect as well.
He said that Pakistan lies in the low level of skill development and it must
move out of that. Dr. Kemal said that in terms of skill development there are 3
types of skills: creative and cognitive skills, personal and social skills and
most importantly vocational skills. However, Pakistan does not possess these
skills in the required quantity. At the same time quality is not up to the
required standards as well. Concluding his address Dr. Kemal said that skill
development, human resource development, and technological progress are very
important if Pakistan
is to make steady progress in terms of sustained economic growth.
In the morning session, Prof.
M. Ali Khan delivered the Iqbal Memorial lecture. Professor E. Evenson,
Department of Economics, the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA chaired
the session. While delivering the lecture, Prof. Khan said that a resolute
working between the boundaries of economics and sociology without privileging
the material or the symbolic need to be of studying the transformations between
them. These notions did not spring from pure theoretical work, but from a need
to identify the principle of social effects. These can be seen clearly at the
level of individual agents – where statistical inquiry inevitably operates – but
cannot be reduced to the set of properties individually possessed by an agent.
Dr. Khan said that different individuals obtain very unequal profits from
virtually equivalent (economic or cultural) capital, depending on the extent to
which they can mobilize by proxy the capital of a group.
In afternoon, in the first
regular session of the conference, 12 papers were presented and discussed in the
areas of skill development, population and gender issues, agriculture, and
exchange rate.
The distinguished lecture was
chaired by Mr. Sartaj Aziz, former Minister of Finance. While concluding the
discussion, he said that in this age of globalization, countries’ success
depends on competitiveness, which depends on technology, which in turn depends
on skill-development. In this regard Pakistan has to travel a long road. He said
that we need to carry out, both industry-wise and locality-wise, research to
identify skill mismatch. If this research is carried out systematically, then we
can identify the requirements of different industries like leather, textile etc
located in different areas. Mr. Aziz said that in Pakistan the enrolment in
vocational institutes is very low as only a fraction of the relevant population
enrolls in such institutes. To overcome this problem rather than making new
vocational institutes we should convert high schools into vocational training
institutes. He said that skill development is not only important for economic
progress but it is also important for poverty reduction because the poor have no
assets and to overcome poverty it is important for them to develop skills.
Earlier while delivering the
lecture on “Productivity and Skills in Industry and Services: A Britain-German
Comparison” Professor Dr. Karen Wagner of the University for Technology and
Economics, Berlin, Germany, said that cross national comparisons are a useful
concept as they help to analyze the functioning of different national systems
and explain what outcomes can be achieved by different means and inputs. They do
not only identify differences between systems but also how systems work, the
roles of actors and how production factors interact. Depending on how efficient
and effective these inputs are combined different productivity levels are
achieved. He said that German Craft apprenticeship system is able to respond in
more flexible was to changes in market technologies and supply claims. This
information can guide policy makers in order to enhance performance.
The Conference will continue
tomorrow and two distinguished lectures will be delivered and discussed. In the
regular sessions the presentations will be made on the Growth/Industry, Macro
Economics, Trade Issues, and Banking and Finance.
