MAHBUBUL Haq Human Development Centre has been instrumental in
highlighting problems confronting South Asian economies and suggesting
ways and means of addressing them for the benefit of its billion plus
people. The Centre prepares a report every year on relevant subjects and
this year’s theme was “Technology and Human Development in South Asia”.
Speaking at the launching ceremony on Thursday, experts like Sartaj Aziz
and Dr Ishrat Hussain called for a holistic approach for training of the
manpower with a view to enhancing productivity of the economy.
There is a strong link between technology and human development but
regrettably we have been slow in adapting to the new technologies and
trends. Technology has transformed almost every field and the nations
that kept pace with the change are today reaping the benefits. Some of
the nations are having trade surplus of billions of dollars by merely
focusing on one technology or product. Pakistan’s population mainly
consists of the young people and we can take advantage of the
demographic dividend but so far the successive Governments paid only
lip-service to the proper training of the manpower. In seventies, the
then Prime Minister Z A Bhutto started exporting labour and work force
to the Gulf and since then Overseas Pakistanis are remitting billions of
dollars annually. But the number of Pakistani manpower in the Gulf is
squeezing mainly because there is no more demand for unskilled labour
and we have not been able to provide necessary training to our youth.
The Government has established a national technical and vocational
education authority but it has not been able to make any meaningful
impact. The Federal and Provincial Governments should join hands and
launch a well-coordinated programme for imparting market-oriented skills
to the work force. Apart from skills, they should also be taught Arabic
and English enabling them to adjust themselves quickly in the new
atmosphere.
