This is apropos a Business Recorder op-ed ‘Democracy didn’t work either’ carried by the newspaper a week ago. The writer, Shahab Jafri, made a profound argument in relation to the country’s current economic morass.
He has argued, among other things, that “if you kick the can any further down the road and try to delay implementation of the Fund’s harsh conditions, there’s going to be certain default — something Finance Minister Miftah Ismail finally coughed up at a press conference.
But things have come to such a pass only and only because no government ever took the trouble of devising policies to expand and add value to the export basket and give the trade balance a shot in the arm in all these years.”
Moreover, the successive governments have failed to bring in the FDI a developing country needs to boost its foreign exchange reserves. Look at the case of India where over the last 10 years or so the FDI inflows increased on an average 1.8 percent, helping the economy register a higher growth rate. What we need is a significant increase in remittances, exports and FDI as well to deal with the challenges of current account or external account.
Bushra Shahid (Karachi)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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