Under the direction of Dr. Aneel Salman and Maham Naweed, the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) organized a highly influential two-day Winter School on Law and Economics on December 13–14, 2023. A wide range of attendees, including academic representatives, students from other universities, and people from all walks of life, attended the event.
The Winter School explored the economic landscape and labelled four modern issues as the “four horsemen”: social polarization, ecological degradation, economic crises, and fundamentalist tourism.
Key metrics including the GDP growth rate, budget deficit, current account deficit/GDP ratio, and inflation rate provided a comprehensive assessment of the status of the economy. The talks emphasised the importance of remittances as the backbone of the economy, and Pakistan benefits from a large expat community that sends in about $30 billion a year from the Middle East, Europe, the USA, and Australia.
Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), preferential trade agreements, and free trade agreements were all part of the intellectual conversation that explored the complex role that technology plays in determining economic decisions in the modern world. The G-5, or Fifth Orbit of Globalisation, was also discussed during the session.
Key concepts like “industrialization,” “trade circles,” and “internationalisation of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises” (MSMEs) summed up the current economic jargon. An important first step towards developing knowledgeable viewpoints on the state of the economy today was the IPRI Winter School, which provided participants with a rich environment in which to understand the intricacies of both law and economics.
