News: $25m Competitiveness Support Fund unveiled
Name of the Newspaper: The News
Date of publication: Tuesday, March 13 , 2007
Website: http://www.thenews.com.pk

PM also launches Pakistan Competitiveness Report,which ranks the country 66th on Business Index

By Khalid Mustafa

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz here on Monday announced the establishment of $25 million Competitiveness Support Fund. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has contributed nearly $12 million to the fund for the initial three years, and the Government of Pakistan will match contributions made to the fund.

The prime minister unveiled this while launching the first State of Pakistan’s Competitiveness Report here on Monday. Aziz said that the competitiveness is the cornerstone of economic growth, which generates more employment and reduces poverty.

The premier said that all arms of the government and the private sector would have to be involved to improve Pakistan’s ranking in the global competitiveness index. The report is prepared by the Competitiveness Support Fund, a joint initiative of the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan and US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The World Economic Forum recognised the economic achievements of the Government of Pakistan in the latest global competitiveness report. Pakistan ranked 66th on the Business Competitiveness Index, which shows the market efficiency, and 91st out of 125 countries.

On the Global Competitiveness Index that includes governance, health and education in 2006-07 Global Competitiveness report. Not only did Pakistan score well on the Business Competitiveness Index, it also increased its rank by several places among the 125 nations on the Global Competitiveness Index.

The premier in his speech, noted, “the first State of Pakistan’s competitiveness report is an important step to focus the energies of the nation around the common goal of making Pakistan a stronger economy. It also makes a historic contribution to the country and announces to the international business community that Pakistan intends to become a competitive, high-growth country”. “Competitiveness is the cornerstone of Pakistan’s economy,” said the premier.

The CSF would work in partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the US competitiveness council and the Lisbon Agenda of the European Union. He said during his recent visit to Davos he held useful meetings with the world leaders, including Klaus Schwab, Chairman of the World Economic Forum as well as Prof Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School about the ways and the means to improve competitiveness.

Prof Michael Porter, Harvard’s expert on competitiveness and engineer of one of the business competitiveness index, commented on the country’s achievements in his video message at the launching ceremony of the report by saying, “Pakistan also shows impressive movement in some of the most dynamic indicators on the Business Competitiveness Index which bodes well for future economic growth. I commend the prime minister and his team for their steady stewardship of the Pakistan economy over recent years. Their efforts to catalyse pro-poor economic growth set an example for other dynamic, high growth economies across the world.”

Dr Klaus Schwab, founder and chairman, World Economic Forum also in his video massage from Davos said, “The World Economic Forum has for over a generation published the Global Competitiveness Report that has benchmarked the evolution of competitiveness in many countries. The World Economic Forum has included Pakistan in its Competitiveness Report for some years now. During this time, the Government of Pakistan has achieved impressive rates of economic growth and impressive reductions in poverty, despite conflicts on its borders, natural disasters and energy price increases.”

Dr Salman Shah noted that the competitiveness support fund seeks to finance practical initiatives to reposition Pakistan’s economy regionally and globally and set it on a more competitive footing. The result will be higher productivity; increased innovation and an economy that is integrated into global value chains and can compete internationally.