Highlighting the need of engagement of different stakeholders for more consultations and inputs, the speakers and participants of the seminar welcomed the consultation process of Planning Commission of Pakistan on New Development Approach which focuses on productivity-led growth, reformation of markets, reconfiguring of cities and more focus on youth and communities.
Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri presided over the proceedings of seminar entitled ‘’Productivity, markets & communities: a new development approach’’ organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Monday. The seminar focused on Planning Commission’s new thinking on development strategy for the country keeping in view the current milieu of the country particularly governance and security, and issues such as economic, political, environmental amid growing population in the country. The New Development Approach (NDA) was being complimented by a strengthened consultative process where Planning Commission of Pakistan was taking the initiative of meeting all segments of the society for collecting feedback and building ownership of ideas. He termed the initiative of Planning Commission as ‘a welcome move’ which engages different sections of society for further deliberation meant to enhance dialogue for participatory and inclusive development in the country. He lauded Commission’s efforts in critically studying the development mistakes of the past and now building a new consultative platform for reaching out for innovative ideas. “The current model of growth is not delivering and we are not only failing in hard but in soft infrastructure as well,” he added.
Chief Economist, Planning Commission of Pakistan Dr. Jaffer Qamer, while introducing the NDA, said that an unintended consequence of country’s policies have been the stifling of internal markets, cities and communities, which play a critical role in fostering productivity, innovation and entrepreneurship and ultimately promote growth, prosperity and development. In the new framework, private sector was the growth-driver in open market environment that rewards productivity, efficiency, innovation and entrepreneurship, while the government protects public interests and rights, provides public goods, enforces laws, punishes exploitative practices, and operates with transparency and accountability.
Chief (Macroeconomics Section), Planning Commission Dr. Vaqar Ahmed elaborated the new frame working and maintained that the current development regime was still based on the Harrod-Domar Model of 1940s which explained economic growth largely as a function of available savings. However, the model didn’t work as savings were not channelized for productive uses, quality of investment remained poor, domestic resource mobilization remained low, and the current model did not incorporate the endogenous forces of growth such as openness, ability to change and innovate. He explained that international evidence shows that in terms of hardware of economic growth involving infrastructure, Pakistan ranked in line with regional economies such as China and India. However, it was the software of economic growth where Pakistan lagged behind. “This software should ideally include human capital and management practices that are in sync with globally successful experiences, and capable of generating sustained productivity and efficiency” he went saying. He added that the NDA proposed four key pillars such as a) generating productivity through innovative use of existing resources and promotion of entrepreneurship, b) reforming internal markets for removing barriers to entry and in turn making markets more inclusive, c) reconfiguring cities through proper zoning for increased resource mobility, and d) empowering the communities for improving quality of life.
General, Trade Policy, Ministry of Commerce Dr Safdar Sohail, analysing different aspects of NDA, hoped that this was a good beginning of a process, which has lot of merits for national economy and prosperity of the country. “The NDA has so many trade offs as it suggests new ideas while contrasting it with national and international experience, and evaluation of the past failures will help to make the policies more inclusive and participatory,” he added. He emphasised the need for focus on domestic services, removing the market distortions, documentation of economy and taxation reforms, retainment policy of talent youth as opposed to current brain drain, addressing the weak role of oversight institutions and strengthening the human resources development institutions to manage the resources and affairs of highly urbanized but disorganized country. He, however, urged that the ongoing process of decentralization, provincial autonomy, and matters related to good governance needs to be given due consideration in the process.
