News: CSF working on competitiveness report
Name of Newspaper: The Post
Date of Publication: Friday, 15 February, 2008
URL: http://thepost.com.pk/CorpNews.aspx?dtlid=144619&catid=8

Associated Press of Pakistan

KARACHI: The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) is on a fast-track and working on the second competitiveness report for Pakistan.

A statement issued here on Thursday said that the CSF met with the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Dr. Shamshad Akhtar to introduce the preliminary work of the "State of Pakistan's Competitiveness Report 2008" and the emerging findings.

It said that Ms Akhtar appreciated CSF's efforts in preparing such an important instrument for the government of Pakistan to improve its global competitiveness rankings, which would help generate more job opportunities.

During the meeting, Ms Akhtar provided her input and shared that the report should include defined actions and implications for the respective sectors and especially include the relationships between inflation and competitiveness to educate the audience on the inter-linkages between these two.

The SBP governor asked CSF for financial and technical cooperation to fund an overview of the informal sector and its impact on macro-economy and competitiveness.

The State of Pakistan's Competitiveness Report 2008 will track Pakistan's performance, spotlighting the areas of progress and area of further focus.

In addition to explaining the results of the Global Competitiveness Report of 2007-08 of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and bench marking 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.