25th Sustainable Development Conference

Pakistan must prepare itself to face the changing global geo-

political and geo-economic situation.

Speaking at a conference on theme, Geopolitical Conflicts: Implications for

Pakistan’s Geo-economic, he said unipolarity is transforming
into a new world order, which will make it difficult for Pakistan
to escape its implication.

 Pakistan can either become a proxy ground for great power

contestation
 Or emerge with a model where destabilised Pakistan is unfavorable
for the world.
 Pakistan needs a strategy to send skilled labour to aging countries so
as to increase remittances.
 Pakistan also needs to take bold policy choices, decentralise power to
local governments and allow lateral entry of experts to revamp the
government structure.
 He stressed the need for deregulation and privatisation of economic
space and prioritising policy continuity in key governance areas
through legal and constitutional guarantees.

Former chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee retired Gen Zubair

Mahmood Hayat said

 Geo-strategic contest of power at global level and regionally RSS-

driven and BJP-led Bharat and associated Akhund Bharat ideology
had serious geo-strategic ramifications for Pakistan.

 It’s not pure geo-economics, but intertwined geo-strategy and geo-

politics at play.

 He stressed the need for devising concrete policies to accelerate clean

energy transition and exploiting blue economy to access unexplored
markets.

 He suggested that moving forward, “we need to explore digital, cyber

and space technology and get in sync with states to diversify markets
and capitalise human resources”.

Four major challenges that globalization is shifting towards regionalism

and proximity advantage can cut the cost of trade.
Separating geo-economics from geo-strategic positioning the government
should offer purely economic value by offering asset swaps so that the
countries’ economics and investment interests could be interlinked.

At another panel discussion, titled “Can National Trade Policies Help

Mitigate Climate Change?”, Dr Asad Hayyauddin, a former bureaucrat, said

Trade and climate had a nexus alluding to the cost of damage

due to environmental degradation of carbon-intensive
businesses and its perpetrators are responsible for
compensating the damage done to ecology.

He said Pakistan was not a developed state due to its alienation to three
agreements of information technology, and environmental good that
needed to be focused to achieve sustainable development.

Dr Fahad Saeed, Climate Scientist at Climate Analytics, Germany,

said

 Pakistan is geographically situated in the two most important

climatic zones where strong monsoon systems and westerly waves
impact its environment and increase its vulnerability due to climate
change.

 He said Pakistan and Bangladesh were equally vulnerable due to

climate change, but the latter bagged double climate finance of $14
billion in comparison to that of $7.7bn secured by Pakistan.

Managing Director, National Energy Efficiency and Conservation

Authority, Sardar Mohazzam said

 The policy approach in terms of trade and climate was top to bottom,
which should be opposite for grassroots level intervention for
promising outcomes.

 He said carbon dioxide emissions, almost 50pc of overall nationally

determined contributions, were coming from the energy sector. “We
will have to focus on energy sources at local level,” he said.

Head of Agro, PepsiCo Pakistan Haseeb Malik said

 36 million hectares of land had been irrigated in Pakistan, which was

consuming over 50pc freshwater resources.
  However, drip irrigation technology can help reduce 70pc water
consumption at a particular area of cultivated land.

Chief Economist of Bank of Punjab Syed Sayem Ali said

 30pc imports of the country are of energy related that made it one of
the most energy dependent economies in the world.

 Data suggests that global trade has increased to $30 trillion from $5tr
this year whereas the carbon emissions have also doubled.

Earlier, at another inaugural ceremony, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal

called upon

 The regional countries to make joint efforts to achieve common goals

of poverty alleviation, literacy, sustainable socio-economic
development, and mitigation of climate disaster impacts.

 The minister urged the international finance institutions to establish

a special fund to provide interest-free loans with grace period of up to
30 years to developing countries to help them cope with climate
disasters.

Planning Secretary Syed Zafar Ali Shah said the recent flooding in
Pakistan has incurred a loss of over $30 billion while the country needs at
least $1bn for rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in the flood-hit
areas.

Mikiko Tanaka, Director and Head of UNESCAP Subregional Office for

South and South-West Asia, Thailand, said regional countries are
confronting with difficult times and, therefore, they need to strengthen
partnerships for regional development. She said UNESCAP will continue to
support member countries in achieving SDGs or 2030 agenda.

Knut Ostby, the UNDP Country Director, said Pakistan has made
significant progress in certain goals such as poverty eradication, access to
energy, under nourishment, food insecurity, housing and climate change.
“We don’t need only concrete buildings, we need society to be resilient
which is linked to SDGs.”

Deputy Minister for Planning, Housing and Infrastructure of Maldives

Fathimath Niuma said regional and sub-regional collaborations are vital to
cope with the Covid pandemic.
Shehan Semasinghe, Minister of State for Finance of Sri Lanka, said his
country focuses on achieving high-level productivity through a diversified
economy.