PIDE Vice Chancellor Nadeem Ul Haque speaking at the inaugural session of a 3-day Annual General Meeting and conference that the need for giving due attention to attracting foreign investment instead of getting loans to achieving sustainable growth of the national economy.
PIDE VC said that the economic system in Pakistan was on a ‘life support system”, and emphasized on exploring measures to tackle confronted challenges like the surge in the exchange rate of the rupee with other currencies, unemployment, and the aid-debt trap.
Dr Nadeem further pointed out that the solution to the economic quagmire was not getting more debt, criticizing the over reliance on loans, particularly from institutions like the International Monetary Fund, adding Pakistan was in the perpetual cycle of aid-debt traps involving IMF, donors, consultants, and Transparency International.
Dr Nadeem also questioned the effectiveness of raising taxes and the lack of challenges to consultants in the development process.
The first-panel discussion of the conference was on “Foreign Aid: Boon or Bane?,” moderated by Shahid Mahmood, Research Fellow at PIDE, Asad Hayauddin, Former Secretary of the Economic Affairs Division, Tobias Haque, Lead Country Economist for Pakistan at the World Bank, and Naveed Aziz, Senior Governance Advisor to the FCDO.
The moderator said that the donor agencies influence major policy decisions; however, there was a dearth of cost-benefit analysis of the projects.
All panelists agreed that Pakistan needs to develop a long-term development plan with a clear indication of what support it requires from external sources and to what extent. Pakistan’s debt utilization stands as a major issue that has to be immediately improved. Pakistan needs to realize that aid is not the solution to problems, instead, it is just a tool to facilitate the implementation of development plans and achieving the set goals.
The co-hosts of PSDE’s 37th Annual Conference, organized by PIDE, include the World Bank Group, UNICEF, RASTA, the Bank of Punjab, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, Saudi Pak Agricultural and Industrial Investment Company, and BZU School of Economics.
