ISLAMABAD, Dec 5 (APP): The speakers at a seminar on Monday said the country was needed to prepare itself in the backdrop of changing global geo-political and geo-economic situation.
The four-day Sustainable Development Conference (SDC) was organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in Islamabad and jointly held alongside UNESCAP’s 6th South and Southwest Asia High-level Political forum and Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Speaking at the morning plenary on the first day of the conference, former National Security Advisor Dr Moeed W. Yusuf said that geographically Pakistan could not escape from the great power contestation, as uni-polarity was morphing into a new world order.
“Pakistan can either become proxy ground for this contestation or emerge with a model where destabilized Pakistan is unfavorable for the world and we must move away from assistance to development partners,” he said.
Dr Moeed Yusuf said that Pakistan needed a strategy to send skilled labour to aging countries so as to increase remittances.
He further suggested that Pakistan also needed to take bold policy choices, decentralize power to local governments and allow lateral entry of experts into revamp the government structure.
He stressed on deregulation and privatization of economic space and prioritizing policy continuity in key governance areas through legal and constitutional guarantees.
Haroon Sharif, former Chairman of Board of Investment, shedding light on four major challenges said that globalization was shifting towards regionalism and proximity advantage could cut the cost of trade, an opportunity Pakistan should not miss.
“Global tensions and conflicts are causing exogenous macro-economic shocks and share of nations in international organizations has become political leverage which is unfavorable for Pakistan’s bargaining positions,” he remarked.
He suggested that amidst inflation, trade and partnerships diversification and regionalism can be the viable solutions.
Emphasizing separating geo-economics from geo-strategic positioning, he said that the government should offer purely economic value by offering asset swaps so that the countries economic and investment interests could be interlinked.
Gen. (retd) Zubair Mahmood Hayat, former Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee said that geo-strategic contest of power at global level and regionally RSS-driven and BJP-led Bharat and associated Akhund Bharat ideology have serious geo-strategic ramifications for Pakistan.
He said that it was not pure geo-economics, but intertwined geo-strategy and geo-politics at play.
He stressed the need for devising concrete policies to accelerate clean energy transition and exploiting blue economy to access unexplored markets.
Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director SDPI said COVID-19 has decreased global GDP by US$10 trillion and continues to affect global trade and energy market.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has challenged the agriculture market; G7 countries and EU have conflicts over hard choice between heating or eating, which has crowded global energy market, he added.
