Islamabad, May 3: The State of Pakistan’s Competitiveness Report of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) and the World Economic Forum in its annual Global Competitiveness Report has identified health as one the most important factors in Pakistan’s low ranking on the Global Competitiveness Index. “Pakistan must update its data on the primary health and education indicators and provide it to the international sources”, this was stated by Arthur Bayhan, Chief Executive Officer of the Competitiveness Support Fund. Due to the desire of the Prime Minister, the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) delegation was making a special presentation to the Ministry of Health. The meeting with the other relevant ministries will follow.

Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF), a joint initiative of the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will be making a series of presentations and interactive sessions with all the ministries. The presentations are part of the exercise to bring all the line-ministries on board to address the competitiveness issues of Pakistan’s economy. The Prime Minister launched the State of Pakistan’s Competitiveness Report in March and termed competitiveness as the corner stone of Pakistan’s growth strategy.

The CSF delegation was lead by Arthur Bayhan, who made a special presentation to the ministry and discussed in detail the reasons for Pakistan’s low ranking on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) of the World Economic Forum. The meeting was chaired by Khushnood Akhtar Lashari, Secretary Health. Abdul Basit, Joint Secretary, Prime Minister’s Special Programme Wing, Ministry of Finance also accompanied the CSF delegation.

Arthur Bayhan in his presentation briefed the ministry on the strengths and weaknesses of the Health Pillar of the Global Competitiveness Report. Pakistan was ranked at 91 among 125 countries on GCI. Pakistan’s overall ranking on health and primary education was placed at 108 among its comparators, while Sri Lanka registered the highest ranking 36th. Infant mortality scores in many countries are being reduced and Pakistan will need to make even greater effort to improve its scores relative to other countries. Bayhan explained the rational behind the indicators and pointed out that the data used for these indicators is not up-to-date. He said that the government made tremendous progress in the last four years and improved almost all the indicators respectively. However, the health indicator identifies; the assessment of the medium term impact of tuberculosis on doing business and showed a major change in ranking from 51st in 2005 to 99th in 2006.

Prevalence of reported HIV cases increased enough to cause Pakistan to move from 5th place to 26th. Rankings for malaria and tuberculosis have also showed some backward movement.

Mr. Lashari informed the CSF delegation about health policy and the government’s strategies to address the primary health issues in the country. He said our aim is to improve the efficiency of the healthcare services and to enhance the quality of citizens’ livelihood in the most economically vulnerable segment. He informed the delegation about the continuation of ministry’s programs for the control of Tuberculosis (TB), HIV/AIDS and Malaria. He also briefed the meeting about the new initiatives on National Maternal and Child Health Program (NMCH) and the Prime Minister’s Program for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis in Pakistan. The ministry of health has made a commendable improvement in the percentage of TB cases detected and cured. The national programme for TB control has been very successful in detecting and curing 176,000 patience out of 240,000 registered in 2006 whereas only 60,000 patients were cured in 2001.

The Secretary Health, Mr. Lashari also expressed his keen interest in assisting the CSF for the State of Pakistan Competitiveness Report for 2008. It was agreed that the ministry of health will be working closely with the CSF in improving Pakistan Global Competitiveness Rankings on the health indicators.

Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). CSF Supports Pakistan’s goal to be of a more competitiveness economy by providing input into policy decisions, working to improve regulatory and administrative frameworks and enhancing public-private partnerships within the country. CSF also provides technical assistance and co-financing for initiatives related to entrepreneurship, business incubators and private-sector-led initiatives with research institutes and universities that contribute to creating a knowledge-driven economy.

Support for CSF is part of the $1.5 billion in aid that the U.S. Government is providing to Pakistan over five years to improve economic growth, education, health, and governance.

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