Proactive wealth hoarders

LAHORE: Protecting the poor under prevailing global scenarios is an impossible task for the government; the richer segments of the society must join hands before it becomes too late.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) points out, the poorest share of the world population will likely rise by as much as one percent. Pakistanis are among the people at risk of becoming extremely poor.

When considering the expanded poverty lines of $3.20 and $5.50 for lower-middle and upper-middle-income countries, more than 71 million more people could be facing unprecedented personal hardships around the world.

The risk of more people becoming extremely poor is most prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa, with outliers in other regions like Iraq, Indonesia, Pakistan, Colombia, and Turkey.

We have seen that the present government and its predecessor used more resources than they could afford to shield the poor from high costs. This has hardly provided them any meaningful relief except that they have become a permanent burden on the national exchequer.

The richer segment of the society has remained aloof from this effort. In fact, an increase in miseries of the poor was accompanied by a more lavish and comfortable living for the rich.

Despite accumulating wealth, they are not reinvesting it in their country. We have seen that numerous multinational companies are reinvesting the bulk of their repatriable profits in their ventures.

They are making money whether they are in the food, pharmaceuticals, or services sector. It is an enigma that the investment climate is excellent for the multinationals that were already present in the country, but not for new foreign or domestic investments.

Each large industry should come forward and contribute to finance 100 families under the Benazir Income Support Programme so that the burden of the government on this count is reduced. These are testing times and every citizen should contribute by cutting some of the unnecessary expenses. The contributions may be withdrawn as the economy improves.

Moreover, Pakistani entrepreneurs as a part of their corporate social responsibility must establish high quality skill training institutes with latest equipment to address the acute skill shortage in the country. Each such institute could ensure jobs for 1,000 youth per year. Rich associations like APTMA could finance four such institutes for skills in apparel training. The association claims that it has a presence in subsectors of textiles.

Similarly, all other trade associations must establish at least one state of art training institute in their respective sectors. This way the country would be able to roll out 50,000 medium skilled workers per annum.

Pakistan lacks mid-level skills that impedes investment. High level and low-level skills are available, but the manufacturing floor is managed by mid-level skill workers that our public vocational institutes do produce. Establishing quality skill institutes is better than funding conventional education as the youth after graduating mostly do not find any job.

Poverty in the country could only be addressed through industrialisation. Investors remain reluctant to bring quality machines because of the dearth of mid-level skills.

Those that somehow managed to establish a high tech industry did so through on job training in the first six months after start of operations. They enjoy monopoly in their fields and create hurdles for new investors in their field.

This is a general mentality among our businessmen, and it must go. They must operate in a healthy competitive environment, which will be beneficial for the country. Quality of products would improve, and prices would come down in a competitive environment.