[Music]
my name is Nevada Smith for the past 16
years I have been a practitioner of
macroeconomics in Pakistan and as dr.
Chandra said I represent an institute
sustainable development Policy Institute
which was recently ranked in the top 60
list of global think dance and which is
a big honor for Pakistan and this
ranking was done by University of
Pennsylvania
I have an interest in economy as the
name implies and I have an interest in
making this economy work and this is
what I’ve been working on today I just
want to talk about three very specific
things first is how do we make economics
part of Pakistan’s living room talk how
do we make sure that this economy around
us which affects all of us we do talk as
a corridor talk we do have some
discussion on it but it’s really not
from the very heart of or the core of
our hearts as as it should be for
example how would the currency
devaluation the recent currency
devaluation impact your savings how does
the return of loadshedding impact my
productivity your work for example how
does the upcoming inflation in the
economy affect you your salary we don’t
usually have structured talks around
these subjects as much as we should do
people find economics as the discipline
people tell me that it’s a very boring
subject you know which is what I get to
hear quite often and this is probably
the subject and I want to make a case
over here this is probably the subject
which is the closest to your lives your
person lives you know which many of us
do find extremely boring
as I say the economy never changes
unless you make it a personal agenda you
know and your own economics doesn’t
changes if you make it personal until
unless you make it personal I talk to a
lot of television stations you know
asking them to give time to Pakistan
economy or the issues surrounding
Pakistan economy they don’t find it
interesting they believe that their TRP
ratings go down when they discuss
economy on their television I asked the
print media to give more time to the
open to views and opinions around
economy and the print media actually
refers me to the different doors which
majority of Pakistan doesn’t read over
90% of Pakistan’s population reads the
or do print basically unfortunately or
do media or or do print media is not
willing to give that much space to
economy they would usually refer you to
the English dailies which would be only
read by less than five percent of the
population so as I just said the agenda
around the economy isn’t personal as yet
so why should we as Pakistanis hear
about it why why is it that when you
talk or when you sit in your living room
with your kids the talk about start
racket DOM and Jerry would be far more
interesting than talking about your kid
why hasn’t he or she got more players or
grounds around them even talking about
why why is intim internet gaming
becoming more expensive in Pakistan for
example these wouldn’t wouldn’t be the
subjects that that actually come up you
know and and why should we all about or
why why should we start taking more
interest in this this brings me to my
second point
which is actually the theme of this
conference a peaceful tomorrow is
contingent upon economy and jobs yes
there would be many other subjects that
of course are that that make
determinants of a peaceful tomorrow but
unless you have jobs running in this
country job creation institutionalized
job
creation as a process taking place in
this country somehow or the other the
dream of a peaceful future remains
distant let me also add over here that
the china-pakistan economic corridor has
provided a new narrative for Pakistan
economy you now have additional
capacities being created in agriculture
manufacturing services industries but
besides this there are also fears around
sustainability of this growth what do
you do beyond CPEC going forward you
know would you be able to sustain this
newfound economic growth in the country
and that economic sustainability or the
questions around economic sustainability
are fairly well grounded in the recent
fears of rising imports and rising
private consumption which we cannot
afford recently our budget just gave
liberal policy for importing classic and
vintage cars in this country so somebody
must be having a hobby of collecting
cars but that doesn’t add to the
economic sustainability going forward
and this is perhaps the most relevant
issue when it comes to youth engagement
in this country when I was of course
graduating from the University almost 17
years back you know you had just you had
three main patterns you could see youth
leaving the country you could see youth
applying for jobs which are not relevant
to their qualification and you could see
youth resorting to social evils and
crime
we can only reverse this pattern if you
have economic sustainability as part of
your overall economic agenda going
forward and I would like to submit over
here that there are three main pressing
reforms again unless we as citizens make
those reforms our own agenda those
reforms wouldn’t come about they just
can’t remain government reforms they
have to be sure and my reforms the first
one is that
how can Pakistani enterprises achieve a
higher level of competitiveness this is
probably the first and most important
thing to discuss this year Pakistan of
course declined in the cost of doing
business ranking last year we had in
fact improved so this top go cycle has
to finish we need to make sustained
progress for our small and medium
enterprises the large businesses as I
said are thriving on the back of
china-pakistan economic corridor but
it’s not working yet for the small
businesses 97% of Pakistani businesses
are SMEs they need to grow they need to
graduate and they have to become
