기획개발혁신부 Ahsan Iqbal 장관 Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms
“At the end of hardship comes happiness,”so explains the Korean proverb economic turnaround of Korea in a matter of decades. Hard work or optimism of its people, something happened in Korea that left a strong lesson for all of us in the developing world.
The Korean narrative always fascinated me. While most of us are fleetingly aware of the Korean transformation, the extensive details and policy measures taken by the Korean government that led to this miraculous transformation often go missing from the discourse.
In April this year, I got a unique opportunity to accompany South Korean Prime Minister Jung Hong Won on his recent visit to Pakistan. This experience gave me a chance to learn about development discourse of Asian Tigers in general and South Korea in particular. South Korea’s per capita GDP in 1960 was barely $80 and in 2012 it exceeded $20,000. Likewise, its exports increased from less than $50 million in 1960 to $560 billion by 2012, whereas Pakistan’s exports increased from $200 million to barely $25 billion during the same period.
Korea, a nation of 50 million has achieved significant economic and socio-political development, moving from the 27th-largest world economy in terms of GDP in 1980 to 12th in 2011. From one of the poorest nations in the world in the 1960s, South Korea has evolved into a high-income nation with per capita
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GDP of $30,000 in 2010 (adjusted for purchasing power parity). Today, Korea is the world’s sixth-largest exporter, surpassing Italy, the Netherlands, and Russia.
South Korea transformed itself from least developed country to a developed country status within one generation lifetime-an achievement that has no parallel in history.
In that light, South Korea has proved to be an ideal case of transformation for developing countries to follow. Korea means “The Chosen One”and indeed Korea has shown this to the world; the Koreans rose from a war stricken poverty hit country in 1960 to be the 12th largest economy (in terms of GDP) with a size of $1.66 trillion. Korea is the only nation to go from a recipient of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee’s aid to becoming a member of the donor committee. Koreans have proved to be the people of finest breed; two of the premier institutions of the world: World Bank and United Nations are spearheaded by Koreans. Koreans have also proved their mettle in realm of research, sports, theatre, music, technology and etc.
There are some common threads in the economic miracle of South Korea and other successful economies such as China, Singapore, Malaysia, India, and Turkey, which provide us food for thought.
A quick glance on the development of above-mentionedcountries reveals several common denominators that led these countries to path of development.
I am outlining some of them that we can emulate to revitalize our economy.
First vital ingredient for economic development is political stability and continuity in policies. All these countries have enjoyed continuous uninterrupted political stability. In China, Deng Xiao Peng got 20 years to change China while in Korea, President Park got 17 years; in Malaysia, Dr
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Mahatir got 22 years; in Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew got 31 years; in Turkey, Tayep Ordogan is there for 15 years, and in India, both BJP and Congress got two terms each to implement economic policies. In Pakistan, while dictatorships lasted for a decade and had ample time to transform Pakistan, it couldn’t produce results like North Korea and Egypt because of the lack of economic vision and inability of the dictatorship to craft a collective national strategy. Political stability is a necessary and first condition but not sufficient condition. It is a combination of several other factors that turn stability into development dividend.The second lesson is that these countries embraced sound economic vision and policies with singular focus on economic development. All of these countries adopted export led growth model with high savings and investments. Their national agenda revolved around economics, economics and economics. Like in South Korea, soon after President Park Chung Hee assumed power in 1961, he put economic development at the centre of his strategy for Korea, and he ensured it by his own will power and resilience to implement his vision.
Third lesson is the focus of these Asian Tigers on education. Education is inevitable for development; and these countries have proved it by investing in their human capital. Literacy rate in Korea, at the time of independence in 1945, was estimated at 22 percent; by 1990 it was virtually 100 percent for both genders.
Fourth lesson that we should learn from Asian Tigers is their attention to science and technology; they invested in science and technology and made it their main driver of growth by empowering their technocrats and professionals, something that we failed to replicate in Pakistan.
The fifth lesson is that these countries learnt that war is antidote of progress. All
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of these countries pursued policies of conflict-minimisation and peace by adopting geo-economics over geo-politics. Despite being a neighbour to hostile and highly provocative North Korea, South Korea always tried to avoid war and this attitude has helped them attract foreign direct investment. Similarly, the PML N government from the very first day has a clear stance to end war and bring peace through whatever options available. While we are often criticized by certain quarters for pursuing dialogue with TTP, our goal is solely to bring peace and pull Pakistan out of not just the war we have been fighting for more than a decade but pull the country out from the war narrative that does now allow FDI, tourism or any other sporting events in the country. As long as we don’t pull the country out of the war and change the narrative, progress and transformation is unlikely to come.
The struggle of graduating from a developing country to a developed may look as a very difficult task but not an impossible one if all the stakeholders are on board, be it private corporations, general public, media, military or the judiciary.
For Pakistan to feature in the line of developed world, it is imperative we learn from the experience of successful economies in Asia.
We have formulated Vision 2025 (a plan to set Pakistan on course of economic prosperity and social harmony) and medium term 5-year plan. Vision 2025 stands on seven pillars that will act as a catalyst to transform Pakistan into a modern and prosperous nation.
Like Goethe famously said ‘Nature knows no pause in progress and development and attaches her curse on all inaction.’There is no time to lose.
We missed many opportunities in the past but missing opportunity is not an option now. We need to be focused on political stability and developing an export economy capable of crossing $150b mark by 2025. If South Korea and other Asian countries can achieve economic miracles, why can’t we?
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(The Writer is Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms)♠ Email. betterpakistan@gmail.com
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-251109-Lessons-from-Korea
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