The Zahid Husain Memorial lecture, 22nd in the series was delivered by Professor Sir Paul Collier on “The Role of a Central Bank in National Economic Development”. The chief guest of the event was Justice (retired) Mr. Nasir Aslam Zahid, son of (late) Mr. Zahid Husain. The seminar was attended by policy makers, financial sector specialists, researchers, government officials, heads of commercial banks, diplomats, eminent business persons and representatives of academia and the media.
Sir Paul Collier is a professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and a Professorial Fellow of St Antony’s College. He is currently a Professeur invite' at Sciences Po and a Director of the International Growth Centre. In 2014, Professor Paul received knighthood for his services to promoting research and policy change in Africa. |
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His research covers the causes and consequences of civil war; the effects of aid and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural resources rich societies; urbanization in low-income countries; private investment in African infrastructure and changing organizational cultures. He has written for the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.
His recent books include The Bottom Billion (Oxford University Press, 2007) which in 2008 won the Lionel Gelber, Arthur Ross and Corine prizes and in May 2009 was the joint winner of the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book prize; Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places (Vintage Books, 2009); The Plundered Planet: How to reconcile prosperity with nature (Oxford University Press, 2010); and Exodus: How migration is changing our world (Oxford University Press, 2013).
In his lecture, Paul Professor Collier, while discussing the capacity of state institutions to tax and to install checks and balances on the abuse of power, emphasized on the belief of a sense of shared belonging, a sense of fairness and a sense of purposive action. Without these complementary beliefs sustained economic development would be hard to achieve, he said. Adding further, he said that it is imperative to create a shared narrative and inculcate these beliefs among all the main stakeholders, if a country wants to walk the path of sustained economic development.
Referring to SBP, he mentioned that the recent emphasis of SBP on provision of financing to underserved segments of the society such as to SMEs, low cost housing finance and agriculture are purposeful actions in this regard. He also praised the national consensus on CPEC as a powerful symbol of national unity. He further added that these actions accompanied by sacrifices of current generations will create trust between the government and the general public needed for achieving economic prosperity for future generations.
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