exporting entities that’s reform agenda
number one second
how can Pakistan’s undocumented economy
become the lever of growth this money is
not lying in Panama this money is not
lying in Switzerland this is the money
lying inside Pakistan these are this is
stored in your real estate because
people don’t have other avenues of
saving this is stored in your five
million local currency bank accounts
undeclared bank accounts in Pakistan
this is stored in foreign currency bank
accounts inside Pakistan this is stored
in bearer certificates securities and
price bonds in Pakistan you have to
unleash this wealth it is still inside
the country it hasn’t gone out let’s
make undocumented economy a lever of
growth the third idea that I want to put
in front of you is how do we remove
weaknesses in public spending on human
resource development every hundred
rupees that we spend out of government
money on public welfare thirty-eight
rupees
get leaked out they don’t reach the
beneficiary almost 40% you know how do
we prevent that leakage that wastage of
resources so that money actually reaches
to the beneficiary and this is related
to the related reform which is the civil
service reform in this country civil
service will continue to
mean the most important instrument for
development implementation in the
country unless we all cheer for it
unless we all demand civil service
reform it won’t be an agenda of our
political leaders so my wish for you
basically when you go out today there
are two things that I want you to go out
with first is what can you do for the
economy basically it could be as limited
as sitting on Facebook Twitter Instagram
and talking about the economy around you
the economy around your household what
doc Saab just showed us the economy
right outside your doorstep you have to
talk about it it could be at zero cost
on social media or in your institutions
you know second of course is what can
you do about those various leakages
wastages around you it could be in the
form of environment it could be in the
form of water food wastages and other
resources that you see resource is
something we can protect resources
something which is right here with us as
a taxpayer in this country you should be
concerned about Pakistan International
Airlines Pakistan railways Pakistan
Television cooperation these are all
your entities you pay for it you know
but you’re not demanding enough
accountability for it this is what I
basically talk in my book I try to give
some tools of social accountability here
some tools which you and I as citizens
of Pakistan can use to demand more
economic accountability more
accountability from economic
institutions in this country so that
reform of institutions like State Bank
of Pakistan Federal Board of Revenue SEC
P it becomes a personal agenda at the very end thank you very much
my name is Nevada Smith for the past 16
years I have been a practitioner of
macroeconomics in Pakistan and as dr.
Chandra said I represent an institute
sustainable development Policy Institute
which was recently ranked in the top 60
list of global think dance and which is
a big honor for Pakistan and this
ranking was done by University of
Pennsylvania
I have an interest in economy as the
name implies and I have an interest in
making this economy work and this is
what I’ve been working on today I just
want to talk about three very specific
things first is how do we make economics
part of Pakistan’s living room talk how
do we make sure that this economy around
us which affects all of us we do talk as
a corridor talk we do have some
discussion on it but it’s really not
from the very heart of or the core of
our hearts as as it should be for
example how would the currency
devaluation the recent currency
devaluation impact your savings how does
the return of loadshedding impact my
productivity your work for example how
does the upcoming inflation in the
economy affect you your salary we don’t
usually have structured talks around
these subjects as much as we should do
people find economics as the discipline
people tell me that it’s a very boring
subject you know which is what I get to
hear quite often and this is probably
the subject and I want to make a case
over here this is probably the subject
which is the closest to your lives your
person lives you know which many of us
do find extremely boring
as I say the economy never changes
unless you make it a personal agenda you
know and your own economics doesn’t
changes if you make it personal until
unless you make it personal I talk to a
lot of television stations you know
asking them to give time to Pakistan
economy or the issues surrounding
Pakistan economy they don’t find it
interesting they believe that their TRP
ratings go down when they discuss
economy on their television I asked the
print media to give more time to the
open to views and opinions around
economy and the print media actually
refers me to the different doors which
majority of Pakistan doesn’t read over
90% of Pakistan’s population reads the
or do print basically unfortunately or
do media or or do print media is not
willing to give that much space to
economy they would usually refer you to
the English dailies which would be only
read by less than five percent of the
population so as I just said the agenda
around the economy isn’t personal as yet
so why should we as Pakistanis hear
about it why why is it that when you
talk or when you sit in your living room
with your kids the talk about start
racket DOM and Jerry would be far more
interesting than talking about your kid
why hasn’t he or she got more players or
grounds around them even talking about
why why is intim internet gaming
becoming more expensive in Pakistan for
