Letter to Honorable Prime Minister Imran Khan

As of today, Pakistan stands at the crossroads. The decisions we take now, the choices we make, will no doubt have a lasting impact on the future of this country. Pakistan, a country with one of the world’s largest young (under 35 years of age) population looks to you to lead them through this quagmire of demographic dividend or disaster! We are staring at an unknown abyss. Will this abyss reveal days of hope or despair?

We must ask ourselves: Will the Pakistani people connect with rewarding vocations, live a fuller life and promote harmony and peace for themselves, their families, cities and society at large? Or will they continue to fight for dole-outs, subsidies, concessions all in the name of caste, religion or region? Will they be empowered to address their own challenges? Mundane or sublime. Or will we be slung into a state of absolute chaos and anarchy? As we have been, many times in the past.

Is our generation creating opportunities of empowerment for all or are we readying a recipe for disaster? Are we headed for highly dissatisfied, discontented, fragmented collection of nation states or sub states, negating the very idea of Pakistan? Will Pakistan as a nation survive, subsist or thrive?

Among-st several others, the key answer could also be around empowering our generations through education, training and entrepreneurship. The quality of our schools, college, universities, and state institutions will determine and define our future. — Dividend or Disaster!

Sensible governance can create better socio-economic order. Vibrant markets will create entrepreneurs and innovation. There are many laws which are killing entrepreneurial spirit in the country in the name of regulation. Why so many approvals and inspections are required in this country. Is this ease of doing business? We trust our inspectors more than our entrepreneurs. Why there is no transparency in inspection and testing systems in the country. Why citizens are not told how many inspections were done and what was the outcome of the work done by so many inspectors. Still, people are suffering due to adulterated foods, bad medicines, and poor education quality.

Please name one department where due to inspection, things have improved and that sector is producing world-class products, consumers are happy and there is no allegation of corruption.

How many laws and procedures will be reviewed this year to minimize the overheads due to paperwork and corruption on enterprises? Creation of new enterprises will create new jobs. In the present regulatory regime and governance system, it is difficult for start-ups to ensure meaningful engagement of the youth of Pakistan. The current governance structure will only create more demand for illegal trade activities.

It is clear to anyone with a smartphone that we live in the era of the digital economy. Increasingly ubiquitous, essential and demanded by consumers, access to digital networks and the services they provide is the defining feature of the 21st Century.

If there is an industry that is unlikely to go down, it is probably the food industry. Regardless of the economic situation, come rain or high weather, people must eat. People might stop buying clothes and jewelry but they will not stop eating.

Whether we’re ready to admit it or not, we’ve witnessed technology become the driving force behind many companies in long-standing industries over the past decade. While AirBnB shook up the hospitality industry, mobile apps like Uber and Lyft dominated taxi companies. Some industries have been slower than others to experience the influence of such disruptions — the food and produce industry being one of them — until recently.

Technology and innovation are starting to disrupt the produce industry, and businesses and consumers alike are starting to listen.

Social media and smartphones have changed everything. They’ve shown consumers the true sources of products, any potential harmful ingredients, and how certain products are made. There’s a kind of transparency now — disconnectedness, if you will — that wasn’t there before. Social platforms like Instagram and Snap chat have made it easy for consumers to become “food producers,” create user-generated content that brands can share. These days, it seems like people are more and more interested in taking a deep dive into the food they’re eating, and where it’s coming from — than actually eating it.

Technology has not only changed the way we view food — the consumers themselves have shifted. They demand high quality and are now interested in customizing their food experiences in real life (and especially in restaurants).

The dramatic uptick in allergies and how things like celiac disease, peanut allergies, and the words “gluten-free” seemed foreign to us at the start of this century 19 years ago. There are now apps available that track food intake, allergies, and dietary restrictions that didn’t exist before.

