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GROWTH WITH EQUITY/BEST PRACTICES

Since World War-II, only 13 economies have grown @ 7% or more for at least 25

years and have lifted 100s of millions of people out of the trap of poverty, which is mother of

ignorance, disease, malnutrition, which combine in some extreme cases to give birth to (first)extremism and then to terrorism - which in special circumstances, like that being faced by

Pakistan these days, threaten the social fabric of the societies - which if not attacked with due

resolve and urgency, has the extremely scary potential to unravel the very political fabric of

the countries.

The above named illustrious list of 13 countries which is likely to be joined by two

more countries (Vietnam and India) the next couple of years, includes all types of countries

coming from all the continents. The list starts from Japan, which was special beneficiary of

the western markets after World War-II, and includes first batch of Asian tigers (Hong Kong,

Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea) to be followed by countries from Africa (Botswana), South

America (Brazil) and includes the names of some small countries like Malta (500,000,

population) and big countries like China. Three Muslim countries (Indonesia, Malaysia,

Oman) are also included in the list. These fortunate countries have progressed from low

income and poverty ridden to middle income and high income countries - in the shortest

possible time (example, China).

Do these countries defy generalization, or there are some common features which

bind them to gather in a special group whose miracle (except that miracles dont happen any

more) could be replicated by other countries? Despite their huge differences, these countries

have some common features like 1) they all exploited the export markets, 2) they all

maintained macroeconomic stability, 3) they maintained high savings and investment rates,

4) institutional development, and 5) they were led by competent, committed and credible

political leadership, which could steer these economies to attain the heights of economic

growth - which was followed by human development. As a result, all these countries have

achieved high rates of Human Development Index (HDI-Singapore with 0.91 Index), very

low rates of poverty and gini coefficient; the latter is measured by score between 0-10 where

0 indicates perfect equality of income, assets and consumption, and 10 indicates highest level

of inequality in the society.

The question before Pakistan is, can we replicate above example? Then what are the

policy options to be considered for the country to achieve above miracle. For replicating the

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