Importance of industry in the development of Pakistani economy
Background:
Importance of industry in the development of national economy is clear. Pakistan started with an extremely weak industrial base after independence. The British had concentrated all their industrial establishments in a few big cities like Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. Under Partition Plan all these cities were made a part of India. At the time of partition, major industries established in India were, textile, jute, sugar, steel, iron, cement, paper and glass.
At the time of partition, there were 921, big industrial units in India, out of these only 34 came to the share of Pakistan (less than four percent of the total), and this was unfair because 20 percent of the total Indian population lived in Pakistan. Employment capacity of the industries which came to the share of Pakistan was even poorer. Indian industrial units had a total capacity of employing 11, 37,150 persons daily, Pakistan’s 34 units had the capacity of employing only 26, 400 persons daily i.e only 2.32 percent of the total.
Importance of Industry in Pakistani Economy:
As we have studied earlier that Pakistan is basically an agrarian economy and in order to make rapid economic progress we need to develop our agriculture on priority basis, but this does not mean that industrial development is less important. We should pay due attention to the progress of industry for reasons given below.
Modern machinery:
Modern agriculture cannot be carried out without the help of mechanical equipment. Modernization of agriculture demands abundant supply of agriculture implements, pesticide, insecticides and fertilizers, which obviously needs strong industrial support.
Foreign Exchange:
In order to earn more foreign exchange, it is necessary that our agricultural produce is not exported ray but in processed form. Processing requires an agro-based industrial set up.
Balance in imports and exports:
Pakistan has to import large quantities of raw and processed goods in order to meet the demands of her ever expanding population as well as for keeping a balance between exports and imports, for this we should try to manufacture consumer’s goods within our country and establish factories for this purpose.
Opportunities of employment:
By expanding our industrial base we can provide employment for maximum number of our people, this will alleviate poverty problem and help us in improving our people’s quality of life.