2005/2006
2003/2004

2005/2006
2003/2004

2005/2006
2003/2004

Jamshed Masood

Overview

Socioeconomic snapshot of the country

Pakistan is the second largest economy of South Asia and ranked among the seven most populous countries of the world. The country is nearly four times the size of the UK, and it has India, Afghanistan, Iran and China as its neighbours. The economy is primarily driven by agriculture, which accounts for the largest share of GDP, about 25 percent. Pakistan is one of the world’s largest producers of raw cotton, which serves as the input to drive the textile industry -- the mainstay of industrial activity in Pakistan. The economy relies heavily on exports comprising primarily textile products, commodities such as rice, fish and raw cotton, and manufactured items including carpets, petroleum products, leather, sports goods and surgical instruments. Almost half of the exports are destined for seven countries: the USA, Germany, Japan, UK, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan’s GDP per capita is about US$430.

In line with the prevailing global trends, Pakistan’s economic growth slowed down in the past few years. However, the government is making all-out efforts to revitalise the economy and to demonstrate its commitment to business friendliness through internationally acknowledged fiscal policies, good governance and transparency in managing government affairs. During the past year, the economy grew by 3.6 percent in real terms.2 Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an important indicator of economic stability, representing a benchmark of the confidence of international investors in the local economy. The FDI for 2001 stood at about US$10 million.2 The USA accounts for 60 percent of FDI inflows, followed by the UK and UAE. Almost half of the FDI was in the oil and gas and the power sectors, followed by the trade, communications and industrial sectors.

Pakistan’s population is estimated to be 146 million, which has been growing at an average rate of 2.8 percent per annum. Its labour force is about 42 million, of which 28.1 million are in rural areas and 13.4 million in urban areas. The agricultural sector employs 48 percent of the workforce. Being a low-income country, about a third of the people live below the poverty line. Poverty in Pakistan is largely a rural phenomenon as 32 percent of the rural population lives below the poverty line against 19 percent of the urban population.
Access to education is regarded as one of the fundamental rights of the citizens of the country. The government is committed to increasing the literacy rate as well as improving the quality of education. The overall literacy rate is estimated at 50.5 percent (male 63 percent; female 38 percent) with rural and urban literacy rates at 30 percent and 70 percent, respectively. Legislation has been promulgated for compulsory primary education for all its citizens.

Physical communications infrastructure

Pakistan has worked consciously to develop its physical infrastructure to support trade, commerce, cross-cultural interaction and socioeconomic uplift of the country. The physical infrastructure can be broadly classified into land, air and sea transportation systems. The total length of roads in the country is about 250,000 kilometres, on which 4.5 million motor vehicles ply. Its national airline, Pakistan International Airlines, covers 33 international destinations and 21 domestic stations, covering all parts of the country. The country has two major seaports at Karachi and Port Qasim, which handle 30 million tons of cargo annually.

ICT infrastructure

ICTs have been recognised by the government as one of the four priority areas of focus. These priority areas are selected to integrate the country into the global information economy. The vision of the IT policy adopted by the government in 2000 focused on harnessing the potential of IT as a key driver for Pakistan’s sustainable economic development. Efforts were made to accelerate the development of the country’s ICT infrastructure.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) is the exclusive provider of basic telecommunications and ICT infrastructural services in Pakistan. Basic services include voice, domestic, leased-line and international communications. It manages a network of 4.38 million lines installed across the country, which is almost entirely digital, and has a fibre optic backbone connecting almost 400 cities and towns on high-capacity fibre optic links. The backbone is being upgraded through the use of dense wavelength division multiplexing equipment, which would result in abundant capacity on the nationwide network. On the. . . . . the complete text of this chapter is available for purchase and immediate download as a PDF file, please click here for more information.

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.af Afghanistan
.au Australia
.bd Bangladesh
.bt Bhutan
.bn Brunei
.cn China
.hk Hong Kong
.id Indonesia
.in India
.ir Iran
.jp Japan
.kh Cambodia
.kr South Korea
.la Laos
.lk Sri Lanka
.mm Myanmar
.mn Mongolia
.mo Macau
.mv Maldives
.my Malaysia
.np Nepal
.nz New Zealand
.ph Philippines
.pk Pakistan
.sg Singapore
.th Thailand
.tp/.tl Timor-Leste
.tw Taiwan
.vn Vietnam
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