Rest assured that Pakistanis exporters and industrialists will not take advantage of this and instead do more rona dhona infront of government for more subsidies and incentives
This is why the government needs to attract new industrialists,
especially from the overseas Pakistanis/diaspora, to these special economic zones. If the government can have solid institutions to guard people's investments, Overseas Pakistanis can put some money planned for their retirement into investing in new industrial ventures, rather than 401K or other plans that may not grow as much over the next 30 years.
These old time industrialists need to be sidelined if they don't get with the program, but sidelined by being marginalized; by becoming a smaller and smaller share of the exporters as new investors become a larger share, thereby reducing their influence, and allow needed reforms to take place.
Pakistan needs to make itself investor friendly, there are a lot ways to attract FDI, and considering our population size, and the amount of development that is needed, IMHO, If Pakistan can attract $10-20 Billion Annually for the next 20-30 years, between wages, taxes, and supply chain integration, Pakistan can sustain the growth needed to get to a $2 Trillion economy by 2050 as in the World Bank Report.
Its a virtuous cycle, If Pakistan can bring sustained growth up to at least 6% annually (ideally at least 8% for the next 30 years), it will look like a better place to earn higher ROI, and naturally many foreign investors will come.
Economic development, after security, needs to be the top priority of every government official. Even in local areas, encouraging maximum recycling, and cleanliness will make the country more efficient, create jobs, and bring raw materials back into the industrial process.
Technical training is one way Chinese workers are more attractive to attract building a factory in their region. Also, we only have a small window of the next 20-30 years to do all this, because we wont have this Demographic Dividend forever, the average age of our population is younger than many nations, and with human capital development, we can have a very attractive workforce for foreign capital to partner with.
For those that say we should steal investors technology, are undermining the whole point of attracting investors. You don't have to steal others technology, but learn from them, innovate and bring to market your own products that can feed into the eco-system that initial investors product created. for example, If a Chinese company starts to make smartphones in Pakistan, then our companies should learn to make accessories or Apps, that don;t compete on price, but on uniqueness. Apps that are catered with our unique knowledge of the customers can help us win customer share.
Where we should be insistent is one value added industries of our raw materials, such as mining. If we discover a large lithium mine, we should insist investors build the batteries, and all the parts in between in Pakistan. We wont get the technology right away, but our local industry will learn to feed that supply chain, over time, that supply chain can be augmented with investments by local companies to customize products from that supply chain for foreign markets, especially industrial machines.
If you look at the exports of many industrialized nations, its exports of machinery, computers, and other elements of a supply china where one country specializes, that it exports.
So don't think of stealing, but learning and developing an eco-system around initial investments. Don't compete locally, but export to the world. Our GDP is around $300 Billion of which only 9% is from exports. The global economy is nearly $90 Trillion. We are therefore only 0.33% of the global economy, we need to be looking at overseas customers.
