Hardwork will pay rich dividends - Senior VP, Pakistan

The only resource that will survive is knowledge and talent while hard work will pay rich dividends said Senior Vice President Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Insaaf Political Party Asad Umar.

Addressing the CIMA Business Leaders Summit he said to develop people it was necessary to invest heavily on skills and education.

For example, China invested heavily on the development of skills and knowledge and are reaping the harvest now.

Another aspect is understanding the power of trade.

Economies which understand the power of trade have succeeded. Millions of people are living in poverty in Asia and have the lowest level of intra-regional trade in Asia while Asia is divided.

Now the time is right to shed differences and get-together so that Asian countries will have a bigger say in shaping the world economically as well as politically.

Umar said that the West shed their political differences after the Second World War and now they have a bigger say economically and politically and we should follow the same path.

To make a true difference, the state, businesses and individuals should play a synergistic role which will help bring prosperity, he said.

Umar said that you can't have economic prosperity without having great economies but you need leaders as well.Tracing history, he said that during the last 3-4 centuries the world has gone through transformation and Asia has been at the receiving end of this. The per capita income of Asian countries and the rest of the world was the same.

Once Industrialisation started the advantage of technology led to colonisation of the Asian countries and the region was left behind until independence.

Once the countries received independence from their masters they took the destination of their countries to their hands.He said the problems in the developed world and the opportunities in emerging Asia cannot be denied as the knowledge gap between the developing and the developed world narrows and the results will create destruction as well as challenge. The top end of the knowledge curve is not replicated in other countries or the emerging Asia. Therefore they are still benefitting.

The blue collar worker is still feeling the pressure of competition. In the 1960's, everything great was done in the past, but now it is not so, for example the Petronas Towers in Malaysia and the Burg in Dubai are some of the astonishing buildings of the present century said Umar.