According to World Bank experts, Pakistan needs a healthier, more educated, and skilled workforce to overcome its current economic crisis. Achieving this requires sustainable and comprehensive policies, as well as increased investment in human resources. However, the reality is that 23 million children are currently out of school, and many are undernourished, while a significant number of women lack employment opportunities. This alarming situation was highlighted in the recent Human Capital Review Research Report by the World Bank, which was presented by Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Ahsan Iqbal and other officials in Islamabad. The World Bank’s Vice President for Human Development emphasized that this situation can be improved through population control, increased investment in health and education, and greater participation of women in the workforce.
Experts note that a child born in Pakistan today can only contribute 41% of their potential to society if given full educational opportunities, far below what is needed for the country’s economic development. Pakistan urgently requires a healthy, skilled, and dynamic population, yet its capital index lags significantly behind the South Asian average. Minister Ahsan Iqbal pointed out that the country’s development budget has been reduced from one thousand billion rupees to 727 billion, while infrastructure remains among the poorest in the world. As a result, implementing some of the IMF’s terms agreed during the disastrous floods is currently impossible.
The World Bank report underscores the need for sustained and high investment in human resources to promote sustainable economic growth, and calls on the government to make every effort to achieve this goal.
Our development budget is less than a trillion rupees and has been reduced to Rs727 billion. Moreover, our infrastructure is like the poorest countries. In such a situation, the economy will be destroyed, and it is imperative to invest in the human capital of the country.
