News: WEF ranks Pakistan 84 among 118 economies
Name of NewsPaper: Business Recorder
Date of Publication: Sunday, 06 July, 2008
URL:http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=764930&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD (July 06 2008): Pakistan has been ranked 84 among 118 economies, while Sri Lanka 70 and India 71, Bangladesh 110 and Nepal 116, says the Global Enabling Trade Report 2008, released by the World Economic Forum. The report acknowledged Hong Kong and Singapore's openness to international trade and investment due to their successful economic development strategy.

The report said Hong Kong and Singapore have put into place customs administrations that are highly efficient in getting goods over borders. They are also endowed with well-developed transport and telecommunications infrastructures ensuring rapid transit to final destination. The index breaks enablers into four overall issue areas-market access, border administration, transport and communications infrastructure and business environment.

Identifying the key areas where Pakistan is lagging behind and has shown weaknesses in some of the crucial areas, Competitive Support Fund (CSF) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Arthur Bayhan, said "Pakistan needs to put immediate attention to facilitate an environment conducive to trade and investment, including a transparent and efficient border administration, well developed transport infrastructure and highly efficient services.

Bayhan also said that Pakistan showed its competitive advantage on the indicators such as non-tariff barriers, time for import, transshipment connectivity index, which is the types of transshipment connections available to shippers from Pakistan on bilateral routes, quality of rail road infrastructure, road congestion, linear shipping connectivity index and ease of hiring and firing labour.

The World Economic Forum has engaged key industry and thought leaders to carry out an in-depth analysis and assessment of the obstacles hindering trade in economies around the world. The goal is to construct a platform for different stakeholders' dialogue in the interest of fostering international economic development.

The Global Enabling Trade Index uses a combination of data from publicly available sources, as well as the results of the executives' opinion survey. CSF carried out the executives' opinion surveys from January to May 2008. It provided a unique data on many qualitative institutional and business environment issues and the perception of the private sector on various aspects of the economy.

The report also features a number of contributions from trade experts and practitioners with relevant knowledge and experience in reducing barriers to trade and national trade performance.

CSF supports Pakistan's goal to have a competitive 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.