Honourable Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of the Islamic
Republic of Pakistan, Professor Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi, President of
the Pakistan Society of Development Economists, Distinguished Delegates,
Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Assalam-o- Alaikum. It is indeed a great
honour and privilege for me to welcome you all, on behalf of the
Pakistan Society of Development Economists (PSDE, for short), to this
inaugural session of the Fifth Annual General Meeting of the Society.
Such glittering gatherings of national and international scholars of
Development Economics are rare in Pakistan and, therefore, most welcome
and impressive. I am, therefore, most grateful to you all for your
valuable participation in this meeting. The Pakistan Society of
Development Economists is truly a brainchild of Professor Syed Nawab
Haider Naqvi, Director of the Pakistan Institute of Development
Economics, who is appropriately its President also. Based in the
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, the society was registered
on October 19, 1982 under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. The
main objective of the Society was to provide a forum for effective
disseminate ion of the fruits of contemporary research, both here and
abroad, among academics, Government economists, researchers and
policy-makers concerned with socio-economic matters and development. It
also aimed at serving as a bridge of contact between scholars of the
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics and those similarly engaged
in government, universities and other national and international
institutions. To attain these objectives, the Society organizes Annual
General Meetings and, in close collaboration with the Pakistan Institute
of Development Economics, holds a number of lectures in the Institute's
series of "Lectures in Development Economics". Through these meetings
and lectures, •the Society maintains an active contact with its members
as well as with eminent national and international scholars. The Society
also plans to award medals and cash prizes to scholars for outstanding
research contributions in the field of Development Economics.