Legal expert Syed Intazar Mahdi said Pakistan badly needs to privatise state-owned enterprises to ensure growth in productivity, but the private sector fears that scandal stories could follow even with the most transparent of privatisations. He said foreign investors are shy of coming to Pakistan and domestic investors feel fear of unnecessary litigation if they show interest in buying a public sector loss making company.
He said, "It is better to privatise the loss-making public sector companies at reasonable price through transparent process. Handing over public sector companies to domestic investors is a better option than selling them to foreigners." He further said that government resisted the privatisation of the United Bank to a local investor. "Now, the foreign owner has earned more than the amount it paid a decade back and transferred or will transfer these profits in foreign exchange," he mentioned.
Business analyst Ali Hassan said, "A critical challenge for policy makers is to cope with creative destruction brought by global competition and technologies through prudent policies and better service deliveries. Pakistan is in slow growth mode because of critical skill gaps in human resource, though unemployed youths are flooding the job markets."
He said global economy is currently determined by urbanisation, technology, demographics, and globalisation. Pakistan is well ahead in the region in urbanisation, but has lost its demographic advantage to low skilled human resource and lags behind in globalisation and technology. Successful entrepreneurs have still kept pace with technology, he added.
He said entrepreneurs in banking, textile and dairy sectors reassessed their strategies and introduced innovation to stay at par with global competitors. Consumer right activist Fareed Ahmed said that government should privatise the public sector companies immediately because a change of management and ownership from public to private is the only solution for better progress.