Zardari's Japan Visit

The 31-point joint declaration, issued at the conclusion of President Asif Ali Zardari's three-day visit to Japan, states both countries decided to further strengthen mutual relations, encouraging private institutions, to start joint ventures, and enhance cooperation in the fields of finance, banking institutions, agriculture, food, mineral development and energy sector for the sake of enhancing comprehensive partnership.

Peace and Stability
The Pakistani president and the Japanese prime minister reemphasized that peace and stability in South Asia is necessary for peace and prosperity in Asia but throughout the world. Earlier on, during comprehensive dialogue between the two leaders, both countries decided to strengthen mutual relations as well as trade and economic ties by promoting comprehensive partnership.
The president also called on Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara. The president said that Japan was an important friend and trade and development partner of Pakistan. There was a need to further promote the existing cooperation, he said. He emphasized on the need for Japanese cooperation in various fields, including trade, development, security, energy and institutional capacity building. The Japanese foreign minister assured continuing Japanese assistance for revival of the Pakistani economy.

President Zardari's visit to Japan highlights the continuity of stable relations between Pakistan and Japan. There is no doubt about the fact that Japan has played a significant role in providing technical assistance in Pakistan's social, economic, academic, technical life in addition to financial assistance and cooperation for development. In view of the changing regional situation, Japan's support of the Pakistani viewpoint shows the deep relations and mutual trust between people of the two countries. There is no doubt that relations between the two countries will be further strengthened because of the president's recent visit.

Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes
President Zardari exchanged views with the Japanese leadership on an important issue and highlighted Pakistan's concern in that regard. He said that why cannot Japan cooperate with Pakistan in the field of nuclear energy, and provide it nuclear energy for peaceful purposes if it can do the same for India? Pakistan also deserves that and there is no justification of denying Pakistan nuclear technology. The president made it clear that India had forced us to become a nuclear power. Pakistan does not want to join the arms race in the region. There is no truth in the media reports that the number of our nuclear weapons is greater than those of India. The fact is that the United States showed discrimination against Pakistan with regard to civilian nuclear deal, and refused to provide nuclear technology to Pakistan for its economic and social development in spite of its needs and insistence. This was the gist of the president's earlier interview with the Japanese media, in which he was asked if he would raise the issue of nuclear cooperation during his meetings with the Japanese officials. The president said that he did not know what questions will be raised at that point. He said that the objective behind his visit is to apprise the Japanese Government and people of the situation and challenges confronting Pakistan. The president emphasized on the Japanese automakers to install plants in Pakistan.

A delegation of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Japan also called on the president. On the occasion, the president said that PPP activists should make every effort for welfare and development of the Pakistani community in Japan.

This was his second visit to Japan after he took charge of the president's office. Meeting with Japanese Emperor Akihito and formal negotiations with Prime Minister Naoto Kan were part of this visit's schedule. During the meetings, mutual relations, regional situation and important regional and international issues were reviewed.

Zardari also called on members of the Japanese cabinet and MPs, in addition to renowned businessmen. It is good news that Pakistan and Japan, while agreeing to have close cooperation in the fields of trade, economy, defense, education, health, disarmament and nuclear nonproliferation, decided to continue dialogue and political consultation, and to start joint ventures.

Eliminating Terrorism
In his meeting with President Zardari, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, while reiterating his resolve for full cooperation with Pakistan in the war on terror, emphasized on regional peace and stability and showed interest in playing role in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). He said that Japan would fully cooperate with Pakistan in water and power resource management and infrastructural development.

Both leaders decided to enhance contacts between MPs, traders, youth, and public in addition to training of defense officials and cooperation between the two countries' military education institutions. The Pakistani Government will work on simplifying the process of issuing visa and granting immunity to Japanese traders and tourists.

Economic Issue
In his meeting with Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda, the president said that Pakistan considered Japan a large market for its exports and desired joint ventures, consortium and trade contacts with Japan.

Addressing the Japan-Pakistan Business Cooperation Committee, President Zardari declared that strong economy was inevitable for victory against the terrorists and their supporters. He also emphasized on the need to provide employment opportunities to the people. The president recalled to the Japanese leaders that the government took courageous steps for improving the demolished economy, which he had inherited and adopting the way of reconciliation with all political forces instead of repeating the history of political clashes. As a result of this consensus, extraordinary constitutional changes have taken place.

