‘Besides privatisation, public-private partnership also viable in Pakistan’

Privatisation was not the only solution to Pakistan’s problems, but feasible results could also be achieved with an enhanced public and private sector cooperation, observed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) central leader Asad Umer, on Friday.

He was presiding over the opening session of a three-day international conference on business and management, organised by the Mohammad Ali Jinnah University (MAJU).

Providing space to entrepreneurship,
innovation, and use of modern tech-
nology were the only solution to achiev-
ing our national development goals, he added.

The retired businessman said capabilities of a large number of the country’s people had unfortunately not been made use of by the state. 

A businessman-turned-politician, Umer opined that more than politicians, thinkers and academicians could play a much better role in bettering the country’s socio-economic situation. 

The PTI leader also suggested acquiring an understanding of the policies through which some South Asian countries managed to reduce poverty in their respective countries during the last 50 years.

Keynote speaker of the session, Prof Dr Rajah Rasiah from the University of Malaya, Malaysia, said Pakistan’s population of about 188.9 million was large enough to develop a vibrant manufacturing sector. 

He observed that Pakistan could learn from the success of South Korea and Taiwan’s industrialisation, adding, that Pakistan had fared better in national development in comparison to India.

Prof Rasiah emphasised on establishing a council to formulate, vet and appraise policies.

MAJU President Prof Dr Zubair Shaikh, in his address, said globalisation had brought about a huge challenge for us as a nation and the country needed grassroots changes in governance and elimination of corruption from society.

He observed that for socio-economic development there was a dire need to reduce the divide between urban and rural.