'Good governance, institutional growth make economy stable'

Good governance, institutional growth and fiscal transparency would help make the economy stable said Wasim Haqqie, Chairman, Engineering Development Board (EDB), here on Wednesday.
"We should encourage privatisation of state-owned entities in order to make them efficient besides playing an effective role in eliminating poverty and unemployment", he said while addressing the opening ceremony of "Open House Job Fair 2006" at College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (CEME), Rawalpindi.
"We live in a global village and facing many challenges. We have to meet these challenges with the help of latest technology, scientific advancement and efficiency.
Pakistan is on the track of economic growth and to sustain this, country needs good governance, strong institutions to strengthen private sector and financial transparency", he said.
Haqqie said education is imperative for economic progress saying that quality education is a must to achieve a respectable place in the comity of nations.
Six years back, economy of the country was in bad shape but economic reforms of the present government have tailored the economy and put it on path again, resultantly, the GDP growth rate has been increasing by every passing day, he added.
He said Pakistan was economically ahead of Malaysia and Korea in 1960s, but bad policies have put the country on back seat and we are far behind in industrial and services sector.
Korea, he said, has adopted five-year plan of Pakistan in 1962 and today it is an economic giant. "We have huge coal reserves which could help us in generating cheap power. Pakistan is still the 4th largest cotton growing country and the 5th largest milk producing state in the world", the EDB chairman said.
He described six-year rule of President Pervez Musharraf as the best era for Pakistan saying that the first two years were of crisis management, second two years of reforms and implementation while the third two years were of economic growth. "The country was in ICU and it has now shifted to private ward", he humorously added.
It may be recalled that Open House Job Fair 2006 was held under the auspices of the CEME with the purpose to provide a direct link between industry and academia.
Final year students of the college presented various projects in the fair. Industrialists and company managers visited the fair and interviewed several students for appointing them in their respective companies.