Despite ravages of floods and international economic depression, the Pakistani economy is improving. It is expected that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow by 2.3 percent this year. Pakistan is a natural course for trade and energy for Central Asia and Western Asia. The Japanese investors can fully utilize Pakistan through joint and individual economic ventures. The investors will be provided full security and all the possible facilities.

Demand of Situation

President Zardari's visit basically springs from the need that Pakistan-Japan relations should move toward mutual social and economic development and technical information, practical sharing and financial assistance from Japan should be utilized in the best possible manner to eradicate the social and economic problems confronting the country.

There is a need to follow the Japanese strategy to end uncertainty. Academic, practical, and technical capacity of every individual should be built so that the country takes rapid strides to development on modern footings. It is regretting to note that a UNDP [United Nations Development Program] report has disclosed that Pakistan lags behind Laos, the smallest country on the world, in terms of human development in the list of 169 countries. Pakistan stands 125th throughout the world. If we closely review president's visit and Pakistan-Japan friendship, they have positive message for us, namely social and economic stability, and coordinated effort in that regard is the demand of the situation.

Vietnam To Overcome Weaknesses

Looking back at the last decade, we continue to achieve growth quantitatively from what nature has bestowed on us but too little change in term of quality and we have not been able to create any base for a breakthrough in the future.

In the sacred transitional moment of the year when we see off the old year and welcome the new year, each of us should spare a some time to reflect and reminisce on the last year deeds, what we have achieved and what we have not and to think of the new year with all the previsions, intentions and aspirations for the country, for the people and naturally for oneself.

Creating Realistic Changes

We must think before acting, as everything will start with action before creating realistic changes. The Year of the Tiger (2010), the last one of a decade, is also an opportunity for us to look back at the last ten years and our plan for the next ten years.Following the first years of reform and integration of the nineties, during this decade (2001-2010), Vietnam continues to obtain definite achievements praised by the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) that often cited us as a model for poor and less developed countries for our economic high growth and rapid hunger elimination and poverty alleviation work. Some people use the allegory of the "good child" score card of a kindergarten child to describe this praise.From 2008 onward, we have passed the gate of "low income countries" ($935 per capita) -- a superlative to designate poor countries -- to join the group of middle income countries, even though we have not reached the lowest level among this group. These are real laudable progresses though still not at par with the potential of the country and of the Vietnamese people.

Sicknesses and Weaknesses

Maybe there are not many people who can remember that the World Bank, in its book The Miracle of East Asia has spared no words to praise Indonesia and took the Indonesian economic model for us to study in those first days of Doi moi (Renewal), until this country tumbled into the financial crisis of 1997. The one who praises is not held responsible when the praised succumbed. The praise is sweet for the ear but will not help to discover our sicknesses and weaknesses.Any people responsible for oneself must create a democratic mechanism to discover in time its shortcomings and has enough courage to correct itself and move forward. And all the more we should not take other's praise to gloss over or to hide our shortcomings.Looking back at the last decade, we continued to achieve growth quantitatively from what nature has bestowed us but too little change in term of quality and have not created any base for a breakthrough in the future.The structure of our export commodities is slow to change and after ten years, it was still mainly crude oil, textiles and garments, leathers and shoes - all of which are labor intensive products made under processing arrangements to benefit from the low cost workforce. The percentage of high-tech products has increased from two percent in 1999 to eight percent in 2008 thanks to the foreign invested businesses.According to the evaluation of the World Bank (2006), 76 percent of our gross national assets are natural resources (land, forest, timber, and so forth), 20 percent are tangible assets already built (roads, bridges, ports) and only less than 7 percent of the assets come from knowledge, trained people and institutions while in the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with per capita income over $10,000 the ratio is 2 percent for natural resources, 17 percent for physical assets and 80 percent for knowledge. Particularly, in Japan natural resources only account for a little bit over zero percent.In the last ten years, we have made very little progress on education and training, on the fight against corruption and on the reduction of traffic accidents while environment pollution, traffic jams, water logging and flooding have increased dramatically.From 20 06 to this date, Vietnam has fell 11 ranks on the classification of global competitiveness while China, South Korea and other economies have made headway progress based on knowledge, institutions and human creativity.Facing the danger of climate change, our natural resources are threatened to be seriously reduced and the vision of growth based on natural resources exploitation is really sinister and obsolete.

