Pakistan hasn’t even attempted to actually compete. If the country properly restructured the way India did in the early 90s, then Pakistan can be judged on an equal field.
For example, how can Karachi be crippled, and be asked to compete with Mumbai. Karachi and the coast should be the location of a rebuilt industrial base for the country; utilizing its location between the GCC and India and China, to integrate into the supply China and utilize the shipping lanes. One industry, Petrochemicals and refineries, the way Singapore did would be a very useful industry for Karachi, especially if the TAP pipeline comes down to Karachi.
In the areas, with large populations, such as the major cities of Punjab, human capital development needs to be prioritized these cities are better suited to recruit the best talent for the IT industry, and R&D for the agricultural industry.
We don’t need to equal India’s exports, but we need to be a major player to maintain our influence. Our goal should be to reach at least equal GDP per capita. With our population set to reach 25% of India’s population in a generation or two, having a GDP 25% of India will allow us to spend enough to maintain our independence and prevent Indian hegemony. A strong economy can also allow us to make diplomatic moves, with other powers in the Indian Ocean, to contain India in certain ways if they try to express hegemonic designs. And before anyone says India won’t have Hegemonic designs or hasn’t gone to war outside their borders, they should study the Chola Indian empire in Southeast Asia.
Frankly, if we were competing we would look to really build solid economic interdependency with the GCC. One example, would be a 300 mile undersea electricity cable to sell (or buy) electricity between Pakistan and Oman and the rest of the GCC. This is similar to the proposed Australia-Singapore electricity cable and the already running electricity cable between Australia and Tasmania.
What ever we didn’t consume we could sell and if we needed electricity in a punch we could buy from the GCC countries. If we had the money, we could finance the rail links to Central Asia and make good on a desire to shift to geo-economics.
If we were really competitions we would make good on the state of the region, work in conjunction with the Saudis (GCC more broadly) and the Turks to reshape Central Asia as well as check if not contain Iran, as had been hoped after the fall of the Soviet Empire. If we were competing we would be finding ways to use that new situation to facilitate the trade and movement of goods, people’s, services, and information between our regional partners. If we were really competing we would have a 50 year plan to be a G8 country, the way JP Morgan projects is possible.
If we were competing, all new areas of our cities would not be single family houses but 5 story building similar to what was envision (and not actually built) in Masdar city in the UAE. If we were competing our public transportation network would be cheap and affordable and ubiquitous. Our agricultural productivity would be high enough our food prices would be the lowest in the region, and our people’s cost of living would be lower than any nation in the region without subsidies, making our workers would enjoy a better standard of living even when paid lower the regional competitors, so as outcompete them for business and investment.
Masdar City in Abu Dhabi is designed with energy, transit, human comfort, and sustainability in mind.
www.cnu.org
If we were competing even common Indians and Indian businesses would hope our economy continues to grow so they would benefit from the lower costs to do business due to regional growth effect. If we were competing they would be striving to have good relations with us to have a chance to enter our market the way Japan tried to do business as China was rapidly growing over the last 40 years. Part of me is happy India is developing, as it raises the expectations we have for our government to keep pace, especially in human capital development. Our child mortality is horrendous and so many kids die needlessly, had we had a half way decent economy. As a father, that is a thought I remember most as I watch the economy sink even lower. If we were competing our government officials would be earning their Jannah hand over fist, as the lives they would be saving would be counted in the millions if not tens of millions.
If we actually got our act together we could think in visionary ways, and use the 30-50 year demographic dividend to become at least a middle income country, and be a good friend to have for our allies and a nation not to tread on lightly by those nations that have designs on our liberty.
We need to be the best we can, being a people changed, and with that attitude, Allah will give us what he has ordained for us.
Btw, the world isn’t giving India the rosy colored glasses decades to grow its economy on the west’s dime and muscle them out of business opportunities the Chinese have been able to do. They are looking at India with the lessons of China in their mind. Don’t expect India to have the game growth China did.
Most of our growth will probably come from our region, and the Indians know this. We need to get our fundamentals right, and our economy is primed to take off, considering the low hanging fruits of our inefficiencies that can be solved by just bringing the lost modern equipment and the labor intensive industries form China that their demographics and the limits of automation will require them to shed. In return they will have a partner that won’t be as depended on extra-regional pressures.
At the same time if China can manage to keep foreign firms from leaving China and going to India in a large enough percentage, for just the next 20 years, they will have forced India to squander its demographic dividend
To paraphrase Donald Trump, if We are competing, “we are going to send killers to make our deals and not social workers.”
I won't even get to the begging bowl aspects
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