ISLAMABAD: Speakers on Tuesday stressed the need to translate Pakistan’s regional connectivity and infrastructure into economic incentives.

They were participating in a panel discussion on the topic ‘Leveraging new economic geography for shared prosperity, stability, and resilience’ held on the second day of the Sustainable Development Conference (SDC) organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Climate Change.

Pakistan Regional Economic Forum Chairperson Haroon Sharif has questioned the efficiency of the infrastructure that connected Pakistan with various countries, including China as well as South and Central Asian states.

He said the motorways had been politically beneficial and served the elite who drive big cars, but if the same investments were made in Pakistan Railways, it might have gotten more economic gains as it would have promoted trade.

He posed a question to the panelists about how to use proximity for economic advantage, fearing that otherwise, it would end up like the pipeline projects in Pakistan.

Mr Sharif further said that instead of getting obsessed with connectivity, shouldn’t we be working on synergies with our trading partners because if you do not talk to you neighbours, despite having neighbours, you are landlocked.

Vice Chancellor of Beacon House National University, Lahore, Dr Moeed Yusuf started on a grim note by saying that our conversation is being held in echo-chambers, which unfortunately is falling on deaf ears and nobody cares.

He said the problem is that we continue to hold conversations on regional cooperation while the world was moving on.

“Eventually we will be forced to pick sides on someone else’s terms,” Mr Yusuf said.

He said that he was part of the team that had formulated the national security policy but we have stopped acting on it even though the conversation was still around it.

“If I ask all ministries concerned, what they think economic diplomacy is, will I get the same answer from them,” he added.

Internationally, wherever you go, the conversations have changed from friendly countries to bankable transactions, he said, adding, “Do we have a bankable transaction”.

Dr Moeed Yusuf said when it came to regional cooperation, Pakistan and its neighbours had a binary choice between the US and China.

“The ability of a country to avoid this binary choice is directly proportional to its internal strength,” he added.

Former ambassador to China Naghmana Hashmi said having worked with China for over 20 years, she had found that China had moved on from what Mao Zedong had said that political power depends on military might.

“But we are still stuck there,” she added.

Ms Hashmi said CPEC was never about power projects and connectivity alone, “we were supposed to develop our industrial zones based on the connectivity from CPEC”.

She said China was complaining about security but was still sending its people. “So, it is up to us to improve our security situation,” she added.

The former ambassador said when China introduced its climate policy, 17 ministries endorsed it because they were interconnected.

A similar approach should be followed in Pakistan, she said.

Former federal minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said Pakistan had always been leveraging its geographical location to determine our foreign policy.

He said when it came to relations with neighbours, it was a matter of what do we prioritise and often we fall on the matter of security before economy.

With regard to trade with neighbours, especially India, Mr Khan said it’s easier to take an emotional line instead of prioritising what was actually good for Pakistan.

The right way to think requires opening “our minds, our country and our conversations, no matter how difficult,” he added.

On smog, the former minister said do we still follow the emotive line or engage in conversation with India because the issue of climate does not concern boundaries.

SDPI Executive Director Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri invited Dr Dushni Weerakoon, Institute of Policy Studies Sri Lanka executive director, to speak on regional cooperation.

Ms Weerakoon said we have similar conversations about the “tyranny of location” in Sri Lanka.

We know about these issues, but even in the foreign policy of Sri Lanka, we are not able to address it, she said.

Dr Paras Kharel from South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment, Nepal, spoke on the importance of Saarc in connection with regional cooperation.

He said after the political changes in Bangladesh, discussion on Saarc came to the forefront, which was a good sign.

And if Pakistan and India can sit together in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), they can also have a conversation in Saarc, especially when its one of the best platforms to discuss climate, especially smog.

Dr Rajan Suresh Ratna from UNESCAP-SSWA, India, said it was not just about cooperation, it was also about peace and development, adding that Saarc region hosts half of the poor population of the world.

He said there was a disconnect between policymakers of these countries and the people living on the borders, adding that inside the country there are big roads and highways, but on the border there are bottlenecks that disrupt connectivity.

He said when Covid hit, it took no time for the leaders of Saarc countries to come together and make a policy.

“So they have demonstrated the ability to come together; its just that they do not share economic interest as a priority,” Dr Ratna said.

He said the World Bank had an index that measured cost of trade which showed that it was cheaper for India to trade with the US and the European Union, as compared to trading with Bangladesh or Pakistan.

The panelists concluded with recommendations, the chief among them being that Pakistan should open its borders for regional cooperation and think about deregulation of the private sector, and move towards country’s interest rather than emotional rhetoric.