Skill Development in Pakistan ( The Presidential Address)

Human resource development particularly improved skills impact rather significantly economic growth and the productivity levels. Whereas research on productivity following Abramovitz (1956) and Solow (1957), seminal articles on sources of growth, highlighted the importance of human resource development,1 the endogenous theory of economic growth has brought human capital at the centre stage of the growth process [Romer (1990, 1993)].2 While the contribution of productivity towards growth rate of GDP in Pakistan has been one-third, the increase in total factor productivity has more to do with catching up than the improvement in human resource development, major source of sustained growth [see Kemal, Din, and Qadir ( 2002)].