Remarks of Ms. Kay L. Anske, Consul General U.S. Consulate Karachi
Event: MOU Signing between Pakistan Business Council (PBC) and Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF)
Date: 20 August 2007
"INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIPS FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH"
MOU between PBC and CSF
Mr. Razzaq Dawood, Mr. Arthur Bayhan, Mr. Salim Raza, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning.
It is an honor to be here today to witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Pakistan Business Council and the Competitiveness Support Fund.
The United States is proud to continue working with the Government of Pakistan in improving the income, jobs and well being of its citizens. We understand that providing economic opportunities for all Pakistanis is fundamental in building a solid, sustainable foundation for continued economic growth and peace.
USAID’s support to today’s agreement amounts to $12 million. Since 2003 USAID has provided over $73 million for economic growth Initiatives. ..
Competitiveness is the key to long-term economic growth. We are pleased to see that the Government of Pakistan’s policies of de-regulation, liberalization and privatization are working and providing concrete results.
Certainly, as information is shared, our two countries can learn, not just from each other, but from all stakeholders of this project.
The benefits to Pakistan are evident. As its companies strengthen their competitive position, the country’s economy will grow and improve the economic condition of its citizens.
As a driver of global economic growth, the U.S. also benefits from competitiveness. A competitive and prosperous Pakistan will create more trading opportunities for the U.S., as well as other countries in the region.
As we have heard, the Competitiveness Support Fund is a joint initiative of USAID/Pakistan and the Ministry of Finance. We are here today to amplify that partnership by launching a new collaboration between the Pakistan Business Council and CSF.
This partnership will ensure that Pakistan is better poised to not only understand the needs of the global market, but also meet them head on with a highly skilled and well-trained workforce.
CSF continues to build on the momentum generated from the conference it held here in May last year on competitiveness and economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region. The conference provided Pakistan an excellent opportunity to showcase its competitiveness initiatives and efforts underway to improve its standing in the global value chain.
CSF has identified industry sectors – such as motorcycles and fisheries -- with potential and competitive advantage. The motorcycle industry, for instance, will increase the motorcycle market from existing 750,000 units per annum to 1.7 million units by 2010-11. This will create additional 500,000 jobs by 2010-11 due to increase in the market size and approximately an additional Rs. 40 billion will be generated as government revenue.
CSF has also carried out a study, which is assisting the Government of Pakistan in establishing Special Economic Zones (SEZs), which will result in the formation of a Task Force on SEZs. This Task Force will identify the investor’s demand and assess the economic impact of SEZs. It will also define the incentives and the standards for SEZs, which will generate investment and create jobs.
In a short span of time, CSF has managed to establish public-private partnership to promote innovation and competitiveness by working closely with the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, the provincial governments, the Board of Investment and now with the Pakistan Business Council.
Investment is one of the important pillars on which competitiveness is based and measured. Foreign and domestic investment generates employment, creates new managerial skills and distribution networks that produce new technology and enhanced capital for the manufacturing industry to grow.
The Memorandum of Understanding that we are about to sign today between PBC and CSF is a noteworthy step towards these objectives. I hope this partnership will help the private sector in Pakistan to generate more economic activities in the country.
I wish this partnership every success.
Thank You.
Talking Points of Mr. Arthur Bayhan, Chief Executive Officer, Competitiveness Support Fund
Event: MOU Signing between Pakistan Business Council (PBC) and Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF)
Date: 20 August 2007
"INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIPS FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH"
MOU between PBC and CSF
- Mr. Razak Dawood, Chairman of the Pakistan Business Council, Ms. Kay L. Anske, Consul-General, U.S. Consulate Karachi, Mr. Salim Raza, CEO of the PBC and ladies and gentleman.
- I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you all to this important event which is to create a partnership to promote the competitiveness of the private sector in Pakistan.
- To measure the competitiveness of any economy, it is important to look into the three main economic pillars:
- An appropriate legal and institutional framework that includes, among others, the intellectual property rights, company and insolvency laws, antitrust legislations or competition policies etc.
- An investment regime which aims at creation of a business friendly environment and attracts foreign and domestic investment. However, more important is the greenfiled investment which generates new technology, know-how, skills development, professionalism in management.
- Innovation systems. Federal, provincial and local innovation systems to promote knowledge-based enterprise development that includes the strengthening industry academia linkages, commercialisation of research and building capacity for adaptation of new technologies
- The competitiveness is the key to a sustained economic growth and economic growth is the key to generate employment and reduce poverty.
- As you may know that the Competitiveness Support Fund has been set up as a joint initiative of the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to improve the competitiveness of the Pakistani economy.
- The CSF has three main operational windows; Technical Assistance, Matching Grants and Business Incubation/Venture Capital.
- The release of the first ever State of Pakistan’s Competitiveness Report in March this year by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz prepared by Competitiveness Support Fund has demonstrated the Government’s efforts to improve Pakistan’s competitiveness rankings. The ranking of Pakistan has been improved, among 125 countries, from 94 to 91 in Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) and from 61 to 60 in Business Competitiveness Index in 2006.
- The specific improvements were on macro- economic environment, the confidence in government integrity, market dynamism, financial sector reforms and several other areas.
- The release of the State of Pakistan’s Competitiveness Report has reflected the fact that the Government of Pakistan has recognized Competitiveness as a cornerstone of its economic growth strategy. Therefore, Government has included competitiveness for the first time in its Poverty Reduction Strategy for the next five years.
- CSF has been successful in establishing partnerships with some of the important competitiveness agencies outside of Pakistan. The partnership agreement of the CSF with the World Economic Forum is an excellent example.
- A key obstacle to innovation and knowledge-based growth in Pakistan is the lack of strong partnerships between local industry, the academic community and Government. To remedy this problem, one of CSF’s main objectives has been to develop and formalize such relationships. CSF’s cooperation with the Higher Education Commission and the today’s MOU with the Pakistan Business Council are the excellent examples.
- Furthermore, CSF has succeeded to get the media to be part of the triple helix by the notion that “Innovation drives journalism and journalism drives innovation”. In this context, CSF is sending the journalists to the relevant conferences and to the Innovation Fellowship Programme at the Stanford University.
- CSF activities on identifying the sectors that have potential and competitive advantage to grow have identified tremendous potential for Pakistan’s economic growth in the future.
- I hope this partnership with the Pakistan Business Council will help private sector to enhance its competitiveness by improving its identified weaknesses in international rankings, such as:
- Willingness to delegate authority
- Extent of staff training
- Reliance on professional management
- Extent of incentive compensation
- Extent of regional sales
- Company spending on research & development
Capacity for innovation |
