On Wednesday, November 1, 2023, Dr. Rashid Amjad, Professor of Economics and Director, Graduate Institute of Development Studies, Lahore School of Economics, delivered a talk to the participants of 34^th SMC on “Role of Foreign Economic Assistance in Pakistan’s Economy”.

The guest speaker first explained the term ‘Foreign Assistance’ and different type of foreign assistance like aid, bilateral assistance and multilateral assistance. He highlighted the 3-Gap model of Pakistan’s economy i.e., savings gap, foreign exchange gap and skill gap which had led to reliance on foreign economic assistance. He also spelt out the cost of sovereign default which is very high and can have long term effects for the country. He also spoke about Pakistan’s impossible trinity where every period of economic growth came to a halt because it led to unsustainable current account deficit and fiscal deficit. This always necessitated IMF programs which had their own conditionalities which too were partially responsible for creating such conditions. In the end he stressed upon the need to secure our base and our core interests under all circumstances.