Islamabad
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Wednesday urged the D-8 members to transform themselves to markets’ needs as economies could not compete equally without adapting the new paradigm of development in fourth industrial age.
“The new way is to produce in a highly decentralized and interdependent world economy. We must transform ourselves to the needs of our markets.
Unless our economies adapt to this new paradigm of development in the fourth industrial age, we will not be able to compete as equals,” the foreign minister said addressing the virtually held 19th D-8 Council of Ministers Session.
He thanked Turkey, the outgoing Chair, for providing an effective leadership to the Organization.
He also congratulated and extended best wishes to Bangladesh as the incoming Chair of the D-8 Summit.
The theme of the Summit- “Partnership for a Transformative World: Harnessing Power of Youth and Technology”- is both apt and timely.
“We are living today in a highly digitalized but unequal world. And COVID-19 has further accentuated these differences.
Most of the developing countries have low integration into the global economy, the global supply chains and the world of education and culture,” Qureshi remarked.
He said the inequality not only increased the gap between the rich and the poor countries, but also bred discontent among the masses, especially the youth.
Emphasizing the youth to play their role in shaping the future, the foreign minister said the D-8 was especially endowed with a youthful population.
He told the session that around 60% of the 220 million Pakistanis were under the age of 30.
He said investing in youth was therefore a key priority of Government of Pakistan which was empowering them through education, employment and engagement.
He said the young people had ideas on how to break out of the constraints under which the societies and economies of developing countries continued to operate.
They realize that our responses need to be innovative and advanced in terms of technology application, he added.
“We must acknowledge that we are living at an inflection point in history. We are moving from the stage of mass production in industrial goods to the age of mass communication and mass development of products based on ideas.
The new way is to produce in a highly decentralized and interdependent world economy,” he said.
