Toward a Competitive Pakistan: The Role of Industrial Policy

This paper’s basic premise is that an improvement in Pakistan’s export performance is crucial to raising economic growth. After examining the reasons generally given for Pakistan’s poor export performance, we conclude that the country’s very slow productivity growth was the single most important factor that hurt competitiveness. We argue that a coherent and articulated industrial policy is required to overcome this disadvantage. While the experience of the East Asian economies offers useful lessons, Pakistan’s policy must accord with its own conditions, which are, in many ways, different. The formulation of industrial policy should involve key stakeholders, particularly the private sector. The paper identifies certain factors that should underpin the new industrial policy, notably the changed basis of international specialization and rules governing world trade.