tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post1651067456632303075..comments2024-03-27T15:36:44.737-07:00Comments on Haq's Musings: India and Pakistan at Davos 2009Riaz Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-65265399171350408332012-01-27T09:17:39.292-08:002012-01-27T09:17:39.292-08:00Here's a FirstPost story on India at Davos WEF...Here's a <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/world/india-nowhere-at-davos-thank-god-for-that-195985.html" rel="nofollow">FirstPost</a> story on India at Davos WEF 2012:<br /><br /><i>Barely a few years ago, India was the flavour of the season at the World Economic Forum talk-fest in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos as international moneybags and businesses, looking for the Next Big Thing after China, latched onto the India Story.<br /><br />They came by the India Adda pavilion, chomped on curry offerings, got a earful of Bollywood beats – and pronounced that India was Everywhere.<br /><br />This year, after a bruising 12 months of economic mismanagement that saw inflation soar and growth slow down and a whole lot of other things go wrong, the moneybags’ starry-eyed vision of India has faded. India is Nowhere at this year’s Davos gabfest. Indian TV personalities who have made Davos something of an annual pitstop say that the mood among the Indian contingent this year is downbeat, “almost depressed.”<br /><br />NDTV’s Vikram Chandra reports that a top industrialist told him: “We are back to being on the sidelines, back to watching others take the limelight. Back to the bad old days. It’s feeling as if the India story is over.”<br /><br />The unnamed Indian industrialist may not be ready to acknowledge it, but the fact that Davos has gone cold on India is perhaps a good thing, given its horrendous record at predicting the future and reading economic ups and downs.<br /><br />As Clyde Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategic Institute, notes, Davos has become the platform for an intellectual form of name-dropping and a chance for the select few to gloat that they have been invited to the meeting.<br /><br />“It’s a combination of competitive vanity and convenience that makes it all work. Glitteratus A begs for an invitation because he/she can’t stand the thought of not being there if Glitteratus B is there. The fact that many are there then makes it easy to do in a few days a lot of business with each other that without the meeting would take weeks or months. So, for organizing a nice party for them, the glitterati each pay… anywhere from $50,000 to several hundred thousand dollars.”<br /><br />But far from being a forum that sets the economic and business agenda for the world, Davos has been horribly – and embarrassingly – behind the curve in seeing the future. Prestowitz points out that the Davos meeting in 2008, for instance, foresaw none of the cataclysm in the financial markets and the collapse of real estate markets that would define much of that year and the succeeding years.<br /><br />Just as glaringly, in 1997, these Masters of the Universe labelled Southeast Asia as the world’s most dynamic region, only to see the whole house of cards collapse barely three months later.<br /><br />The Davos man, writes Prestowitz, “has consistently proven clueless and unable to set an agenda with regard to the global developments on which he is supposed to be the expert.” This is largely because Davos represents the “global establishment”, which by its very nature cannot see anything that doesn’t fit into its orthodox framework, and has a dogmatic faith in the enriching power of unfettered globalisation.…</i><br /><br />http://www.firstpost.com/world/india-nowhere-at-davos-thank-god-for-that-195985.htmlRiaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-40950858889539778822012-01-27T08:48:25.904-08:002012-01-27T08:48:25.904-08:00Here are some excerpts of a BBC report on Pakistan...Here are some excerpts of a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16713968" rel="nofollow">BBC report</a> on Pakistani PM Gilani's pitch at Davos 2012:<br /><br /><i>Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, has told business leaders attending the World Economic Forum in Davos that his government is stable and Pakistan is open for business.<br /><br />Mr Gilani tried to convince corporate bosses that despite all the worrying news coming out of Pakistan, his country remains one of the best destinations for foreign investment.<br /><br />It's a tough sell on his part, not least because of the recent political tensions and a fragile security situation at home. But also because of the country's faltering economy, with its public finances in disarray and growth hampered by the steady erosion of investor confidence. <br />-----------------<br />According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan's economy grew by only 2.4% last year, one of the lowest in the region and way behind India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.<br /><br />At the heart of Pakistan's fiscal problem are some chronic structural imbalances. In a country of 180 million, less than 1% of people pay income tax. Billions of rupees of government revenue never make it into the treasury because of leakages, waste and corruption. <br /><br />The country's public sector enterprises - such as, Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Railways - are ailing due to mismanagement and blatant inefficiencies. Industrial production and exports are hampered by crippling energy shortages, often leading to violent protests.<br /><br />Absence of private sector investment means fewer jobs and a growing number of unemployed youths. Particularly unbearable for the majority of low-income Pakistani families was the unprecedented continuous double-digit inflation during most of Mr Gilani's four years in office.<br />---------------<br />Critics of Mr Gilani say that in the face of his government's dismal economic performance, his upbeat statements show the government is either in denial or ignorant of realities.<br /><br />"During the last four years, we have seen four governors change hands at the State Bank of Pakistan, four finance ministers, four finance secretaries, and five heads of the Central Board of Revenue," points out Dr Ashfaq Hasan Khan, a former adviser to Pakistan's Ministry of Finance. <br />-----------------------<br />Economist S Akbar Zaidi believes there is a silver lining and rejects predictions of Pakistan's imminent economic collapse.<br /><br />"Yes, Pakistan's economy is struggling, but it is not in a freefall or even on the verge of it," he says. <br />--------------<br />"In fact, in my view, the economy is doing surprisingly better than expected under the circumstances. The economy has shown itself to be much more resilient than many people would like to admit. With necessary structural reforms, Pakistan has all the potential to rise above its current low growth trap."<br /><br />To be fair, Mr Gilani got off to a bumpy start when he came into office in 2008. It proved to be a disastrous year for Pakistan's economy, mainly due to external shocks it suffered from the sudden rise in world oil prices and the global financial turmoil. .....</i><br /><br />http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16713968Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-11683597456503832662011-02-04T11:30:32.684-08:002011-02-04T11:30:32.684-08:00AFAIK, the only Pakistanis who attended WEF at Dav...AFAIK, the only Pakistanis who attended WEF at <a href="http://www.riazhaq.com/2011/02/india-at-davos-story-of-corruption-and.html" rel="nofollow">Davos this year (2011)</a> are Imran Khan, the cricketer turned politician-philanthropist and Saadia Zahidi, a Pakistani economist.<br /><br />Imran was there at the invitation of Davos organizers to speak, and Saadia is a director at WEF leading its gender parity program.<br /><br />Without much effort at WEF, Pakistan did pretty well in <a href="http://www.freewebs.com/rrajan1/IFDI.pdf" rel="nofollow">attracting FDI at higher levels than India</a> as perecent of GDP, until the current political, economic and security crisis started in 2008. <br /><br />Example: While India got FDI at only 1.7% of its GDP, Pakistan got FDI of 2.8% of its GDP in 2007.<br /><br />It's a miracle that Pakistan still get over $2 billion in FDI and FII in spite of all its current problems.<br /><br />And Vietnam does little hype at WEF to consistently get FDI of more than 20% of its GDP. <br /><br />Read the following:<br /><br />http://www.riazhaq.com/2011/02/india-at-davos-story-of-corruption-and.html<br /><br />http://www.freewebs.com/rrajan1/IFDI.pdfRiaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.com