CORPORATE WINDOW: THE PRODUCTIVE PATH OUT OF POVERTY
Dawn · Ehsan Malik ·
Poverty will be reduced by enabling more Pakistanis to participate productively in a competitive economy; misplaced priorities
With nearly half of Pakistanis below the World Bank’s lower-middle-income poverty threshold, lasting poverty reduction depends on expanding productive employment. Yet jobs cannot be sustained merely through government spending, subsidies or protecting uncompetitive industries. They require an economy capable of producing goods and services that customers, at home and abroad, are willing to buy at competitive prices. Five interconnected priorities—education, employment, exports, environment and energy—must therefore be judged by their contribution to productivity, competitiveness and livelihoods.
Unfortunately, our priorities are frequently misplaced. We establish universities while millions of children lack basic literacy. We protect industries in the name of employment while weakening their competitiveness. We seek higher exports while burdening producers with expensive energy, complex taxation and regulatory inefficiencies. We invest in electricity generation without ensuring its affordable delivery and productive use. Environmental sustainability remains an afterthought, except when foreign buyers demand compliance.
We also measure inputs rather than outcomes: universities instead of learning, factories instead of productivity, megawatts instead of affordable electricity, and exports instead of domestic value addition.