Since early eighties high income developing countries have recorded a fast increase in their export-weighted labour force, resultant of substantial rise of exports ratio in their total GDP. In particular it is increasing volume of exports of goods and services from South East Asian countries that has tremendously increased their share in global workforce.
Global integration of densely populated countries like China and India, distinct for high population growth rate and at the same time opting for higher investment in development of their human capital in recent years have added substantially to the size of highly skilled and professional workforce.
The rising trend with developing countries to get their skilled workers integrated in global workforce now materialised into much higher remunerations to skilled workers and professionals have countered the fear of unemployment and reduced wage level due to technological advancement and its application by both developed and developing countries in all sectors of their economies.
No doubt unskilled labour is suffering and bound to suffer more whenever or wherever rapid technological change is ambitiously undertaken to attain level playing field in global economy without developing human resources and necessary infrastructure to derive full benefits of use of new technology in process of production and delivery of services matching standards of global partners.
Among the South East Asian countries China and India have acquired a sizable share of global economic growth and in course of time will be able to level off economies of powerful nations of the world.
China has achieved a sustained economic growth rate of 9% due to a bold policy reforms introduced, which have helped China push up its exports and making it a market economy, culminating into substantial increase in direct foreign investment to take advantage of low cost labour intensive operations and quality manufacturing due to research and development undertaken on continuous basis.
Other East Asian Nations like Korea, Thailand and Singapore etc are also in line for coming up to that level of global integration, which is mainly due to sustained fast growth of Chinese economy, entailing fastly growing trade relation with ASEAN countries and rest of the world.
Almost 50% of its trade is with ASEAN countries, which has proved a blessing for these countries particularly Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam etc who enjoy trade surplus for meeting almost 67% of import needs of China alone.
No doubt South East Asian Developing countries are facing an hard core competition from China and of late from India also in trade, development of manufacturing sector and specialised services and above all for China's attaining trade surplus with countries like USA, UK and European countries, the economies of the ASEAN region have not been effected due to their fast growth in exports to China alone.
One of the reasons that Japan's economy has come out of recession is its growing trade with China, which by year 2005 had increased to $189.3 billion. This has created export weighted labour force for ASEAN countries.
Apart from advantages accruing to China due to growing share of its workforce in global market through fast development of its human capital, its much larger domestic market and pool of technocrats, scientists and engineers assure continuous improvement in quality of goods and services offered.
Fast development of information technology in India from early nineties and overall sustained high economic growth rate achieved during this period has not only enhanced ratio of its export - weighted workforce, but also has helped India in securing outsourcing contracts from various developed countries relating to computing services and call centers, thus creating job opportunities for highly skilled workforce and at the same time pass on benefits of division of labour and increased trade for partners in industrially rich countries.
Pakistan like other South East Asian developing countries is also faced with a challenge of coping with globalisation, which includes getting hold of trade opportunities and retaining them and at the same time addressing vulnerability and social strains from rapid structural changes brought about for achieving greater access to international markets and likely external shocks to be encountered in the process.
In this regard imminent issues with Pakistan are growing inequalities with regard to one's access to resources and economic opportunities, which is impeding all efforts to arrest growing poverty and to enhance ratio of skilled labour in total workforce. However, it is a universally established fact that at the initial stage of globalisation, inequality situation further worsens due to wide gap between remuneration of skilled and unskilled workers.
Further, foreign investments coming to Pakistan in various projects have also created big salary/wage difference among workforce, thus adding to income inequalities.
Besides that unstable political situation, growing terrorism on the borders and within the country and above all poor governance are impeding investments both from indigenous and external sources. As such there is little hope of sustainability of even present economic growth rate.
The country's economic managers' desire to place the economy in driving seat is difficult to realise under present circumstances. In this regard foremost need is to make all stakeholders accountable in all sectors of economy to ensure that all ethical and social implications of each economic activity are not ignored, which add to inequality both directly and indirectly and that in turn strain social cohesion, which is essential for economic growth potential of a country and also an imperative need for global economic integration.
Apart from focusing on rhetoric demand for curbing feudalism through effective land reforms, it is incumbent upon country's economic managers that all economic policies devised must result in lifting poor out of poverty and providing better opportunities to all financially disadvantaged segments of population both in urban and rural sectors.
To rectify inequality situation focus need to be diverted on developing human capital through greater spending on education and health care and also on development of infrastructure for all sectors of economy so as to enhance accessibility to economic resources, and financial markets.
Besides that labour reforms are also needed to be introduced in order to improve workforce efficiency and their working environments and providing incentives prompting them to upgrade their skills on continuous basis so as to match international standards.
It is obvious that globalisation results in influx of new technology and pattern of production, which if not taken care of leads to not only reduction in global market share, but also inequality in price fetched for exports, which directly impacts the wage level of the country. Hence for an effective development of export trade, country must prepare itself to embrace new technologies and processes of production.
Although Pakistan has achieved macro-economic stability, depicted through its high economic growth rate (above 7%), substantial rise in per capita income and foreign exchange reserves and much lower external debt level in terms of its ratio to GDP of the country, yet its growing trade deficit in recent years due to very high oil import bill and continuously rising import of other consumer items apart from industrial machinery etc need to be rectified through substantial increase in exports of diversified value added products and services and entering free trade agreements not only with regional partners, but also through diversifying destinations of export trade globally.
Due to buoyant performance of the economy along with emergence of strong financial sector after restructuring and privatisation has lately restored the confidence of foreign investors despite poor law and order situation. As such investment in banking, communication and IT sector, particularly in cell phone industry has multiplied manifold in recent years. This apart from creating employment opportunities has facilitated entry of Pakistani workforce in global market.
The restructured financial sector is now not only sustainable but also banks are rapidly expanding the line of their products and services and are duly prompted to further expand their area of operation abroad. This would facilitate exposure of highly skilled and professional workforce in global market.
Recent emergence of Islamic financial services in a big way offering Sharia compliant products and services both in the area of commercial banking and insurance business can also facilitate convergence with various financial services providers to establish trade relations at this count.
Pakistan along with other South Asian developing countries through WTO dialogue forums must demand greater share in export of services to industrially rich countries particularly in areas of banking and information technology, where it has edge over other South Asian countries leaving India.
Further, concerned Ministries and trade bodies must strive to obtain outsourcing contracts in computing and other IT related services like hardware consultancy and also architectural and management consultancy wherein Pakistan enjoys competency of international standards.
Various franchises pouring in have also given impetus to deployment of Pakistani labour in multinational companies. It is expected that with improved political climate more foreign direct investment would enter the country for mega projects, which apart from creating employment opportunities would enhance ratio of export-weighted labour in total workforce of the country.
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