In a common currency area (CCA) national governments delegate »
Privatization has been a major phenomenon over the past few decades, and researchers continue to target it for both theoretical and empirical work. Given that most socialist and communist economies from every region in the world Eastern Europe, the ex-Soviet Union, China, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East- have recently started implementing economic reform programs, the reduction in size of the public sector through privatization has therefore become an important part of such programs.
Agriculture is the mainstay of Pakistan’s economy. More than 20% of the country’s GDP comes from agriculture sector which also employs about 41% of the labor force, sustains almost 67% of the population. This simple fact suggests that agriculture contributes less to the national GDP relative to its size of population and labor force compared to other sectors of the economy; limited information and understanding of the rural markets and economy has been one of the key impediments in penetration of banking/finance in agricultural/rural sector of our economy. The sector was never considered as a mainstream and viable business activity by banks and thus could fetch no or limited attention of banks’ senior management to build their capacities for serving the sector.
State Bank of Pakistan and SBP-BSC have been taking different initiatives to enhance banks’ agri finance capacity and conducting research studies and surveys to broaden and deepen the banks understanding of the rural economy. The Agricultural Surveys of Sukkur District in Sindh along with Gujranwala were initiated as pilot projects to explore the districts’ rural economies and thus enable SBP and banks to devise market responsive initiatives and products for increasing flow of financial services in the rural areas. The survey of Sukkur district was conducted through IBA Sukkur.
