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Economy must take precedence over politics: Shah

Staff Report

LAHORE: The economy must take precedence over politics to ensure the continuation of the country’s march on the road to rapid development and prosperity, said Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Salman Shah on Tuesday.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day national conference on ‘Technology Upgradation in Industry-Key to High Value Addition and Growth’ at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

He said it is the right time to mark choices, if Pakistan wants to move ahead as huge economic growth has been experienced over the last seven years. “Presently, Pakistan is at the cusp of taking-off to benefit from the ongoing process of globalisation,” the advisor said, adding that the globalisation is very well suited to Pakistan and one can never be a global player unless he participates in global markets.

The PM’s advisor spoke at length on various issues of economic importance and said Pakistan has the potential to become one of the top five markets in the world with sixth biggest population after China, India, USA, Russia and Indonesia.

He also talked about the profiles of the markets of the US, EU, Japan, China and India urging the business community to take advantage of the opportunities available to them in these regions.

He said Pakistan is a dynamic country with 54 percent of its population under 19 years of age, while over a 100 million is under 25 years of age.

“We are really sitting on the bonanza in terms of population,” Mr Shah said. Responding to a question, he said South Korea, which followed the model of Pakistani economy in the 1960s, has a five times bigger GDP as compared to Pakistan, and urged the private sector to take the lead in national economic uplift, especially in human resource development.

Managing Director Technology Upgradation and Skill Development Company (TUSDEC), Suhael Ahmad said the company was engaged in the provision of the facilities to the industrial sector, which it could not develop on its own.

He said the TUSDEC was setting up computer-aided designing and machining centres in different towns of the country to promote digital-based manufacturing.

Mr Ahmad said TUSDEC was also planning to set up Common Facility Centres (CFCs) for electronics sector.

Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI President Shahid Hassan Sheikh said Pakistan is still in the primary stage of industrialisation as it is manufacturing mainly, consumer goods, not machines.

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