Saddam Hussein, Director at Centre for Governance, Markets and Regulatory Analysis (CGMRA) and Deputy Chief (Policy) at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), shares his reflections on visiting Urumqi during a policy training program. Expecting a remote mountainous town, he instead encountered a rapidly urbanized and highly developed city nestled in the Tian Shan range.
He highlights the depth, consistency, and maintenance of reforms that transformed a desert landscape into a modern urban center, emphasizing not only infrastructure and economic growth but also civic discipline and public ownership. Describing Xinjiang as an example of inclusive development blending modernization with cultural identity, he notes that such models offer important lessons on sustaining reform, integrating local values, and maintaining long-term development.
