Friends, we have argued that Pakistan's economy needs to change and that change will not be possible with a change in the nature of Pakistani politics -- The Chinese Premier has "we have to help ourselves" -- Once China needed to change it's economy, and then as Pakistan now, it had to change the nature of their politics, think of Dung Xiao Ping, think of how radicalism was eradicated -- what can we learn from the Chinese??
Learning from China
Hamid L Sharif
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Pakistan’s per capita income in 1978 was greater than China’s ($237 versus $155) but by 2012 China’s per capita income was almost five times greater than Pakistan’s ($1280 versus $6090). Since opening up in 1978 to the global market, China has lifted over 500 million people out of poverty, and today is the world’s second largest economy.
The Chinese government has no pretensions of exporting its development model and realises that each country has its own unique circumstances, and must forge its own development path. Yet does China’s experience offer any lessons for other developing countries like Pakistan? I would identify three characteristics of China’s development that bear wider consideration:
First, China’s voracious and eclectic appetite for knowledge and know-how is remarkable. At all levels of government and society, people strive to learn – but not ape. The Chinese often adapt practices from elsewhere ‘with Chinese characteristics’ – shorthand for contextualising international experience within China’s specific circumstances. What this implies is a high degree of local deliberations and above small-scale experimentation, assessment of local experiences, ownership and recognition of successful models. Development advice is not ‘imported’ at face value and uncritically adopted.
As China began seeking foreign development assistance and advice, it also started to develop the capacity to weigh such advice. The key to this was its ability to refine the nature of the development problem so that it could make choices best suited to its conditions.
Second, China’s government agencies follow a highly disciplined process in development planning. All government institutions that will have anything to do with the design and implementation of a development project are brought on board during the design process. The various departments and agencies represent different interests in society.
Officials from various ministries and departments pore over draft project documents for days – if not weeks or even months – to design a project and understand their role in this process. This ensures that the projects better reflect the financial and human resources of the agencies responsible for implementation, operation and maintenance. This is far removed from experience in some other countries where implementation issues are sadly an afterthought.
Third, China has a capable civil service that is incentivised to deliver. This is no mean feat. China is the home of the proverbial ‘mandarins’. It has known a system of competitive merit-based examinations for the civil service since the Sui Dynasty (581-618 AD). Last year more than 970,000 candidates competed for 18,000 positions. Under Premier Zhu Rongji, China saw massive civil service downsizing and today, on a per capita basis, it has one of the most efficient civil services in the world.
Civil servants in China work long hours and competition is intense. With a massive number of micro blogs and netizens, accountability of civil servants is increasing. While corruption continues to be a menace, lapses of government servants are increasingly openly documented and discussed, resulting in the dismissal of some civil servants. This is also leading to louder calls for greater transparency and disclosure of information.
In contrast, state capacity in some developing countries is woefully inadequate and there is little accountability. The mantra of ‘ownership’ that development gurus preach cannot be fulfilled in these countries without addressing the severe lack of capacity and opportunity to make policy, plan, design and implement it. Ownership is not just about political commitment. It is also about the ability of a professional civil service to generate policy options for the political leadership, and the ability to plan, implement, and evaluate.
In many developing countries civil service capacity is compromised by lack of independence, inadequate training, weak accountability frameworks, lack of information disclosure, and disincentives to explore innovation.
Civil service reform is perhaps toughest to implement and it is not surprising that there aren’t many successes in the developing world. Yet any serious effort to address the myriad problems of development that countries like Pakistan face must begin with an earnest effort to reform the civil service. The technical expertise and professional conduct of the civil service must also be enhanced to create the capacity for policymaking, planning, and implementation.
Civil service reform, however, will not be easy. There are vested interests that will resist change. It is, therefore, telling that civil service reform is absent from Pakistan’s political discourse and reformist agenda. In the lead up to the elections no party focused on this issue. While many have spoken of the challenges facing Pakistan including corruption and inefficiency, improving the workings of Pakistan’s civil service is largely unremarked.
One saving grace of Pakistan’s current system is that it still recruits top civil servants on merit. It is a tragedy that, following a colonial service ethos, combined with deteriorating governance, many of these bright recruits are turned into glorified troubleshooters or, more so, into members of an elite class that is an equal partner in the corruption that politicians stand accused of. There can be no corruption by politicians without corrupt or spineless civil servants. Should citizens believe politicians who promise an end to corruption without civil service reform?
A top priority of the new PML-N government must be to embark on the tough road to civil service reform to strengthen state capacity to serve the people.
The writer is Asian Development Bank’s country director in the People’s Republic of China. The views expressed are his own.
