New Millennium: Prosperity for Pakistan
By G.M. Bill Quraishi

AS we begin the current millennium, Pakistani business celebrates the nation’s continued prosperity, mindful that prosperity is neither accidental nor is its future guaranteed.

There is an emerging understanding that healthy, prosperous business community is fundamental to a better life and economic opportunity for all Pakistanis.

It provides us with tools necessary to better address the needs of the young, the aging, the ailing, the poor and the environment.

While improved government policies regarding the growth of business are necessary, we must do more to improve these policies if we need to extend this prosperity to future generations.

We can do more to increase access to economic opportunity for all Pakistanis by political awareness, education, properly preparing our workforce, creating tax code friendly to investment, savings, and the family and providing for the full Pakistanis participation in the growing global economy.

For example, like America itself, American business is diverse. Occasional differences on specific legislative solutions reflect the competitive spirit of free enterprise and are a healthy part of representative government that is similar to what I want to see in Pakistan.

Ever since the end of Second World War, nations have been created, reborn and they have become part of the industrial revolution and economic prosperity today with the help of the United States.

I want Pakistan, my home country, to be in lockstep and not an inch behind them. This task should not be difficult for present Pakistan that has a culture and civilization which took 5000 years in making. You don’t have to re-invent everything but learn from the present and build on it for the future.

The differences do not detract from the near universal agreement that the enumerated fundamentals discussed here are required for the long-term prosperity of Pakistani commerce, and constitute the political building blocks of the business agenda for the new millennium.

( The author is a fêted politician, diplomat and analyst with abode in the United States—having fervent perceptions vis-à-vis global issues, confronting the new epoch. Web: http://www.QforCongress.com )●