Changed Situation

We must candidly asked ourselves why we are so slow in progressing in areas that we already knew the issues as we have used eloquent words such as "national disaster" or "internal aggressors" to describe corruption; and how many times we are "resolute" or "determined to fight" but the results in reality are still minimal and basically, the situation has changed much.When we have made every possible effort for so many years but without any success then we should reconsider the way we carry out these efforts and see the real causes of those diseases.Former Prime Minister Pham Van Dong often said: "All of us are at the same time the victim, the culprit, the prosecutor, the judge and the defendant". Maybe, on the spiritual aspect, as a patriotic Vietnamese, nobody would have the heart to excuse one's responsibility before the people, but the responsibility of a farmer in Mu Cang Chai village and the responsibility of the ruler of a country over these problems are quite different.It is still better to light up a match than to sit lament in the darkness. In these spring days when we make offerings to our ancestors and reminisce about the heroes who have sacrificed their lives to save this country for the people, each of us should think and act more than just lighting a match.

UN Human Development Report 2009

Norway takes the number one spot in the annual United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) released on 5 October, 2009, but China has made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens. The index compiled by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita.

Norway, Australia and Iceland took the first three spots while Niger ranks at the very bottom, just below Afghanistan. China moved up seven places on the list to rank as the 92nd most developed country due to improvements in education as well as income levels and life expectancy.

Colombia and Peru rose five spaces to rank 77th and 78th while France — which was not part of the top 10 last year — returns to the upper echelons by moving up three places to number 8.

Declining India's Position
India continues to cut a sorry figure, slipping six points (from the last compilation) in the latest HDI. Overall, however, India made progress on HDI, improving its value from 0.556 in 2000 to 0.612 in 2007.

As against a standing of 128 in the previous year’s UN Human Development Report, India has been ranked 134th among the 182 nations surveyed in the latest report.

Despite progress in the last 25 years, disparities in people’s well-being in rich and poor countries continue to be unacceptably wide. The report was introduced here by Patrice Coeur-Bizot, resident representative of the UNDP.

This year’s report represents the most extensive coverage ever of 182 countries. As for rankings, the top three ranked countries in the HDI are - Norway, Australia and Iceland. France rejoined the top 10 countries after dropping down for one year, while Luxembourg fell from the top 10.

India’s static ranking comes despite the fact that the government over last five years has increased its social sector spending manifold.

Rich-Poor Countries Disparities
The UNDP said the index highlights the grave disparities between rich and poor countries. A child born in Niger can expect to live to just over 50, which is 30 years less than a child born in Norway. For every dollar a person earns in Niger, 85 dollars are earned in Norway.

The 2009 index was based on data from 2007 and does not take into account the impact of the global economic crisis. Many countries have experienced setbacks over recent decades, in the face of economic downturns, conflict-related crises and the HIV and AIDS epidemic. And this was even before the impact of the current global financial crisis was felt.

Afghanistan, which returns to the list for the first time since 1996, is the only Asian country among the bottom 10 which also include Sierra Leone in the 180th spot, just below the Central African Republic.

Sri Lanka tops the ranking among the South Asian countries at 102nd position, while Bhutan maintained higher ranking than India at 132nd in the overall ranking. Other three neighbouring countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, are also not far behind than India as they stood at 141, 146 and 144 respectively.

Life Expectancy and Adult Literacy
The UNDP report lists Japan at the top in terms of average life expectancy of 82.7 years, while Afghanistan is at the bottom with just 43.6 years. India has an average life expectancy of 63.4 years.

In adult literacy, Gerogia tops the list with 100 per cent and Mali at the bottom with only 26.2 per cent, while India is better of with 66 per cent.

Further, Liechtenstein tops the list as per the GDP per capita in United States dollar with 85,382, whereas Congo is at the bottom with only 298 and India has 2,753.