Prof. Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi, Dr M. Ghaffar Chaudhry,
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a privilege for me to
inaugurate the Fourth Annual General Meeting of the Pakistan Society of
Development Economists. I am pleased to note that within only five years
of its existence the Society has evolved into a prestigious forum for a
free and precious exchange of ideas among economists and policy-makers.
I am told that through these annual general meetings 74 papers on
various topics have been prepared and published, and that, in its
Lecture Series on Development Economics, eminent international
economists and demographers have read papers on leading issues in
economics and demography. The literature created under the aegis of the
Society furnishes useful insights into the functioning of the economy
and has contributed to the comprehension of the problems of almost all
areas of Pakistan's economy - agriculture, industry, trade, resource
mobilization, etc. I am happy to note that the Society has helped to
promote a scientific and pragmatic approach in policy-formulation and
economic decision-making, and has enabled us to think systematically
about the nature of the challenges posed and faced by Pakistan's
economic development and about the response to this
challenge.
