KARACHI, Sept. 17: Karachi Electric Supply Company, in line with its vision to promote enlightened thoughts and objectivity, has created a prestigious “Thought Leadership Forum” as a contribution towards the development of the country’s economy.
Under this forum, a series of seminars related to key economic issues and opportunities would be organized periodically focusing on logical, implementable and contemporary perspectives aimed at sustainable economic and social development. KESC would invite the most respected and established thought leaders who would present their in-depth analysis of various economic issues and their solutions. Businessmen, corporate leaders, diplomats, media personalities and key personalities from various walks of life would be invited to attend these seminars.
The inaugural session of the Thought Leadership Forum on “The Impact of Privatisation on Sustainable Development”, was held on the day the power company was born 99 years ago.
KESC’s CEO Mr. Tabish Gauhar expressed hope that the “Thought Leadership Forum” would highlight meaningful, practical and insightful solutions and provide useful inputs to our policy makers. He elaborated as to how a differentiated approach could be utilized effectively in devising service strategies for various customer segments, quoting KESC’s experience where customers vary largely in their usage and payment behaviors. He emphasized the need for the state to provide an enabling environment to potential foreign investors in order to accelerate the economic development process.
Mr. Ghufran Atta Khan – Chief Engagement Officer of KESC – in his key note welcome address said that KESC had always seen its role as going beyond that of just supplying electricity to over 20 million people of Karachi and has consciously developed a 360 degree value creation model that would guide KESC in defining its role in much broader terms and that puts greater focus on building stronger ties with the key stakeholders ensuring regular, open and transparent two way communication, something that was neglected completely during the pre-privatization era.
Dr. Ishrat Husain, former Governor of State Bank and currently Dean and Director of IBA Karachi, delivered keynote address on the topic “The Impact of Privatization on Sustainable Development” in the inaugural session. Around 180 corporate executives and KESC managers attended the session.
Dr. Ishrat rejected criticism of privatization from economic populists and comprehensively dismantled it, using data and facts with incredible ease. He touched on the theoretical arguments in favour of privatization before laying out in detail how – in the few cases where it had been tried in Pakistan – it had produced a roaring success. He presented three cases to support his argument: banking sector, telecommunications sector, and the power sector. In each, he laid out the reasons why it had been a success, quoting visible and quantifiable facts. He strongly maintained that government needs to focus on social sectors and infrastructure development initiatives.
Dr. Ishrat and Mr. Tabish strongly advocated the need of an effective, competent and responsible regulatory body in order to ensure that benefits of privatizations could be optimized for the economy as well as for the common man.
