Government should enhance its spending on Research and Development (R&D) sectors to accelerate economic growth of the country. This was observed by Zahid Maqbool, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI), while presiding over a meeting of ICCI Sub-Committee on R&D.

He said Pakistan has huge potential in all sectors of economy, but it could not get its due place in the world only because of lack of attention on R&D. He said developed countries are spending about 3% of GDP on R&D sectors whereas Pakistan is spending less than 1% due to which country is lagging way behind in achieving better economic growth.

He said negligence in R&D is also affecting country’s competitiveness as Pakistan’s competitive ranking has dropped to 101 in 2009 from 84 in 2006 on the world Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index.

He said high investments in R&D sectors will lead to high productivity and eventually to an increased economic performance. He said China has achieved phenomenal economic growth by focusing on R&D while the rapid economic growth of some Asian countries is also attributed to the development of their competence in knowledge based economy.

Zahid Maqbool said Pakistan can significantly enhance its exports by paying more attention on R&D, but lamented that due to negligible spending on R&D, Pakistan’s share in total world exports has now come down to 0.13 percent while many developing countries including China, Malaysia, Thailand and India have shown a rapid expansion in exports by increasing their spending on R&D sectors.

He stressed for the need of reviewing country’s exports portfolio as well by focusing on producing hi-technology- products. He said Pakistan’s exports have traditionally remained concentrated in textile and other low technology areas whereas the share of hi-tech products in the overall world trade has increased to more than 65%.

He was of the view that R&D has become more significant for Pakistan particularly at a time when the level of competition, production processes and methods are rapidly changing and advancing on the globe. It is also inevitable to cope with ever-increasing challenges to Pakistan’s economy posed by the free markets around the world today, he stressed.