News:CSF approves four projects for economic growth
Name of the Newspaper: Pakistan Observer
Date of publication: Tuesday, 30 october, 2007
Website:http://www.pakobserver.net/news/business04.asp

Tariq Khattak

Islamabad—The Board of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) met here today under the chairmanship of Omar Ayub Khan, Minister of State for Finance and Chairman CSF, to review the progress of the Fund’s activities. Chairing the third board meeting, Omar Ayub Khan, appreciated the progress made and achievements of CSF activities, especially with regard to impact on the economic growth strategy of the government of Pakistan. He said that CSF is critical to identify economic sectors that have competitive advantage to grow. He further said, CSF is the unique platform of competitiveness activities in Pakistan, where public and private sector, and academia as well as media can meet and create value towards sustained economic growth in Pakistan.

Arthur Bayhan, Chief Executive Officer of the Competitiveness Support Fund, presented the progress report to the board members. He also briefed the board on the policy assistance of the Competitiveness Support Fund including, Regional Conference on Economic Growth in 2006, State of Pakistan’s Competitiveness Report 2007, Policy Paper for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper II “Crafting a Competitive Advantage” and Special Economic Zones’ Benchmarking and Policy Action Plan.

The board was also informed about the various sectoral policy analyses that the Fund has carried out to identify the sectors that have the competitive advantage and potential to grow. Sectors studied so far include: Policy Analysis on the Competitive Advantage of Motorcycle Industry in Pakistan, Action Plan for Fish Quality and Value Adding at Karachi Fisheries Harbor, Policy Analysis on the Competitive Advantage of Auto Vendor Industry in Pakistan and the Competitive Advantage of Gender Integration in the Economic Development and Its Contribution to the Economic Growth. Bayhan also briefed the board about the CSF study on the Competitive Aspects of the Food Processing Sector in Pakistan - Obstacles and Prospects; which has resulted in Action Plans for the Horticulture and Meat Sectors.

The Board was briefed on CSF’s agreements and the Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) to improve Pakistan’s economic competitiveness with leading national and international institutions including the World Economic Forum (WEF), The Competitiveness Institute (TCI), Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC), Government of Sindh (GoS), Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), Board of Investment (BOI), Pakistan Business Council (PBC) and the FATA Secretariat.