Saturday, September 16, 2017

Pakistan Population Boom; Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing

Is Pakistan's growing population a "disaster in the making"? Is it a bigger disaster than the population bust in Europe and East Asia with their aging societies and shrinking labor force? Where will the investment in education, health and job creation come from in Pakistan to meet the growing population? Is there a demographic dividend with Pakistan's labor force growing faster than the overall population? Will growth in labor force help increase domestic savings rate in Pakistan? What is the relationship between GDP growth and job creation? What is Pakistan's employment elasticity relative to other nations in South Asia?

Source: World Bank Report "More and Better Jobs in South Asia"

Who are the Rohingya? Why are they being attacked, raped, killed and driven out of their homes in Rakhine state? Why is the Myanmar government and its allied Buddhist militias, including monks, burning Rohingya villages? Is it a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" as described by the UN Human Rights chief? Why is Nobel Peace laureate Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi defending these actions instead of using her authority, at least her moral authority, to end this nightmare for the Rohingya? What is the world doing about t? What can and should Pakistan and other Muslim nations do to help their fellow Muslim Rohingya?

Source: Aljazeera

Viewpoint From Overseas host Misbah Azam discusses these and other questions with panelists Ali H. Cemendtaur and Riaz Haq (www.riazhaq.com)

https://youtu.be/ucopTLFQdKY



Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Can Pakistan Economy Add 2 Million Jobs a Year?

Where's the Real Population "Disaster in the Making"? Pakistan or West?

Pakistan's Population Growth: Blessing or Curse?

Pakistan's Expected Demographic Dividend

World Bank Report on Job Growth in Pakistan

Underinvestment Hurting Pakistan's GDP Growth

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

Musharraf Accelerated Growth of Pakistan's Financial and Human Capital

Working Women Seeding a Silent Revolution in Pakistan



7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry to spoil your day:
https://www.ft.com/content/6a107732-99f9-11e7-b83c-9588e51488a0

Anonymous said...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-rohingya-activists-say-facebook-silences-them?utm_content=buffer6bc9c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Riaz Haq said...

#China investors to invest in #Textile joint ventures in #Pakistan for economies of scale. #CPEC #SEZ

http://www.brecorder.com/2017/09/19/370121/china-keen-to-convert-pak-textile-sector-into-economy-of-scale/

Six-member delegation from China's Hi-Tech Group, a state owned company dealing in textile and energy generation machinery, Tuesday visited FPCCI and had sector specific detailed discussion with their counter-parts on, how to upgrade Pakistan's textile industry especially the spinning mills.

Eighty percent of yarn and other textile products will be re-exported to China for value-addition to sell the finished good at better prices in international market, Pakistani businessmen were informed.

Led by Executive Director of the Group, Shaohul Zhang, the Chinese delegation is on 5-day visit to Pakistan from September 17. On Wednesday, they would fly to Lahore for business sessions with the textile industry people.

Acting President, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Manzoor-ul-Haq Malik and senior leader of FPCCI and a leading textile industrialist and exporter Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig along with other senior businessmen welcomed the Chinese team at the Federation House. Mr. Malik and Dr. Baig led the FPCCI team.

Chinese were keen to enter joint ventures for modernization and upgrdation of Pakistan's spinning mills to make these cost efficient and competitive, Mr Zhang said.

They wanted to start with installing one million spindles at least at one spinning mill, which was the lowest benchmark for a spinning mill in China.

Whereas, in Pakistan majority spinning mills had spindles only in hundreds.

For such large size spinning mills, China's Hi-Tech Group would help set up power plants to meet its power consumption demand at very reasonable price. Spinning mills are the largest power consuming industry.

Head of the Chinese delegation informed that China wanted to relocate its textile units to Pakistan to benefit from Pakistan's low paid and well-experienced textile labour. Chinese investors were ready to set up their textile mills in Pakistan, mostly under joint ventures, especially at Special Economic Zones linked to China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

" We can contribute in power supply at very favourable price. There can be very good partnership in spinning mills and power plants owners," he remarked adding that give us land, we will bring textile machinery here.

