LAHORE  -  Day 2 of the Lahore School of Economics Annual Conference on Management of the Pakistan Economy focused on issues related to innovation, female employment, skills development of workers and Pakistani trade.

Dr Waqar Wadho and Dr Azam Chaudhry of the Lahore School of Economics looked at the how family control of management in Pakistani textile firms affects productivity. Dr. Rabia Arif of the Lahore School of Economics looked at how innovation in the textile sector, the light engineering sector and the automotive sector differs. Dr. Hamna Ahmed and Zunia Tirmazee of the Lahore School of Economics and Rebecca Wu of the University of Chicago discussed the impact of a training initiative by the Punjab Skills Development Fund which focused on providing access to online training courses for workers in rural and urban Punjab. Dr Zunia Saif Tirmazee of the Lahore School of Economics and Sakina Shibuya from the University of Wisconsin discussed the factors that may hinder firms from hiring women.

Dr Jamshed Uppal from the Catholic University of America discussed the institutional factors that have hindered investment and exports in Pakistan. Dr. Aadil Nakhoda from IBA Karachi discussed the potential impact of the Innovation Technology Agreement (ITA) would have on Pakistani imports.

Rector of the Lahore School of Economics, Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry concluded the conference with a discussion of how the dramatic fall in Pakistan’s growth rate, with almost 0% growth last year and an expected growth of only 2% this year, has led to an increase in poverty and how transfers to low income households through programs like the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) must be significantly increased to help lower income households. He also discussed how the provinces must take the lead role in development and economic growth, by investing in health and education and increasing productivity, while the federal government must focus on delivering macroeconomic stability and managing foreign debt during this period of stabilization. He pointed out that Pakistan has been susceptible to significant geopolitical instability over the last 3 decades while the other countries in South Asia have benefited from stability over this time period but that Pakistan needs to change its investment priorities to focus on delivering education, health and jobs to its people and also must develop a coherent industrial strategy combined with structural reforms to increase exports.