example these wouldn’t wouldn’t be the
subjects that that actually come up you
know and and why should we all about or
why why should we start taking more
interest in this this brings me to my
second point
which is actually the theme of this
conference a peaceful tomorrow is
contingent upon economy and jobs yes
there would be many other subjects that
of course are that that make
determinants of a peaceful tomorrow but
unless you have jobs running in this
country job creation institutionalized
job
creation as a process taking place in
this country somehow or the other the
dream of a peaceful future remains
distant let me also add over here that
the china-pakistan economic corridor has
provided a new narrative for Pakistan
economy you now have additional
capacities being created in agriculture
manufacturing services industries but
besides this there are also fears around
sustainability of this growth what do
you do beyond CPEC going forward you
know would you be able to sustain this
newfound economic growth in the country
and that economic sustainability or the
questions around economic sustainability
are fairly well grounded in the recent
fears of rising imports and rising
private consumption which we cannot
afford recently our budget just gave
liberal policy for importing classic and
vintage cars in this country so somebody
must be having a hobby of collecting
cars but that doesn’t add to the
economic sustainability going forward
and this is perhaps the most relevant
issue when it comes to youth engagement
in this country when I was of course
graduating from the University almost 17
years back you know you had just you had
three main patterns you could see youth
leaving the country you could see youth
applying for jobs which are not relevant
to their qualification and you could see
youth resorting to social evils and
crime
we can only reverse this pattern if you
have economic sustainability as part of
your overall economic agenda going
forward and I would like to submit over
here that there are three main pressing
reforms again unless we as citizens make
those reforms our own agenda those
reforms wouldn’t come about they just
can’t remain government reforms they
have to be sure and my reforms the first
one is that
how can Pakistani enterprises achieve a
higher level of competitiveness this is
probably the first and most important
thing to discuss this year Pakistan of
course declined in the cost of doing
business ranking last year we had in
fact improved so this top go cycle has
to finish we need to make sustained
progress for our small and medium
enterprises the large businesses as I
said are thriving on the back of
china-pakistan economic corridor but
it’s not working yet for the small
businesses 97% of Pakistani businesses
are SMEs they need to grow they need to
graduate and they have to become
exporting entities that’s reform agenda
number one second
how can Pakistan’s undocumented economy
become the lever of growth this money is
not lying in Panama this money is not
lying in Switzerland this is the money
lying inside Pakistan these are this is
stored in your real estate because
people don’t have other avenues of
saving this is stored in your five
million local currency bank accounts
undeclared bank accounts in Pakistan
this is stored in foreign currency bank
accounts inside Pakistan this is stored
in bearer certificates securities and
price bonds in Pakistan you have to
unleash this wealth it is still inside
the country it hasn’t gone out let’s
make undocumented economy a lever of
growth the third idea that I want to put
in front of you is how do we remove
weaknesses in public spending on human
resource development every hundred
rupees that we spend out of government
money on public welfare thirty-eight
rupees
get leaked out they don’t reach the
beneficiary almost 40% you know how do
we prevent that leakage that wastage of
resources so that money actually reaches
to the beneficiary and this is related
to the related reform which is the civil
service reform in this country civil
service will continue to
mean the most important instrument for
development implementation in the
country unless we all cheer for it
unless we all demand civil service
reform it won’t be an agenda of our
political leaders so my wish for you
basically when you go out today there
are two things that I want you to go out
with first is what can you do for the
economy basically it could be as limited
as sitting on Facebook Twitter Instagram
and talking about the economy around you
the economy around your household what
doc Saab just showed us the economy
right outside your doorstep you have to
talk about it it could be at zero cost
on social media or in your institutions
you know second of course is what can
you do about those various leakages
wastages around you it could be in the
form of environment it could be in the
form of water food wastages and other
resources that you see resource is
something we can protect resources
something which is right here with us as
a taxpayer in this country you should be
concerned about Pakistan International
Airlines Pakistan railways Pakistan
Television cooperation these are all
your entities you pay for it you know
but you’re not demanding enough
accountability for it this is what I
basically talk in my book I try to give
some tools of social accountability here
some tools which you and I as citizens
of Pakistan can use to demand more
economic accountability more
accountability from economic
institutions in this country so that
reform of institutions like State Bank
of Pakistan Federal Board of Revenue SEC
P it becomes a personal agenda at the very end thank you very much
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