He claimed that China's textile machinery was more suitable for Pakistan against that of Germany and Switzerland.

He said under the proposed programme, most of the small Pakistani spinning units would have to be shutdown as those were not cost efficient and led to wastage of very good quality cotton stock.

The main points harvested from the meeting were : there was a big demand in China for Pakistani yarn-- Pakistan should produce 8 singles cotton instead of 6 singles. Cotton yield per acre should be increased-- China wants Pakistan to shift to an economy of scale including large size spinning mills, and Chinese investors were very much interested to become partners in textile -- Pakistan's textile sector needs to corporatised instead of being confined to as family businesses. These should be listed with Pakistan Stock Exchange as public limited companies -- the policies were required to protect the existing local textile industrialists and that even the existing textile units could continue profitably if those were not be re- located-- eighty percentage of the textile products would be re- exported to China for value addition. China was the large market for yarn and Pakistan could capture a big share-- Pakistan textile sector should contact Chinese government for the support including easy financing.

Riaz Haq said...

#India's #Modi has a big problem in creating jobs. #Inequality is rising. #BJP #economy #unemployment

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-19/modi-s-jobs-problem-threatens-quest-to-lower-inequality-in-india


Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a jobs problem.

He swept to power three years ago promising India’s poor and middle classes he’d restore their "dignity" after years of swelling inequality, with job creation central to his pitch. But now, the jobs market has been slugged by last November’s shock cash ban and July’s imposition of a goods and services tax.

And things look like they’re about to get worse: India is set to see a further 30 percent-to-40 percent reduction of jobs in the manufacturing sector compared with last year, according to TeamLease Services Ltd., one of the country’s biggest recruitment firms. While other surveys aren’t quite so bleak, they also suggest Modi is a long way from creating the 10 million jobs a year needed to keep up with his young and rapidly expanding workforce.

The opposition -- in disarray since losing to Modi -- is dialing up its criticism as it eyes elections due in 2019.

"If India cannot give the millions of people entering the job market employment, anger will increase, and it has the potential to derail what has been built so far," Rahul Gandhi, heir-apparent to the main opposition Indian National Congress party, said in a speech at the University of California, Berkeley, on Sept. 11. "That will be catastrophic for India and the world beyond it."

Gandhi is the son and grandson of previous prime ministers, and could well be Modi’s direct opponent at the next vote.

Modi’s backers are alarmed too. A key ally and member of Modi’s party, Subramanian Swamy, told a TV channel over the weekend that he has conveyed concerns to Modi that the economy could be heading for a "major depression."

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh -- the ideological parent of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party that works like a volunteer wing to ensure voter turnout during elections -- has alerted the BJP of signs of a shift in the public mood over the government’s performance, though Modi still remains personally popular, according to a report in the Telegraph newspaper last week that cited unnamed RSS sources.

Read: India’s Shock Therapy Has Some Serious Side Effects

Munira Loliwala, a general manager at TeamLease, said the slowdown accelerated sharply with demonetization. Indian manufacturers, who previously preferred to cut white-collar jobs rather than factory-floor workers, are now slashing all over, she said.

"We see no option, things are not looking to improve much," Loliwala said.


Loliwala was referring to Modi’s move in November to scrap 86 percent of currency in circulation, which contributed to growth in gross domestic product slumping to the lowest since 2014 last quarter. Modi then pushed through a nationwide goods and services tax on July 1, which is expected to benefit India in the long-run but for now is roiling supply chains.

Manufacturing accounts for some 18 percent of GDP and directly employs 12 percent of the population, government data show. Loliwala said that many of those who lose their jobs stay unemployed because they lack the communication skills required for the services sector, which accounts for 62 percent of GDP.



Riaz Haq said...

Sen Bernie Sanders: The War on #Terror ‘Has Been a Disaster for the #American People’ #Terrorism http://thebea.st/2fk4FyL?source=twitter&via=desktop … via @thedailybeast

Sanders’ biggest foreign policy speech yet will defend the Iran Deal, call out Putin, and blast the struggle against global jihadism as giving terrorists ‘exactly what they want.’

