SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Pakistan is a country rich of natural resources. Few days back Pakistan discovered huge reserves of Iron ore in Chiniot. An estimated 500 million tonnes of good quality iron ore deposits, spanning approximately 2,000km, are speculated to be the economic potential. At present, the international commodity price for iron ore is at around $68 per metric tonne. This would amount to a speculative accumulation of $34 billion from the forecasted reserve over the long-term. This was enough, for the prime minister to claim that it will “help the country get rid of the begging bowl culture for good”. But how the government and its leadership make use of this resource potential in reality is altogether a different question. This early stage discovery raises some queries about how such a treasure will be exploited for national prosperity. More importantly, we should ask what the given challenges and ramifications of this opportunity will be and who might actually benefit from it. Lessons of the past teach us that attempts to utilise and manage such mineral resource wealth have often been ruptured and we should be careful about how we react to this latest discovery. We cannot forget our past experiences, such as the fallout from the Reko Diq mining project, which was meant to be the world’s largest copper and gold mining project and Pakistan’s largest-ever foreign direct investment, estimated to yield $60 billion over five decades, which ended up becoming a government policy failure instead. This demonstrates two critical concerns: the lack of policy and leadership to engage with international mining firms in negotiating contractual terms and second, the lack of transparency in terms of governance and monetary flows.
Pakistan’s more than 30% population is living below the poverty line while Pakistan’s economy is running on begging bowl despite Pakistan has resources worth of billions and trillions. It is shame for our leadership to not effectively making use of these resources to bring prosperity in the country and to get rid of the begging bowl.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
