An entrepreneur is a person who
has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and is accountable for the
inherent risks and the outcome. Today entrepreneurship is most commonly viewed
as undertaking innovation and bearing risk. Joseph Schumpeter, probably the most
important pioneer in the area views innovation as the critical link between
entrepreneurship and economic growth.
Pakistan today has young population with almost 60 percent below the age of 30.
This demographic change indicate that large amount of jobs and work
opportunities are needed right now otherwise unemployment rate will increase to
a dangerous level and it will definitely bring its consequence may be in the
form of increased crime rate or increased suicide rate etc. By educating and
equipping the younger population with the skills required both inside Pakistan
as well as in the labor scarce countries the addition to our labor force can
become a source of continuous supply to the rest of the world. On the other
hand, an uneducated, unemployable youth with poor skills can create a social and
political upheaval for the country.
The fact is creating job opportunities alone cannot help . Need of the hour is
to enable environment for entrepreneurship in Pakistan. It is not physical
capital, natural capital or human capital that will drive growth in Pakistan.
Countries with fewer of these resources have taken off and flourished because of
ideas, innovation and creativity. Investment in knowledge creation,
accumulation, dissemination along with capacity to translate these ideas into
commercially viable business proposition by dynamic entrepreneurs will generate
wealth and bring about prosperity.
For creating environment for entrepreneurship ,we must need to prepare our young
blood . Those who are studying business should not take it as an alternative to
medical or engineering . Soft attitudes and “become rich overnight by hook and
crook” mindset is catching up among the youth which is highly damaging for
competing in knowledge based economy. Number of universities and companies like
Intel Pak are trying to create entrepreneurial aptitude in youth by conducting
business idea competitions.
Government's role in enabling entrepreneurship is critically important
,unfortunately in past this role was more or less negative .Entrepreneurship in
Pakistan is seriously impaired by government policy, legislation and regulation.
The government has continuously been of the opinion that investment especially
at the large industrial level is entrepreneurship. Hence the entrepreneurship
never flourished in Pakistan as it was supposed to be.
Mr Nawaz Sharif has won general elections 2013 and he will be the next Prime
minister of Pakistan .He is considered to a man with entrepreneurial mindset and
people have high hopes from him that he will try to encourage entrepreneurship
in Pakistan. During his elections campaign ,he promised interest free loans to
the youth . Lets hope he will fulfill his promises and we hope for the best
future of entrepreneurship in Pakistan.