The Pakistan Business Council shows its continued commitment to improve competitiveness of Pakistan's economy and mobilize the private sector for sustained economic growth.

Karachi, 13 February - The Roundtable on the State of Pakistan's Competitiveness Report 2008 was held here today at local hotel in Karachi. The conference was jointly organized by the Pakistan Business Council (PBC) and the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF).

The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF), a joint initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan, is in the process of preparing the second 'State of Pakistan's Competitiveness Report 2008'. For the preparation of this report, the CSF has undertaken a series of policy interactions with leading representatives of business, entrepreneurs, public sector and academia across the country to share key findings and to get their valuable feedback and input for this year's report.

Mr. Kwang Kim, the competitiveness expert from the CSF leading the team for drafting the State of Pakistan's Competitiveness Report 2008, briefed the participants about the CSF activities and said, "competitiveness is the fundamental underpinning of prosperity. While macro-economic shifts, political developments, resource price swings and spurts of foreign investment can move GDP per capita for periods of time, the only reliable basis of true prosperity is the productive potential of a nation's economy. Competitiveness is also essential to allow sound macro-economic policies to be sustained and while short-term macroeconomic management remains important, the central focus of public policy must be on competitiveness".

CSF also informed the participants that the State of Pakistan's Competitiveness Report will be an important policy tool for Pakistan's economic growth agenda and for private sector investment, offering invaluable insights into the policies, institutions, and factors driving productivity and, thus, enabling sustained economic growth and long-term prosperity of Pakistan.

Speaking on the occasion, Saadia Zahidi, Head of the Women Leaders Programme at the World Economic Forum, informed the participants about Pakistan's performance on the Global Gender Gap report of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Although Pakistan is doing relatively well on women's participation in politics, Pakistan's performance on health, education and economic empowerment needs further attention to improve. Countries that do not capitalize upon the skills and talents of one half of their available human resources are undermining their competitive potential. Pakistan has been ranked at 126 among the 128 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index measured by the WEF.

Sayed Saleem Raza, Chief Executive Officer of the Pakistan Business Council (PBC), appreciated the efforts of CSF and shared that, "such competitiveness reports can facilitate dialogue between the public and private sector on many of the issues holding back growth. I am confident that this report will assist the Government of Pakistan in setting priorities for reform and investment, and provide a way of tracking progress against other economies". Mr. Raza assured the PBC and its member organizations continued collaboration with CSF to improve Pakistan's competitiveness.

The second State of Pakistan's Competitiveness Report 2008 will provide a snapshot of the strengths and weaknesses along with key positive and negative trends in the national economy, as well as regional competitiveness trends in each of the provinces.

CSF, informed the members of the Pakistan Business Council that while the macro economic indicators are stable, the micro economic "business environment and firm level strategy and operations have fluctuated, specifically the nature of competitive advantage, business process sophistication and control of international distribution.

The State of Pakistan's Competitiveness Report 2008 will track Pakistan's performance, spotlighting the areas of progress and areas of further focus. In addition to explaining the results of the Global Competitiveness Report of 2007-2008 of the World Economic Forum and benchmarking Pakistan's progress against its peers, the report will evaluate the country's progress in raising its competitiveness in 2008-09. The 2008 Report will highlight a thematic area that may require focused attention from Pakistan's economic leadership. Pakistan is ranked 92 among the 131 countries on the global competitiveness rankings. CSF has started interaction with the stakeholders in the first week of February 2008, including all relevant ministries, leading public and private sector institutions, business councils and trade bodies along with academia and the media.

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