A nationwide campaign of Bahria University to promote country’s blue economy
In recent years, policymakers have come to the conclusion that foreign direct investment (FDI) is needed to boost the growth in developing economies. It is claimed that FDI can create employment, increase technological development in the host country and improve the economic condition of the country in general, making investible funds available. FDI inflow to developing countries is assumed to produce externalities through technology transfer and spill-over effect which have a last longing effect on the economy. There are many benefits of FDI both to the host country and the home country as it adds direct capital financing into supplies and serve as a source of valuable technology and know-how to the host developing countries by fostering linkages with local firms.
FDI in Pakistan Oct 2018- Jul-2019
These investments and technological innovations play a central role in general to the economy and serves as a catalyst for the deprived areas in specific.
Pakistan is a victim of terrorism and has gone through the economic downturns from the past 10-12 years in which Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) provinces are under the threat of these activities for which provinces pay high price in the form of damaged infrastructure, poverty, worse system of education, uncertainty, low investment by local and no investment by foreign investors due to high risk, worse health conditions etc.
Balochistan the land of minerals and game changer is one of the largest provinces of Pakistan in terms of land area with vast roads and infrastructure indicating higher connectivity not only through roads but also has a port in the form of Gwadar a key pillar of China Pakistan Economic Corridor is one of the untapped resources of Pakistan need to be targeted and utilized by focusing inclusive economic growth, social justice, and protection of the environment and natural resources.
To achieve these objectives both programmes and projects with sustained efforts by the federal and provincial government of Balochistan need to focus by development of sustained educational policy followed by political stability and sustainability and focus on human development. For this purpose, only dialogue between citizens and public officials will enable both to fulfil their responsibilities towards sustainable development and ensure accountability and trust focused on the social contract and state-citizen relationship.
After announcing implementation of agenda 2030 at global level by United Nations with signatures by countries including Pakistan, provinces are trying to come up with their own implementation framework. Keeping this process intact, the province of Balochistan is also working on its own framework while keeping into account cultural ingredients into the context along with the local needs. Government of Balochistan striving hard to gain the local and foreign confidence back to have ample amount of investment for the development of province through sustainability in the educational policy to develop human capital which itself will help in ending unemployment leading to ending poverty and hunger, huge amount to be invested on law and order control. Digging deep into poverty and hunger they are connected to each other via the concept of monetary terms, i.e. if there is no poverty, there will be zero hunger which further has connections to environment and water related goals. When we talk about the economy and its related goals there is concept of productivity in terms of labor which can only be achieved through the provision of quality health services.
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To address these challenges capacity of Bureau of Statistics at provincial level needs to be dealt followed by the Bureau of Statistics at national level in order to deal with data against all targets and all goals because without data and strengthened institute making policies and targets backed by data will be difficult task to approach so, there is a need to look from bottom to up approach with more say and support at local level. This objective can be achieved while capacitating the stakeholders as per requirements while keeping local contents into the consideration which require local policy framework. But all these issues only addressed if it is backed by investment either it is local investment, FPI’s or FDI’s.
Provincial Government of Balochistan takes some very crucial steps in 2018-2019 for the well being of its population accompanied by the attractive policies for local and foreign investors that may lead to prosperity of the province.
Overview of adopted policies of government of Balochistan
Along with these policies, targets are set for 2019-2020 to overcome the challenges with the expectations that financial gaps to be filled by FDI’s .
As economy of Pakistan has suffered from underdevelopment from a long time lacking active involvement in the international economic market, Gwadar Port is one which ensures the invigoration of economy of Pakistan which is not far away from us to enter into the Straits is thought to be suitable for central part for global business activity in and around the Indian Ocean, in addition guarantee to overcome the challenges of energy. This port is also geostrategically situated to work as a place for shipping energy resources from Balochistan. With the arrival of large number of investment, Pakistan could become an important global passage for petrochemical trade and very much encourage its economy to grow so steps required to take advantage from our Blue Economy as Gwadar deep seaport can supply the route to use the extremely big natural resources of Central Asia, whose “market access is hindered by political and geographic conditions”. According to current estimates, these natural energy resources are equal to the combined energy resources (oil reserves) of Kuwait and Iraq and the energy resources (natural gas reserves) of Saudi Arabia.
The province of Balochistan is blessed with immense natural resources of mines and mineral, fisheries, livestock, oil & gas, agriculture and solar & wind energy and its geographical location sharing two international borders and proximity to the Gulf States bestow a unique distinction to this land of opportunities. The Gwadar Deep Sea Port (an international centre of business and trade in making) and China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) have augmented the importance of Balochistan, creating more business (by CM Balochistan) so, huge investment is required to develop, explore and utilize the potential of this province, which cannot be financed only through local investments so governments should formulate the policies accompanied with the safe and developed grounds to catch the attention of investors around the world for achieving the set targets which guarantee prosperous Pakistan.
[box type=”note” align=”” class=”” width=””]Ms. Urooj Aijaz (Faculty Bahria University Karachi, Dept of H&SS) & co-writer: Mr. Azeem Khan Kakar (spokesperson to CM Balochistan)[/box]