Experts call for gender-fair economic opportunities

LAHORE: The government needs to ensure increasing participation of women in economic activities and enhance opportunities for their advancement, said Amina Usman, a financial analyst on Saturday.
“Only a quarter of women in working age are employed in Pakistan as compared to the global average of 50 percent,” said Amina. “Despite having merit, they earn 25 percent less than their male counterparts.”
She regretted that women are overrepresented in informal, temporary, and low-productivity jobs with low pay and limited opportunities for advancement.
“Therefore, growth potential of gender-fair opportunities is very huge,” said Amina. “Women need to be granted equal legal rights in land ownership and inheritance.”
Citing a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, she added that if labour force participation rate of women matches that of men it will increase gross domestic product (GDP) by 12 percent in developed countries over the next 20 years.
Almas Hyder, an entrepreneur highlighted some other factors to boost economic growth, saying global experiences revealed that 75 percent of gains in workers and operational productivity could be achieved by adopting the best practices.
“This cannot be achieved by private sector alone and government must play its role,” said Hyder. “The government must support research and development without undue intervention.”
Even when planners redouble policy efforts to encourage economic activities they must deepen understanding of how policies can improve relationship among workers and how regional and international policies affect individual economies.
Hyder said improvement in management practices will greatly improve efficiencies. This helps shorten the long tail of inefficient business practices that are embedded in the system.
“Businesses should understand that better competitiveness does not always bring innovation,” he added.
Economist Faisal Qamar said human capital is a key source of long-term prosperity.
Massive opportunities of mechanisation exist as nearly 30 percent of crop cultivation is still done by hand.
“If economic planners fail to devise policies needed to induce productivity for sustainable growth they will find it harder to achieve a host of desirable goals, such as reducing poverty and inequality,” said Qamar.
Further gains are available from technology, including the use of precision sensors and satellite data to increase crop yields.
“Overall productivity of food processing can rise by an estimated 100 percent through operational improvement, such as lean manufacturing, and bigger processing facilities to take advantage of scale effects,” he said.
“Retailing is also an industry with large and sustained productivity difference in Pakistan compared with developed economies. Healthy workers have higher productivity.”
Experts said workers regardless of gender are instrumental to growth at micro and macro levels.
Over two-thirds of global GDP growth since the dawn of first industrial revolution in 1820 stemmed from the rise in output/worker, they added.