Inaugural Address – 1989

It is my privilege to inaugurate the Sixth Annual General Meeting of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists. During the past seven years, the Society has become an institution in its own right, devoted to the creation of scientific knowledge in the general area of development economics. It has provided an effective forum for the exchange of views on problems and challenges faced by development economics in general, and by Pakistan’s economy in particular. The massive outpouring of knowledge in the shape of Papers and Proceedings published by the Society each year sheds ample light on complex academic issues and also constitutes an invaluable source of information for policy formulation. I am happy to note that the Society has been pursuing its objectives with determination, and has sought to cultivate its intellectual pursuits unhindered by any extra-academic considerations. This is as it should be. For~ when it comes to academic excellence, the limits should only be those of the imagination. We are meeting today at a time when the world is changing – and changing at an unprecedented pace. The scary chapter of cold war, replete with memories sending cold waves down one’s spine, seems to be drawing to a close. And a new happy chapter in international relations has begun to unfold itself, bringing relief and hope for weary humanity. Conflict is changing to detente and detente to cooperation. Walls cutting nations apart – all kinds of them from mental to concrete – are crumbling. A new pattern of global relations is emerging with more togetherness and greater openness as its distinctive features.