Need to boost Pakistans corporate sector

You can want to do the right thing, and you can even want to do it for the right reasons, but if you dont apply the right principles, you can still hit a wall. ~ Adam Smith. Perhaps, this could not apply better than when doing a comparison between the corporate sectors of Pakistan and India? Questions are often asked about what happened to the Pakistani corporate sector that it fell so much behind its Indian counterpart and that also from a position where it was perceived to be actually ahead till as recently as the late 80s? Or from another perspective, what factors helped the Indian corporate sector to make such phenomenal progress in so short a time and amazingly emerge along with China as a virtual leader on the global corporate scene?
Fully acknowledging their phenomenal achievement and taking nothing away from the Indian or Chinese business leaders and entrepreneurs for their success, it may not be out of context to mention here the support they received in this regard from their governments to make progress possible. To highlight this aspect let us just try and jot down a few initiatives taken by the Indian and Chinese governments over the years to help boost national businesses; an exercise, which at the same time will also help us realize that contrary to the public opinion at home the Pakistani corporate sector has not been so blessed after all
* Silent Revolution: Between 1992 and 1994 and then from 2004 to 2005, India carried out more than 278 legislative changes (not including internal separate initiatives on the part of every State) and China about 600 legislative changes between 1989 and 1999 all aimed at removing bureaucratic impediments to private sector growth, minimizing States role in day to day corporate management and harmonizing the governing corporate rules and regulations with those of the developed world.
This is known in the business circles as the silent corporate revolution. For example, according to a World Banks study conducted in 2005 on South Asia, when running a business in India one comes into physical contact with any type of a government functionary/entity about once a month and for any paperwork requirements relating to NOC, various tax returns, reporting, data filing, etc. that can be managed through mail/internet the average processing time is 45 days, whereas, the closest second was Sri Lanka with statistics of twice a month and 90 days respectively. Pakistan obviously fared far worse.
* State Corporations have been established where you can literally order manufacturing facilities, in the key industrial priorities as chosen by that State, on a turnkey basis. This in order to overcome the initial hurdles that could lead to reluctance in setting up an industrial venture and to overcome irritants that can often be the difference in deciding to invest or otherwise. Investors not only feel relieved at finding such arrangements in place as it saves them a good deal of bureaucratic and political handling, but also feel comfortable as they can simply come and install their management team in a facility that only needs to be put in motion and has been set-up at a price much more affordable than they could have managed on their own. For example in India, depending upon the State where one is wanting to invest, such a service is available for setting up manufacturing facilities in the sectors of rubber, film studio & film production, engineering, shoemaking, plastics and gum processing, food processing, and research and development in listed fields.
Ironically, we also had similar initiates in Pakistan back in the 60s - PIDC (Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation), PIDB (Punjab Industrial Development Board), and others - which took upon themselves to install industrial projects with an eye on judicious spread of industrial undertakings both geographically and sectorially, and to in turn also ensure equitable distribution of growth and development across the country. However, somehow and somewhere along the line these institutions got politicized or rather became the victims of politicians, making them unsustainable and later redundant.
* Conscious creation of a culture with a mind-set of extending co-operation and seeking international recognition in extending efficient and transparent services to the corporate world.
A program, under the expertise of Dr. Vroom of Yale, was especially designed and the Chinese government made it mandatory in the mid 80s for the officers of its concerned corporate sector departments to enroll in and pass this course.
* Subsidizing of highly skilled human resource (HR to small and medium sized enterprises - SME). Both China and India have implemented measures allowing their SME sector access to skilled manpower resource, which otherwise it may not have been able to afford. West Germany did this right from the 50s to the 80s and recently we also see Central European countries (Czech Republic, Hungry and Poland) offer similar incentives to their local industry.
* Working on reducing time between main industrial centres and markets. This not only helps connect industrial clusters but also becomes instrumental in drawing both inter and intra industrial synergies. For example, China, they say, on an average has virtually halved its average national composite commute ratio (an indicator used to measure connectivity in relation to distance and time).
* Formation of work incubators and establishing of Scientific & Technical Parks at strategic national locations. As an example, the Indian government chooses clusters to match area expertise and then promotes the selected industries through these facilities - East Bengals industrial estates focus on plastics, shoemaking and wooden furniture clusters through seeking common solutions in the area of human resources, joint advertising and research and development.
* Last but not least, numerous other endeavours adopted by China and India. To name only a few, establishment of facilities that can be used by foreign investors to easily settle in and to be able to relax upon basing themselves over there once their firms practically enter the home countrys markets, setting targets for at least one third of the locals to pick up and speak minimum one foreign language by the year 2030, and devising an award and recognition system for star performers.