External Market Conditions, Competitiveness, Diversification, and Pakistan’s Export Performance

Pakistan’s exports evolve broadly in line with total world imports. Accordingly, Pakistan’s share in world imports was remarkably stable during the last 20 years, ranging between a minimum of 0.12 percent in 1980 and a maximum of 0.18 percent in 1992. In 1999-2000, the share was 0.15 percent. This would suggest that Pakistan’s export performance was not worse than that of the world on average. Compared to regional competitors, however, the performance was unimpressive, especially when compared to China and Thailand throughout the 1980s and 1990s or compared to Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka during the 1990s. All these countries succeeded in achieving sustainable market share increases in total world imports. In light of the growing awareness about the importance of exports in the overall economy of Pakistan and in view of the unimpressive export performance of Pakistan vis-à-vis other countries in the region it would be interesting to study the export performance of Pakistan and analyse the possible reasons for this poor performance and see whether it is due to demand deficiency or is it something to do with the supply side of the issue.

Export Diversification and the Structural Dynamics in the Growth Process: The Case of Pakistan

In the present paper we have tried to examine Pakistan’s experience with exports and growth by constructing several measures of diversification and structural change in Pakistan’s exports from a dis-aggregated data over a period of 27 years (1972-73 to 1997-98). Then using these measures we have tested a number of relationships among the structure of exports, export growth, aggregate growth, and world growth. By looking at the evolution and structural change of exports by sectors over the long run, we find a number of interesting results. First, the degree of export diversification increased sharply from 1979 and continued till 1985. After 1985, and with the return of the democracy in the country. There was a marked reduction in the export diversification and it went back to pre-1979 level. Secondly, a crude association of ‘traditionality’ with primary products and ‘non-traditionality’ with manufactured exports fails to represent Pakistan’s experience. As Pakistan emerged from an import substitution period into a period of structural change and free trade, its true comparative advantage was more visibly expressed, thus some manufactured exports declined while some primary products grew. Third, the shortrun dynamics of diversification and structural change show a marked pattern. Most change in the composition of exports has taken place during periods of boom in the domestic economy but when the world economy was experiencing a relatively recessionary period.

External Market Conditions, Competitiveness, Diversification, and Pakistan’s Export Performance

Pakistan’s exports evolve broadly in line with total world imports. Accordingly, Pakistan’s share in world imports was remarkably stable during the last 20 years, ranging between a minimum of 0.12 percent in 1980 and a maximum of 0.18 percent in 1992. In 1999-2000, the share was 0.15 percent. This would suggest that Pakistan’s export performance was not worse than that of the world on average. Compared to regional competitors, however, the performance was unimpressive, especially when compared to China and Thailand throughout the 1980s and 1990s or compared to Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka during the 1990s. All these countries succeeded in achieving sustainable market share increases in total world imports (Figure 1). In light of the growing awareness about the importance of exports in the overall economy of Pakistan and in view of the unimpressive export performance of Pakistan vis-à-vis other countries in the region it would be interesting to study the export performance of Pakistan and analyse the possible reasons for this poor performance and see whether it is due to demand deficiency or is it something to do with the supply side of the issue

Export Diversification and the Structural Dynamics in the Growth Process: The Case of Pakistan

In the present paper we have tried to examine Pakistan’s experience with exports and growth by constructing several measures of diversification and structural change in Pakistan’s exports from a dis-aggregated data over a period of 27 years (1972-73 to 1997-98). Then using these measures we have tested a number of relationships among the structure of exports, export growth, aggregate growth, and world growth. By looking at the evolution and structural change of exports by sectors over the long run, we find a number of interesting results. First, the degree of export diversification increased sharply from 1979 and continued till 1985. After 1985, and with the return of the democracy in the country. There was a marked reduction in the export diversification and it went back to pre-1979 level. Secondly, a crude association of ‘traditionality’ with primary products and ‘non-traditionality’ with manufactured exports fails to represent Pakistan’s experience. As Pakistan emerged from an import substitution period into a period of structural change and free trade, its true comparative advantage was more visibly expressed, thus some manufactured exports declined while some primary products grew. Third, the shortrun dynamics of diversification and structural change show a marked pattern. Most change in the composition of exports has taken place during periods of boom in the domestic economy but when the world economy was experiencing a relatively recessionary period

How Do Women Decide to Work in Pakistan?