Fresh from pulling the Democratic Party leftward on health care, Bernie Sanders wants to do the same on geopolitics. The independent socialist senator will use a Thursday speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri—where Winston Churchill gave his famous “Iron Curtain” address—to catalyze an intra-progressive debate on foreign-policy principles.
It’s a speech likely to make waves. Like U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn before him, Sanders will call the war on terrorism a “disaster,” The Daily Beast has learned.
“The Global War on Terror has been a disaster for the American people and for American leadership,” Sanders will say Thursday in perhaps his biggest foreign-policy speech to date, according to an excerpt seen by The Daily Beast.

Riaz Haq said...

Here are the key statistics reported by Credit Suisse:

Total Household Wealth Mid-2016 :

India $3,099 billion Pakistan $524 billion

Wealth per adult:

India Year End 2000 Average $2,036 Median $498.00

Pakistan Year End 2000 Average $2,399 Median $1,025

India Mid-2016 Average $3,835 Median $608

Pakistan Mid-2016 Average $4,595 Median $1,788

Average wealth per adult in Pakistan is $760 more than in India or about 20% higher.

Median wealth per adult in Pakistan is $1,180 more than in India or about 120% higher

http://www.riazhaq.com/2016/11/cs-wealth-report-2016-average-pakistani.html

Riaz Haq said...

#Pakistan large scale manufacturing posts 4 year high growth of 12.98% in July 2017 | http://thenews.com.pk

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/231581-LSM-posts-four-year-high-growth-of-1298-percent-in-July

Karachi: Large scale manufacturing sector posted a four-year high growth of 12.98 percent year-on-year in the first month of the current fiscal year on infrastructure-driven boom and growing auto demand.

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data on Thursday showed that iron and steel production climbed 46.36 percent in July over the same month a year ago, followed by automobiles (42.56pc) and non-metallic mineral products (37.95pc).

LSM output increased 12.78 percent in September 2017 over the same month of 2016. PBS statistics revealed that production of billets soared more than 74 percent YoY to 476,000 tonnes in July.

Production of tractors more than doubled to 5,087 units in July 2017 from 2,067 units in July 2016, while output of trucks, jeeps and cars, light commercial vehicles and motorcycles increased 24.4 percent, 55.75 percent, 16.03 percent and 26.46 percent, respectively.

Other sectors that recorded growth in July included engineering products (21.95pc), food, beverages and tobacco (19.02pc), pharmaceuticals (11.14pc), paper and board (11.23pc), wood products (10.95pc), chemicals (5.13pc), coke and petroleum products (4.87pc), rubber products (4.51pc), leather products (2.52pc) and textile (0.43pc).

Fertiliser and electronics sectors, however, recorded a flat production in July over the corresponding month a year ago. Large scale manufacturing grew 4.36 percent in July over June, according to PBS.

Industrial production grew 5.02 percent in the last fiscal year of 2016/17. LSM, accounting for 80 percent of the industrial sector’s 10 percent share in GDP, posted a four-year high growth of 5.6 percent in the fiscal 2016/17. Government set LSM sector’s target at 5.7 percent for FY2018.

Infrastructure development boosted demand of iron and steel products as well as cement, which are the key industries in the country. Auto sales have also been growing in the recent past as demand of heavy vehicles in China-funded development projects, uptake of passenger vehicles and rising sales of tractors for recovering agriculture sector speeded up production in the industry.

The bureau logs trend of industrial sector on the basis of statistics from Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC), ministry of industries and provincial bureaus of statistics. Ministry of industries track production trend of 36 products, Oil Companies Advisory Committee monitors 11 oil, lubricant and petroleum products and provincial authorities measure output of 65 items nationwide.

OCAC registered a 4.87 percent YoY growth in July and edged up 2.51 percent month-on-month. Production of liquefied petroleum gas surged 75.5 percent YoY to 56.29 million litres. Kerosene oil output soared 66.5 percent to 14.78 million litres in July.

Diesel production soared 41.33 percent to 2.15 million litres, while motor spirits output increased 14.6 percent to 237 million litres in July. Ministry of industries recorded a growth of 16.66 percent YoY and 8.09 percent month-on-month, said Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.