UmarJustice
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LAHORE: Pakistan has gradually lost its advantageous global positioning in trade mainly due to deterioration in all governance standards and partly due to its involvement in the war against terror, said economists.
At the start of the century, we were positioning ourselves as the trade corridor for Central Asia. Today our road infrastructure is in shambles; railways have almost derailed and Pakistan International Airlines has gone out of air, said Asif Ali Shahid, certified public accountant.
He said transportation cost of a 40-feet container from Karachi to Lahore is higher than the shipment cost of the same container from China to Karachi. This is because Pakistan has made the cheapest and quickest mode of transport, railways, redundant, despite having excellent rail track, he said.
Asif said, It has become a fashion to blame all woes on outside sources such as foreign powers, the war on terror or even weather but the fact is that we ourselves are responsible for this situation.
Politicians, bureaucracy, military and economic planners all played their role in pushing Pakistan to the turmoil we are facing, he said, adding that the mess has to be controlled sooner than later.
In desperate situations, we look towards foreign assistance, said Faisal Qamar, economist.
We are bailed out for sure but at a cost, he said, adding that many a time we compromise on our national interests and punish our consumers for the sins committed by those in the power.
After every four or five years, we look towards the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to keep ourselves from defaulting on our loans.
Qamar said that the IMF seems willing to extend helping hand after Pakistan smoothened relations with the United States.
My sources in the IMF reveal that this time around it would technically be swapping of $3 billion that we owe to this donor in the next 12 months.
He said since the IMF rules do not allow swapping of loan they would provide Pakistan equivalent assistance that it supposed to pay it back.
However, he warned that Pakistan will have to bear harsh conditions if it wants all the tranches of that bail out. Again the poor consumers would suffer if the government lacked the will to tax the rich equally.
Naveed Anwar Khan, senior economist, said baring Pakistan the entire South Asian and Far Eastern regions prepared themselves for the opportunities that are coming towards south.
Our resources allocation remained flawed. We are facing gas shortages because the exploration policy for the new fields took out incentive to explore, he said.
We ignored power shortage warning and have lost our markets to our neighbours that give preference to industries in power supplies than the domestic sector, he added.
Today, he said Pakistan is low cost, low quality and low value-added producers of goods, while competing economies have gone high tech.
Successive governments showed urgency in signing international agreements and conventions without bothering to analyse whether these are in the national interest or not, he said, adding, Pakistan for instance, has signed International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions that have not even been signed by the United States, Japan, China or India.
Dr Shahid Zia, senior market analyst, said that the economy has to be treated on merit and should not be left on the whims of the rulers.
In Pakistans case, foreign policy dictates economic policies.
He said regional trade should be promoted and for this the regional countries should sort out the modalities.
In our case, the modalities for transit trade for Afghanistan were dictated by the United States and the same country pushed us to open trade with India, he said, adding that to oblige a super power, the government made these two decisions in haste.
Deteriorating standard of governance hitting Pakistans global trade positioning - thenews.com.pk
At the start of the century, we were positioning ourselves as the trade corridor for Central Asia. Today our road infrastructure is in shambles; railways have almost derailed and Pakistan International Airlines has gone out of air, said Asif Ali Shahid, certified public accountant.
He said transportation cost of a 40-feet container from Karachi to Lahore is higher than the shipment cost of the same container from China to Karachi. This is because Pakistan has made the cheapest and quickest mode of transport, railways, redundant, despite having excellent rail track, he said.
Asif said, It has become a fashion to blame all woes on outside sources such as foreign powers, the war on terror or even weather but the fact is that we ourselves are responsible for this situation.
Politicians, bureaucracy, military and economic planners all played their role in pushing Pakistan to the turmoil we are facing, he said, adding that the mess has to be controlled sooner than later.
In desperate situations, we look towards foreign assistance, said Faisal Qamar, economist.
We are bailed out for sure but at a cost, he said, adding that many a time we compromise on our national interests and punish our consumers for the sins committed by those in the power.
After every four or five years, we look towards the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to keep ourselves from defaulting on our loans.
Qamar said that the IMF seems willing to extend helping hand after Pakistan smoothened relations with the United States.
My sources in the IMF reveal that this time around it would technically be swapping of $3 billion that we owe to this donor in the next 12 months.
He said since the IMF rules do not allow swapping of loan they would provide Pakistan equivalent assistance that it supposed to pay it back.
However, he warned that Pakistan will have to bear harsh conditions if it wants all the tranches of that bail out. Again the poor consumers would suffer if the government lacked the will to tax the rich equally.
Naveed Anwar Khan, senior economist, said baring Pakistan the entire South Asian and Far Eastern regions prepared themselves for the opportunities that are coming towards south.
Our resources allocation remained flawed. We are facing gas shortages because the exploration policy for the new fields took out incentive to explore, he said.
We ignored power shortage warning and have lost our markets to our neighbours that give preference to industries in power supplies than the domestic sector, he added.
Today, he said Pakistan is low cost, low quality and low value-added producers of goods, while competing economies have gone high tech.
Successive governments showed urgency in signing international agreements and conventions without bothering to analyse whether these are in the national interest or not, he said, adding, Pakistan for instance, has signed International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions that have not even been signed by the United States, Japan, China or India.
Dr Shahid Zia, senior market analyst, said that the economy has to be treated on merit and should not be left on the whims of the rulers.
In Pakistans case, foreign policy dictates economic policies.
He said regional trade should be promoted and for this the regional countries should sort out the modalities.
In our case, the modalities for transit trade for Afghanistan were dictated by the United States and the same country pushed us to open trade with India, he said, adding that to oblige a super power, the government made these two decisions in haste.
Deteriorating standard of governance hitting Pakistans global trade positioning - thenews.com.pk
So I ain't surprised! 
