Globalisation versus regionalism: Proximity advantage could cut cost of trade: ex-BoI chief

ISLAMABAD: Former chairman of Board of Investment (BoI), Haroon Sharif Monday while shedding light on major challenges facing Pakistan, said that globalisation was shifting towards regionalism and proximity advantage could cut the cost of trade, an opportunity Pakistan should not miss.

Speaking at the first day of 25th Sustainable Development Conference (SDC) jointly organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP’s), and Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Sharif said that amid inflation, trade and partnerships diversification and regionalism can be the viable solutions.

He said that to deal with the ever rising inflation, Pakistan should improve trade ties with neighbouring countries, adding that Pakistan was acquiring more global loans to retire the previous loans. He further said that the economy must be separated from the politics.

He said that at a time when global tensions and conflicts are causing exogenous macro-economic shocks and share of nations in international organisations has become political leverage which is unfavourable for Pakistan’s bargaining positions.

Emphasizing separating geo-economics from geo-strategic positioning, he said that the government should offer purely economic value by offering asset swaps, so that the Pakistan’s economic and investment interests could be interlinked. He said that the FATF basically is a technical forum but has been turned into a political one.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Moeed Yusuf, the former National Security Advisor said that geographically Pakistan cannot escape from the great power contestation, as unipolarity is morphing into a new world order. Yousaf said Pakistan can either become proxy ground for this contestation or emerge with a model where destabilized Pakistan is unfavourable for the world and we must move away from assistance to development partners.

He said that Pakistan needs a strategy to send skilled labour to aging countries so as to increase remittances. He further suggested that Pakistan also needs to take bold policy choices, decentralize power to local governments, and allow lateral entry of experts to revamp the government structure. He also stressed on deregulation and privatisation of economic space, and prioritising policy continuity in key governance areas through legal and constitutional guarantees.

General Zubair Mahmood Hayat (retired), the former Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, said that geostrategic contest of power at global level and regionally RSS-driven and BJP-led Bharat and associated Akhand Bharat ideology has serious geostrategic ramifications for Pakistan. He said that it is not pure geo-economics, but intertwined geo-strategy and geo-politics at play.

He stressed the need for devising concrete policies to accelerate clean energy transition and exploiting blue economy to access unexplored markets. He suggested that moving forward, we need to explore digital, cyber and space technology and get in sync with states to diversify markets and capitalise on human resources.

Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, the executive director SDPI said the COVID-19 has decreased global GDP by $10 trillion and continues to affect global trade and energy market. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has challenged the agriculture market; G7 countries and the EU have conflicts over the hard choice between heating or eating, which has crowded the global energy market.

He said the World Food Programme reckons the number of people facing acute food insecurity jumped from 282 million at the end of 2021 to a record 345 million in 2022 which means within just one year around 63 million people have become food insecure. As many as 50 million people will begin 2023 on the brink of famine.

Until now, the problem has largely been of spiralling prices rather than availability. In conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Yemen, both farming and humanitarian aid are disrupted. Climate change means extreme weather events such as floods in Pakistan and drought in the Horn of Africa are becoming more common, he concluded.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022