ISLAMABAD: Pakistani nation has travelled a long way, going through so many ups and downs in its 70 years, but it is still staying strong and moving ahead as the sixth most populouscountry of 200 million people.
In 70 years, although the country has exhibited significanteconomic growth with a phenomenal increase in the quantum ofinherited infrastructure, it continues to lag behind in the sphereof human and social capital development and national cohesion.
To propel Pakistan forward in the global economy, Prof AhsanIqbal, as Minister for Planning, created a Vision 2025, which setsconcrete goals for the country with the objective to put Pakistanamong the top 25 economies of the world by 2025 and among the top 10high income economies by 2047.
Prof Ahsan talks about lost opportunities. “Pakistan was onthe way to becoming a developed nation during the early 60s but lostits way.
“Later during the early 90s, Pakistan again led the way inSouth Asia but again within a decade lost its direction.”
Prof Ahsan Iqbal, who now holds the portfolio of Minister ofInterior, has a grasp of what Pakistan lost and what it achieved inits 70 years.
He said political stability is the key to keep Pakistan on theright track.He says, “Pakistan is again at a take off stage and our goalis to create a modern economy.” “Poverty to prosperity is not an indefinite journey; it canhappen in one generation’s lifetime. Japan, Korea, China, Singapore,Malaysia and Turkey have done it.”
He says, “all successful countries and organisations have achieved success by developing shared visions. In China Deng Xiao Peng in 1979 gave a vision 2049 for China to become a middle income country. In Malaysia, PM Mahatir in 1992 presented Malaysia Vision 2020 to make Malaysia a developed country and in Turkey PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented Vision 2023.”
Pakistan’s Vision 2025 is no different than plans of othercountries. It conceives increase in primary school enrolment andcompletion rate to 100 percent and literacy rate to 90 percent. Pakistan Vision 2025 aims at substantial expansion in levelsof education as well as improvements in the quality of education. The target is to raise public expenditure on education by 4 percent of GDP by 2018. Under this plan, higher education coverage will be increased from 7 percent to 12 percent and number of PhDs from 7000 to 15000.
90 percent of the population will get access to improvedsanitation and the infant mortality rate will be reduced from 74 toless than 40 per 1000 births and maternal mortality rate will be cutfrom 276 to less than 140 per 1000 births
Vision 2025 is an ambitious plan and according to it, povertywill be reduced by half from the current levels. Annual foreign direct investment will be raised from USD 600million to over USD 1.5 billion and tax to GDP ratio will be boostedfrom 9.8 percent to 18 percent. The more daunting task that the government has set itself isto increase annual exports from US$ 25 billion to US$ 150 billion by2025. Pakistan has suffered from energy shortages and the planenvisions to double power generation to over 45,000 megawatts toprovide uninterrupted and affordable electricity and increaseelectricity access from 67 percent to over 90 percent of thepopulation.
Pakistan can achieve all these goals if its citizens believethat they can accomplish all these goals. Prof Ahsan has a message for all his fellow citizens. “For a
change, let’s adopt positive thinking and optimism. We have for toolong cribbed about the glass being half empty. It is my convictionthat Pakistan is well poised to emerge as one of the fastest growingeconomies in South Asia.”