Not a problem

Lack of natural resources is not a problem; Pakistan is blessed that way.

Fertile soil, ample rains, vast coal deposit, vast gold and copper reserves, natural deep sea port; and these are the ones that are known, or discovered as of today, and easily come to mind. If you keep thinking about it, the list keeps growing, the great rivers, Sui, Saindak, multiple produce (fruits, grain, vegetables) - as a nation we are surely blessed when it comes to natural resources.

The problem is what we did or did not to do with what was gifted to us; if there was ever a prize for inefficient managing of nature's gifts by a nation, we likely make the Dean's list.

And perhaps not being able to gain economically in the past from these resources would be not a problem; if we were to immediately take stock and initiate actions to make the previous wrongs right today. Except for some weird reason, organizing protest marches and storming the capital every now and then to protest economic decline, it is believed, will somehow make the common man better off economically. And people wonder why I believe that democracy is fundamentally a failed system; for the record, this belief in not specific to Pakistan's context it has failed, period.

Ironically, even today, a great majority will contest the assertion that we ever erred in managing our national assets; arguing for the sake of argument has after all become our national hobby. So let's deliberate a bit and broadly analyze the facts.

We probably did not do a good job of managing our rights and defending disputes, under the Indus Water treaty, even if we got that right in the first place, since our great rivers are drying up. Perhaps we can do a better job of managing our ample rainfall which we allow to harmlessly fall into the sea, flooding everything in its path while doing so. Not building critical dams, one of which has quite remarkably become a political issue, that too in a country facing severe water scarcity, is probably not wise. Cultivable land declining, crop yields not improving, high wastage of produce, no new seed variety developed, and that agriculture is not even a Federal matter anymore cannot exactly be termed as good management.

Remarkably, for a country where the economy is predominantly driven by agriculture, choosing not to constantly focus on agriculture, and shifting attention to the virtual, is perhaps a decision which needs revisiting.

It took us more than 20 years to start moving towards utilising our coal reserves, which perhaps are one of the largest in the world, sufficient enough for Pakistan to become an energy exporter; even now we are moving at a snail's pace. And for some unknown reason hydel power is not priority number one, which is rather inexplicable considering that nature has been generous in providing numerous options for hydel power generation in Pakistan, and that hydel power in the medium to long term is cheaper and definitely cleaner.

The deep sea port, which has always been there since Independence, we ab initio, once we realised it was there, decided we could not develop or manage and hence handed it over to foreigners in exchange for a lot of debt; it is still unclear what we will get paid as rent for leasing out this prized national asset, inclusive of access through the length and breadth of Pakistan. Back when CPEC started, a wise businessman, who prefers to stay in the shadows, opined that all else was fine, except foreigners should not be allowed to buy land in Pakistan, foreigners should not engage in businesses which competed with domestic enterprise and that all foreign ventures should mandatorily have domestic ownership of 50%. Obviously no one listened to him.

Finally, what we have accomplished with our gold and copper reserves is absolutely mind boggling. Without having extracted an ounce of gold or copper, we are facing a penalty of approximately US$ 6 billion. As I understand the Reko Diq reserves were discovered in the late 80s and are believed to be the world's 5th largest gold mine. And while talking about gold and copper reserves, what have we gained, rather earned, from Saindak?

If all of the above does not suggest some sort of fumbling, I apologize and take back my words. Essentially the intent was simply to highlight the underlying fundamentals because of which the economy is, or at least should have been, not a problem. And I have deliberately excluded the stock market from this list; in my opinion, it is not the barometer of anything and has nothing to do with the real economy.

Getting back to what else is not a problem.

Bangladesh and our enemy to the east having a higher GDP is not a problem; why keep comparing and cribbing? What does it accomplish anyway? Frankly, it is amusing to see politicians who have been part and parcel of Government at one time or the other in the past, hyperventilating on social media today, about how Bangladesh is doing so well economically whilst we move from one economic crisis to another. Perhaps if we had spent more time learning from our mistakes and from others success, rather than political infighting and finger pointing, things might have been different.

In fact, even GDP is not a problem. I am sure the pundits are shocked that I had the audacity to be disrespectful to their precious GDP, immediately after taking a pot shot at everybody's favorite casino. But I still maintain, GDP is an impostor when it comes to key indicator for a developing nation. The one true KPI is net trade, and that should not be in a deficit, come what may.

Dear readers, while thinking about the conclusion to the problem statement write ups published over the last couple of weeks, it dawned on me that perhaps problems without solution, in the first instance, was not our only problem. Beyond that, our problem is that we first need to figure out what is not a problem.

(The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad. Email: [email protected])

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019