‘Invest in education and health sectors’ is the message World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim has conveyed to the Pakistani leadership in Islamabad. According to him, investment in people will make Pakistan a success story in the comity of nations. Pakistan has one of the youngest populations in the world and investment in education and healthcare will enable them to show good performance in every field of the economy. The World Bank chief also slapped in the face of local leadership when he quoted the founder of the nation Quid-e-Azam’s saying ‘Unity, Faith and Discipline’ which can guarantee not only economic growth of the country, but also convert Pakistan into a great success story. The present government has only two years left to do any good to this nationand brighten its chances to come to power again in the next general elections. The World Bank chief pointed out the critical phase through which the country is currently going through and the government still has two years to play a historical role for the development of the economy.
Investing in education, especially in early childhood education, means investment in the people as well as provision of healthcare facilities will push the country toward economic development. There is also a need to strengthen private sector by offering it incentives enabling it to play its due role in the country’s economy. However, encouraging the leadership, the World Bank chief says that Pakistan is now on the right track to become a great success story in the world and has offered its experience to ensure sustainable growth. It seems our leadership is unprepared to take any step to boost not only infrastructure, but also introduce structural reforms to strengthen the economy. The country been made hostage to mismanagement, corruption and prehistoric methods of bad governance. In this modern era, the Pakistani leadership can make Turkey, Malaysia, UAE or South Korea as its role models and copy and implement their economic policies in the country.
Pakistan has survived many economic shocks due to its undocumented economy which is a blessing in disguise. The documentation of the economy is necessary, but the government will have to carefully tread on a thorny path as it should not affect the real economic growth. According to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, the country is on the right track and economic indicators are showing improvement. The tax to GDP ratio hasincreased from 8.5 percent to 10 percent and the revenues collections have registered 18.2 percent growth. The minister is right to his words; the jugglery of figures never brought any good to the nation in the past and nothing good will happen in the future. The thing only matter is the actual economic growth.