The incidence of women labour force participation is very low in Pakistan. According to the Labour Force Survey, 1999-2000 female participation rate was merely 14 percent of the total labour force. Even though average annual growth rate of female labour force participation has been increasing slightly in Pakistan; it was 4 percent in 1980-99 and has gone up to 5.1 percent during 1995-98,1 however, this rate is still very low as compared to the other South Asian countries—42 percent in Bangladesh, 41 percent in Nepal, 32 percent in India and Bhutan, 37 percent in Sri Lanka [World Bank (2002)]. This paper is an attempt to identify household related factors that lead to women participation in the economic activities. This issue has been taken up in a number of other studies.2 The innovative aspect of this paper is that it relates women’s decision to participate in economic activities with their empowerment—who makes the decision to participate in the labour force—whether it is the women themselves or others. We would like to state at the very onset that this paper is a first cut to explore the issues of women’s participation in economic activities and their and empowerment. We hope to get feedback in the conference to improve the technical aspects of this paper and explore other aspects of this issue

A study of KIT activating mutations in acute myeloid leukemia M0 subtype in north India

Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)-M0 is a cancer of blood-forming cells in the bone marrow. KIT gene is a receptor tyrosine kinase class III that is expressed on by early hematopoietic progenitor cells and plays an important role in hematopoietic stem cell proliferation, differentiation and survival. Mutations of KIT receptor tyrosine kinase are involved in the constitutive activation and development of human hematologic malignancies. We have designed this study aiming to identify and determine the frequency and prevalence of mutations in North Indian patients suffering from AML-M0. To perceive the KIT gene mutations, we have carried out PCR–SSCP followed by direct DNA sequencing in 50 AML-M0 cases. We have found eight cases (24.2%) with t(8;21) having 12 point mutations whereas three cases (17.6%) with inv(16) having four point mutations. The point mutation detected at exon 9 in five cases is Asp496Val. Eight different point mutations were identified at exon 11 in seven AML-M0 cases that include Lys550Asn, Tyr568Ser, Ile571Leu, Tyr578Pro, Trp582Ser and Arg588Met. Point mutations at codons Ile571Leu and Trp582Ser was found in two independent cases. Three point mutations were found in exon 17 (Leu813Pro, Lys818Arg, Val825Ala) in three AML-M0 cases. The results underline that the KIT gene appears to be most frequently mutated target in AML-M0 cases. These observations suggest that mutations in exon 11 of the KIT gene might be useful molecular genetic markers in AML-M0 and these mutations might be related to progression and clinical pathogenesis.Keywords: PCR; SSCP–PAGE; KIT; Malignant; AML-M0; Mutation

21st Century water withdrawal decoupling: A pathway to a more water-wise world?

Human demand for adequate water resources and supplies has been and will continue to be a fundamental issue in the 21st century due to rapid population growth, growing economies and globalization, and increasing water pollution, among others. Water withdrawals in regions which are already encountering scarcity will impose intensifying pressure on water resources locally and globally, threatening the achievement of long-term sustainable development targets. Decoupling has increasingly been recognized and incorporated in policy making as a way to reconcile limitless economic growth with environmental pressures. Filling evident literature gaps, the current state and projected future decoupling factors of water withdrawals in relation to GDP are assessed through decoupling and regression analyzes for 155 countries and 12 potential socioeconomic development pathway scenarios. Findings suggest that average levels of water withdrawal decoupling are moderate in 2025 but will increase throughout the century in all countries. By 2075, average water withdrawal decoupling becomes common and widespread, with high decoupling factors across the world. Yet, some countries and regions will continue to lag behind in this development. GDP growth is the most significant driver of water withdrawals. Climate and regional differences among countries are major influential factors on decoupling outcomes, more so than current country-level income group classification. Altogether, these results are of high significance to water resource managers and policy actors, offering a chance to act proactively to change the course on global water resource and country-specific development. In this way, decoupling provides a pathway to a more water-wise world

Immunohistochemical Estrogen receptor determination in human Breast carcinoma: correlation with histologic differentiation and age of the patients

An immunohistochemical assay for the measurement of estrogen receptor (ER) has been evaluated on 290 consecutive human breast biopsy and mastectomy specimens in the year 1992 at The Aga Khan University Hospital laboratories. Immunohistochemical localization of estrogen receptor on frozen/paraffin section was scored in a semi-quantitative fashion incorporating both the intensity and the distribution of specific staining. Histologic grading of the tumour was performed according to Bloom’s method. In this study, 21% of the tumours were estrogen receptor negative, 15% were weak positive, 25% intermediate positive and 39% strong positive. Fifty percent of the well differentiated tumours showed strong ER positivity against 27% of the poorly differentiated tumours. Seventy eight percent of all negative estrogen receptors were in patients younger than 50 years of age (pre-menopausal group), while 52% of strong estrogen receptor positivity was observed in patients older than 50 years (post- menopausal). This study demonstrates the value of immunohistochemical method to determine the ER status in patients with advanced breast cancer