A two-day festival, called EconFest, for debates and discussions on the economy of the country and the related sectors being organised by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) kicked off at Alhamra Art Centre, Mall Road, on Saturday.
BOOM AND BUST: In the opening session of the EconFest, titled Coming out of Boom and Bust, Dr Nadeemul Haq said Pakistan was facing a disease and the IMF tranches were of little help. He urged the youth to take things in their own hands.
He said they tried to promote entrepreneurship in Islamabad near Quaid-i-Azam University and the government dislodged all the small businesses and vendors. He stressed the need for right policy-making which was a difficult thing to do. He said the universities were involved in evaluation and research for making policies across the world while in our country the section officers were doing it.
Dr Durre Nayab said there was a strange situation in Pakistan. “We interview people but don’t get the right candidates and the right candidates don’t get employment.” She said the teachers were not giving the relevant education to the youth and the teachers were repeating the same notes for their lectures every year.
Dr Faheem Jehangir Khan said 31pc of educated youth in Pakistan was unemployed while 67pc of the youth wanted to leave Pakistan. “We have to discuss population and issues of youth to find solutions. Pakistan had more than 200 universities which were giving degrees to hundreds of thousands of youth but a degree is not a guarantee of employment. The employer demands skill beyond theory.”
