LAHORE, May 30, 2008 - The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF), a joint initiative of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Finance, acknowledged the contribution of the students and faculty members of University of Management & Technology (UMT) for their conducting of the Pakistan Executive Opinion Survey 2008 for the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009.

Mr. Rehmatullah Javed, Chairman of the Competitiveness Committee of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), awarded the group with certificates of appreciation during a ceremony held today, acknowledging their contribution and achievements.

"The rating of Pakistan's economy, which is carried out each year by the World Economic Forum, is an important tool for us to rank our economy on a global level", said Mr. Rehmatullah Javed. "All these rankings provide us with the strengths and weakness of our economy and provide us with a road map for improving our economic situation." He further added that "CSF has carried out a very valuable exercise for Pakistan and its business community, and the timely submission of this data is due to the remarkable teamwork between the academia and the business community. All of our stakeholders need to realize the importance of this exercise and play their individual role to move Pakistan to a respectable level among the world community".

CSF, as the partner institution of the World Economic Forum (WEF), recently carried out the Executive Opinion Survey in Pakistan, in which more than 230 top level business executives were surveyed to capture their opinion on the business environment in Pakistan.

This year, CSF proposed a new strategy to the World Economic Forum to engage the academia in conducting the Executive Opinion Survey. This innovative strategy was recommended with the aim to create linkages between the academia and the business community. More than 75 students across Pakistan were selected from a vide range of academic background to interact with the leading business representatives and gain knowledge about the issues of global competitiveness, the current national business environment, the economic situation of Pakistan and its ability to achieve sustained economic growth.

Through this process, CSF aims at developing a group of future business leaders, who will be sensitized on the importance of Global Competitiveness, its 12 pillars and the role of business community in measuring the Global Competitiveness Index. The initiative will also be effective in terms of when some the students join the public sector institutions, as the will create a group of public sector institution leaders responsible for improving and updating the data collection, as well as the timely submission of the "Hard Data" to the relevant sources from Pakistan.

"The role of academia has enhanced, as it carries a strong role in impacting today's societies. It now connects ideas to practice and technologies - it develops personnel to the business environment, which is why it is essential that we strengthen the skill set of our talented youth" said Dr. Hassan S. Murad, Rector of University of Management & Technology. "We need to develop activities, which will enhance their capacity and enable them to think innovatively, as this will create quality in research and also promote entrepreneurship in our country.

The Global Competitiveness Report has been the World Economic Forum's flagship publication since 1979 and is widely recognized as the world's leading cross-country comparator of factors affecting economic competitiveness and growth. The Executive Opinion Survey is a major component of The Global Competitiveness Report and provides the key component that turns it into a representative annual measure of a country's economic environment and its ability to achieve sustained growth.

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