Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was preaching to the converted when he told the D8 Summit in Cairo that investment in youth and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) was crucial to Pakistan’s future. After all, the Summit’s theme was ‘Ínvesting in Youth and Supporting SMEs: Supporting Tomorrow’s Economy. However, the D8 members all have youthful populations, and also face the problem of how to develop the sort of large enterprises that can contribute both jobs and production to the economy. The issues are not as unrelated as they might seem to a cursory glance, because SMEs are the means by which the youth is best employed, both as an entrepreneur and as an employee. The reason is that if young people set up an enterprise, it will usually be small, while small and medium enterprises would prefer to employ people without experience so long as it can be done cheaply. SMEs tend to employ younger people. It also helps that the SMEs also can be founded by young people. After all, a young person who sets up a roadside stall has founded a small business enterprise.
What needs examining is how to manage transitions. How does that stall become a retail chain? How does a small enterprise become a medium enterprise, and then a large one? It must not be forgotten that small businesses do not jump the medium enterprise stage. The D8 countries have all had experience, none of it good, of foreign-owned lrge enterprises, some of which have loomed so large that they have dictated to the country. The summit host, Egypt, provides the example of the Suez Canal Company, while Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Malaysia all have bitter memories of oil giants calling the shots. One reason for that dominance is that multinationals filled a gap, investing in areas where local enterprises were too small to come in.
This issue is more vital for it than for the members of the G8, which are all developed countries. The D8 is an avowedly secular organisation, for economic cooperation, but it cannot escape notice that the members are all Muslim countries, OIC members. The OIC itself contains members also facing the youth bulge issue, and are also lacking any large enterprises. If the D* finds a solution, it must ensure that the benefit as well as the lessons re spread to all.
