Economic Development: Pakistan's Policy Choices for the 21st Century (Presidential Remarks)

It is an honour for me as President of the Pakistan Society ofDevelopment Economists to welcome you to the 14th Annual General Meetingand Conference of th~ Society. As we prepare to enter the newmillennium, we find ourselves at a crucial moment in history. It is timeto take stock of our past achievements and to assess the new challenges.To deal with the future would require not only thorough knowledge of theevolving nature of development thinking but also a good sense of thepolicy choices available to a country in its national, international andregional position. What are the main challenges that require our urgentattention? A few words are in order at the very outset about Pakistan'scurrent difficult economic situation. The slow-down in export expansion,capital inflows and foreign direct investment was an expectedconsequence of the imposition of sanctions. The pessimistic assessmentof Pakistan's prospects is based largely on the recent negative trendsof these economic parameters. The optimists are of the view thatPakistan has survived the imposition of sanctions rather well. Economicgrowth has remained positive and inflation has been kept underreasonable control. The optimists further maintain that Pakistan'scurrent economic situation is no worse than that of the East Asiancountries when. they started their economic climb and engineered majorinstitutional and policy changes. Lessons from the initial years of theEast Asian miracle clearly show that development is decidedly possibleno matter what adverse initial conditions obtain in any developingcountry. Sustained, rapid and equitable growth is possible through theimplementation of wide-ranging social and economic reforms. Lessonsfrom'the recentEast Asian Crises are also before us-guiding us on whatnot to do and how best to protect ourselves in these rapidly changingtimes.