Allergies and restrictions aside, the food industry is one of the largest and most vital industries in the world. Think about it — everyone needs food for survival, and most of us like to enjoy a good meal. The food industry encompasses everything from producers and shipping companies, to truckers, grocers, and restaurants. Therefore, it makes sense that the industry would take advantage of in-depth research and big data services to better understand their consumers, increase efficiency, and generate new creative recipes in mass quantities. These kinds of technologies are not only enabling researchers to make new discoveries (yes, meat is awesome on donuts, sugar is terrible for you, and there is now a “meat” made out of plants), but also allowing big data to help them find the next hot ticket food item(s). While vegan pioneer Karyn Calabrese has been crafting “meat” dishes from plants for decades, now it’s become mainstream.

Individual restaurant chains have also started exploring how big data can help improve their business and customer service. McDonald's, for example, has actively pursued a data-driven culture by turning to analytics to identify best practices and better understand what is happening at specific locations.

The bottom line? Companies are up close and personal to consumers and have a better sense of what they’re looking for — and consumers are more informed than ever before. Misleading messaging and false ingredient information don’t fly. And, as Danny Meyer stated so poignantly, “A table for four is now a table for eight; it’s the four people and their four cell phones.”

Pakistan remains one of the least innovative countries in the world. GII report 2018, reveals that Pakistan ranked 109, while it ranked 113 in 2017, out of 126 countries. Such a low ranking is largely due to political uncertainty, consistent corruption, which has created a discouraging environment for business and has handicapped our institutions

There are many disadvantages of trade restrictions/barriers. First, there is reduced consumer satisfaction. Since import tariffs/restrictions increase the cost of foreign goods, the incentive for traders to import is taken away, meaning that consumers can only choose from the domestic products that are available to them or spend more money to get the foreign goods that they really want. In addition, without the competition of a foreign competitor, companies in the industry won’t have any incentive to innovate or improve their product because the consumer has no other choice but to buy their product. Consumers end up paying more for a product of lower quality than if they had the choice of getting the product from a foreign competitor.

Trade barriers, such as SRO237, have been demonstrated to cause more economic harm than benefit; they raise prices and reduce availability of goods and services, thus resulting, on net, in lower income, reduced employment, and lower economic output.

Since the end of World War II, the world has largely moved away from protectionist trade policies toward a rules-based, open trading system. This widespread reduction in trade barriers has contributed to economic prosperity in many ways, including large increases in trade activity and accompanying gains in economic output and income.

Trade clearly results in positive economic outcomes, allowing people in different countries to specialize in what they do best, and then exchange physical goods, services, and financial assets across borders. But there are often misconceptions about the measurements that economists and policymakers use to track flows of trade.

The balance-of-payments system is simply an accounting identity; the current and capital accounts track flows of goods, services, and financial assets between people, and they move in the opposite direction of one another. A current account (trade) deficit is simply another way of stating that we have a capital account surplus; neither has a causal implication for the health of the economy. Whether a business sells to or buys from domestic or foreign consumers, they do so because the trade is profitable. Production and exchange — regardless of the balance on the current account — generate wealth.x

The indebted welfare state should be trying to make doing business easier and simpler. It must. It needs the revenue engendered by the success of the entrepreneur and the creative small businessman. Regulations need to be reined in with common sense. A reasonable degree of freedom is the essential ingredient of “free” enterprise. Over-regulation is ultimately the death knell of freedom, ergo the death of the entrepreneur.

Today, lawmakers have a unique opportunity to unleash Pakistan’s entrepreneurial potential. They have many options, including:

Cutting taxes. This will allow individuals and businesses to divert their money towards capital formation.

Regulatory moratorium and rollback. It is not merely enough to hold the line on new regulation. Lawmakers should commit to reducing the regulatory burden on the nation’s entrepreneurs. Sun setting regulations which are carry forwarded since independence used by departments for corrupt practices.

Cut government spending. The more government cuts it’s spending, the more opportunities individuals will have to keep more of their own money and create an economy more conducive to business formation and expansion.

If Pakistan is to remain competitive, innovative, and vibrant in the free world, we must be prepared to foster small business formation and expansion. The best way to do that is not through top-down government approaches. The best approaches lie in allowing individuals to direct their resources toward private enterprise and in allowing entrepreneurs to succeed and fail on their own merits — not because of stifling regulations.

Munsub Abrar