Islamabad, October 30: Hina Rabbani Khar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Finance, Economic Affairs and Revenue and the chairperson of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF), today presided over a CSF Board meeting to review the progress of the Fund’s activities.

Ms. Rabbani Khar appreciated the progress made and achievements of CSF activities, especially with regard to impact on the economic growth strategy of the government of Pakistan. She said that CSF is critical to assist the Government of Pakistan on Policy interventions for improving business environment in Pakistan.

CSF is also heavily involved in the identification of the economic sectors that have competitive advantage to grow. She further said that the Fund is a unique platform of competitiveness activities in Pakistan, where public and private sectors, 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 (CSF), presented the progress report to the board members. He briefed the board members on the policy assistance of the CSF including, The State of Pakistan’s Competitiveness Report 2008; Improvement of Socio Economic Policy data sent to World Economic Forum from eight line economic ministries and the Higher Education Commission; Development of Poverty Reduction Strategy Pillar II “Crafting a Competitive Advantage”; Position Paper on Pak – US Economic Dialogue on Pak-US Investment Strategy; Special Economic Zones’ Benchmarking and Policy Action Plan; Development of Mid-term Investment Strategy which includes restructuring of the Board of Investment and Ministry of investment; Discussion Paper on Policy Issues for Economic Growth in the Macro – Economy, Energy, and Agriculture; Discussion Paper on Proposed Economic Strategy for Pakistan; Briefing Note of Pakistan’s Crisis 2008 – Causes Impacts and Solutions; Review of Venture Capital Markets in Pakistan; Balance of Trade Analysis and Policy Prescriptions (in progress); Study of Economic Growth Drivers – Problems and Perspectives (in progress) and finally the concept paper and Action Plan for the National Policy Platform for Economic Growth (in progress).

The Board was also informed of the various sectoral policy analyses that the Fund has carried out to identify the sectors that have Competitive Advantage and potential to grow. The sectors for which policy studies were conducted, or are still in progress are: Agriculture, which includes analysis of the wheat and flour industry; Manufacturing, which involves the review of automotive vendor industry and its related policies; Infrastructure, which primarily includes advisory work on the Special Economic Zones; Telecom, ICT and Media; Women in Development, and Private Sector studies, which include interaction with the Chambers of Commerce and Pakistan Business Council on various policies.

The Board was briefed on CSF’s agreements and the Memorandums of Understanding (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 (PBS) and the FATA Secretariat.

The Board reviewed the current activities of the matching grant facility of the Fund and approved four new innovative projects in addition to the four projects that are already underway. The projects approved for co-financing will generate a substantial new investment of $ 4.8 million creating more than 6,200 new jobs in the country.

CSF will be contributing a total amount of $ 400,000 for the four projects which will generate an additional amount of $ 1.0 million from the stakeholders. The project will support Cutlery, Medicinal Fruits, Engineering, and Furniture in various regions of Pakistan. The projects will also impact competitiveness of the relevant clusters by increasing their exports potential.

CSF’s investment is expected to create a multiplier effect, where every $1 of investment is expected to generate 12 times more new investment in the country. All approved projects will support public-private partnerships to link research and development institutions and private sector by involving a three-fold set of stakeholders, termed ‘Triple-Helix’ by the economic leaders, which includes, private sector, academia and government.

The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) established to reposition Pakistan’s economy on a more competitive global footing Support for CSF is part of the $2.8 billion in aid that the United States Government is providing to Pakistan over five years to improve economic growth, education, health and governance.