LAHORE: The world scenario has been changing at a fast rate for the last few decades. Colonialism has ended but curse of poverty is haunting the mankind. The industrial revolution in 20th century pushed the colonial powers to pack up and leave behind a legacy of hunger, illiteracy and fierce political contentions in the lands of their subjects. But it will be unfair to put blame of every evil on colonialists. The people who were subjected to colonialism should have to share some onus of responsibility for hunger, disease, and ignorance themselves.
In Pakistan, every successive government based its foreign affairs diplomacy on political issues such as Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Siachen and tried its best to garner maximum world support. Though the problems facing the country were multifaceted, but problem with the foreign affairs policy makers remained the same who had failed to understand that political relations are no more important in the face of economy.
This is the new era of trade, investment and economic blocks and political issues have no place to affect the economic relations. In the new economic world order, the governments are run as commercial entities.
When Finance Minister Ishaq Dar says that the government will direct ambassadors in different countries to project economic achievements and medium-term plan of Pakistan to build a strong case for attracting foreign investment in the country, the government is moving in the right direction. But this is only a small step. As a matter of fact, all the ambassadors should be given strict directions to work as marketing managers and explore markets for Pakistani products. There are hundreds of thousands of factories in Pakistan producing very quality products from automobile spare parts to electronic paraphernalia and a good marketing strategy can ensure billions of dollars annual foreign exchange earnings. The ambassadors and their teams should shift their thrust from politics to economy and a daily assessment is required to judge performance of every diplomatic mission.
It is important to note that cosmetic steps to attract foreign investment so far proved to be a futile exercise as nothing has been achieved by spending millions of dollars on conferences and seminars. The staff of the diplomatic missions should come out from their luxury offices and run from pillar to post to get business for Pakistan. Otherwise, a status quo is already in place and stereotype and outdated steps will bear no fruit.
