Good fortune of jobs creation in Pakistan.

• Author: Kazmi, S. Kamal Hayder

Byline: S. Kamal Hayder Kazmi

For any developing economies, the international economic experts revealed that the employment growth is a problem. In the past the plans were planned to set growth targets but less priority was given to employment generation. International experts furthermore explained that for the developing countries as a whole, the most critical question is how to create rapidly hundreds of millions of employment opportunities for the poor with limited purchasing power and limited capital for investment. The idea that most of these employment opportunities could be created in the corporate sector or through government-sponsored activities has been put to rest. Presently, they also have explained that there are nearly 1 billion self-employed and unpaid family workers worldwide, most of them self-employed farmers in developing countries. The self-employed represent 48 percent of the workforce in low-income economies.

For any strategy to be successful, it must give central significance to self-employment and entrepreneurship, with emphasis on agriculture, agro-industry and small firms in the informal sector. While a single approach will not be applicable to countries and regions of the world in dissimilar phases of development, a number of common rules and strategies are broadly applicable.

In the developing countries like Pakistan, the present government of Pakistan has taken special steps to complete its commitment to create 10 million employment opportunities during its tenure. The other great step of the present government is to construct 5 million houses which will substantially contribute to jobs creation because of its forward and backward linkages with other allied industries. Strengthening of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), tourism and labor-intensive sectors will also be prioritized. In the government survey report it is also predicted that the huge inflow of almost US$60 billion investment under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would generate huge economic activities and thereby career employment opportunities. Apart from focusing on energy, infrastructure and Gwadar projects, 9 (SEZ) Special Economic Zones are being organized under CPEC portfolio, which will create tremendous job opportunities and technological transformation.

The government officials also mentioned that priority will also be given to align technical institutions and training with CPEC related trades and demand of SEZ. The early harvest...