Interview with Syed Ali Abbas Abidi — former Vice Chancellor
[box type=”shadow” align=”” class=”” width=””]Profile:
Syed Ali Abbas Abidi has served as CFO, CEO, President, Head HR, Head Finance, Head Legal, Head ORIC, Head QEC etc. He served as Vice Chancellor which is the highest position in education sector.
In Pakistan where population is 230 million and there are 160 universities, he was among 160 people out of 230 million in Pakistan. He has rendered his services as a legal expert especially in business, taxation, and corporate laws, accounts, finance etc. He has done MBA, MA (Eco), LLM, LLB, MBIT, M.Com, Certified Business Engineer, Certified Business Leadership & Manager, Certified CSR, Certified HRM, Certified Public Accountant-United Kingdom, Certified Internal Control Auditor (USA), Professional Investigation (USA), PGD Islamic banking, Finance, Takaful, PGD Information Technology.
He has started his career as computer programmer and I switched to the area of law, finance, economics, business, and education.[/box]
PAKISTAN & GULF ECONOMIST had an exclusive conversation with Syed Ali Abbas Abidi about economy and prospects. Excerpts of the conversation are as follows:
If we talk about bilateral trade we must use the card of The Founder of Pakistan M.A. Jinnah. He was instrumental in the liberation movement of Morocco, Indonesia, Malaya, Nigeria, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, and Libya so his services are to be brought in picture and remind these countries the obligation of our founder for them in a soft manner. Mr. Jinnah passed 20 resolutions in favor of Palestine on AML forum. He argued with President Roosevelt, and President Truman of United States and he did not leave PM Atlee and PM Winston Churchill of UK on their cruel behavior against Arabs of Palestine. He raised his voice against South Africa in favor of blacks.
If we talk about our Gross Domestic Product and export, we are astonished to know that Pakistani population is the 5th largest population in the world and our GDP is less than Bangladesh. Norway, Demark and Finland are very small countries and their economy is much better than Pakistan. Pakistan gave loan to Germany in 1960s. The amount was 12 crores which is now millions of dollars’ worth. Pakistan taught China how to build high-rising buildings. PIA is master of Jordan, Singapore, Gulf, Emirates, and Malta airlines. Our past was not dark. In early 1970, the only country that is supporting India was USSR (now Russia) and Pakistan had support of the world. Right now India is s part of FATF and trying to push us to black list.
Pakistan has good potential of IT human resource but on export Pakistan is giving 5 per cent rebate to exports while as Bangladesh is giving 10 per cent rebate on exports of IT software. If Pakistan increases rebate percentage then more people will be inline toward this area and we can earn billions of dollars. Israel IT sector export is 37 billion dollars which includes exports to Muslim countries.
Due to shortage of Cold Storage the production of 30% vegetables, 35% fruits and 70% milk get affected so government must take immediate action and provide easy loans to businessmen so they buy cold storage and supply them on lease to farmers. Pakistan is 5th largest producer of pomegranate. Pakistan can earn 500 million dollars by providing modern technology to farmers.
Pakistan has penetrated in Africa and South America; I mean our exports will go to these countries. We were relying on USA and Europe but now South American and African nations will buy our products. So in Pakistan new industries will open and new job opportunities would arise.
Pakistan is among those countries which invest small amount of budget on education although the population of Pakistan is 230 million. 6.8% of Sweden’s GDP is devoted to education, Finland 5.1% of GDP, Pakistan 2.5%, India 3.1% of GDP, Bangladesh 1.3% of GDP, China 4.22% of GDP, USA 2.6% of the GDP, Japan 3.2% of the GDP, Germany 4.9% of the GDP and France more than 6% of the GDP.