Zubair Qureshi
The government is committed to investing in Pakistan’s huge demographic dividends and turn the country’s immense potential into vibrant economy.
This will also generate opportunities in the job market, generate revenues and put the country on path of development and prosperity.
Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar said this in his keynote address as Chief Guest at the concluding session of the two-day “Thought Leaders Summit 2020” organized by the British Council in Pakistan on Friday.
The event was attended by a large number of experts in the fields of research, higher education, digital, creative & cultural economies.
The Minister spoke on a variety of subjects ranging from creative economy to higher education, digital economy, equality, inclusivity and enabling environment and reiterated his government’s resolve to turn all these challenges into opportunities.
While appreciating the work done by the British Council’s Research Evaluation & Monitoring Unit (REMU), Hammad Azhar agreed there was a need to enhance Higher Education budget particularly the development budget. Although the development part of higher education is registering considerable raise yet it needs to be increased and the government was well aware of it.
Hammad Azhar also divulged into element of equality and inclusivity in education and promised by the mid of the next year, the government would ensure uniform curriculum at school level. “Unless we give our youth a level playing field, we cannot expect to utilize their potential in maximum way.”
Sharing his vision of job creation for the youth, Hammad Azhar said Pakistan could garner huge benefit from its demographic dividends. Other countries like India, Indonesia, Japan, China have taken advantage of their demographic potential but unfortunately, Pakistan despite the fact it has worlds’ richest potential in that particular field, has not utilized it. “We are committed to generating opportunities in the job market in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and the government by branding Pakistan’s potential of demographic richness,” said he.
Hammad Azhar also spoke on the subject of digital economy and admitted in that field too, Pakistan had not performed well in the past. “Digital starts-ups usually begin with Small & Medium Enterprises,” he said adding there was a time when this particular sector’s share used to be 16% but in recent years it steadily declined to 8%.
State of Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance has taken bold initiatives and in next three to four years it will be back at the 16% and we shall make a further increase in it, he said. On the subject of Creative Economy, Minister Hammad Azhar said Pakistan lagged in that sector too. “We need to brand our culture and heritage as small countries with limited sources are generating huge revenue by investing in creative economy.
The British Council, he said, has done a great job by providing a platform for discussing fundamental issues of inclusive development, challenges in higher education, dissemination of knowledge and sharing data. This is ideal time we turn liability into opportunity and this can be made possible only by investing in right direction at right time, Hammad Azhar concluded.
