Islamabad, 30 August 2007 -- National Vocational Training and Education Commission (NAVTEC) and the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) will work together to improve the competiveness of industries by developing skilled workforce, critically required, in Pakistan. This was the consensus today at a high level meeting between the heads of the two organizations.

The Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) jointly established the Competitiveness Support Fund last year to supports Pakistan’s goal to be a more competitive economy by providing input into policy decisions, working to improve regulatory and administrative frameworks and enhancing public-private partnerships within Pakistan. CSF has also been mandated to provide technical assistance and co-financing for initiatives related to entrepreneurship, business incubators and private-sector-led initiatives with research institutes and universities that contribute to creating a knowledge-driven economy.

The Competitiveness Support Fund has carried out policy studies and action plans on the sectors that have potential and competitive advantage to grow. NAVTEC and CSF agreed to work jointly to promote vocational training in specific sectors to build the capacity of the work force for the industrial development. The sectors agreed are the Motorcycle, Fisheries and Horticulture.

NAVTEC, Executive Director, Athar Tahir greatly appreciated the CSF work for economic growth and in these sectors and said that “we are happy to work with the CSF and we will benefit from the sectoral studies of CSF, which clearly gives us perspective to design future NAVTEC’s programs accordingly.

NAVTEC and CSF have also agreed to work jointly to plan in advance the need of the skilled workforce for the new investment in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in future.

The Competitiveness Support Fund has carried out a policy study on the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and benchmarked Pakistan with India, China, Malaysia and Vietnam. Based on the study, CSF has been asked by the GOP to prepare an action plan on the best practices to be implemented for the effective SEZs in Pakistan. The action plan includes the legal and institutional framework and incentives for the Special Economic Zones (SEZs)

NAVTEC also asked CSF to assist it in the “Twining Project” that NAVTEC has recently launched, where CSF will be providing assistance in terms of linking the Pakistani institutes with the relevant international institutions in the US, Europe and Asia.

As a starting point both the organizations have also agreed to initiate a joint project in Hala/Sindh on ceramic and tiles manufacturing. The project will focus on skill development, brining innovation to the business processes, new designs and marketing approach. The project will also create commercial links of the ceramic and tile clusters with the international players globally.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz earlier this week urged the Ministry of Textile and other relevant institutions to work with the Competitiveness Support Fund to develop skilled workforce in the country, which is badly needed to improve the competitiveness of the economy. The Prime Minister termed competitiveness as a corner stone of Pakistan’s growth strategy.

Mr. Arthur Bayhan, Chief Executive Officer of the Competitiveness Support Fund, emphasized the importance of strengthening the public-private partnerships to promote vocational training to develop skilled workforce which is badly needed to improve industry competitiveness. He further said that to the manufacturing industry, services sector and agriculture are the drivers of the economic growth in Pakistan, said Bayhan.

Briefing on the importance of creating NAVTEC as the apex body for vocational training in Pakistan, Mr. Athar Tahir, said that, NAVTEC is working directly under the Prime Minister of Pakistan. NAVTEC was established to address some fundamental indicators of the skilled and productive labour force in the country, which includes insufficient and out-dated skills standards, paucity of labour market information, improvements in fragmented and uncoordinated delivery of technical and vocational training, lack of evaluation of efficiency and outcomes of training institutions, weak participation of private sector in policy making, training delivery and nonexistence of employment placement data of trainees at the national and provincial levels.

Realizing the role of skilled and technically educated manpower for development of overall national economy, the Government of Pakistan established the National Vocational and Technical Education Commission (NAVTEC) in November 2006. The Commission is mandated to facilitate, regulate, and provide policy direction for technical education and vocational training to meet national and international demand for skilled manpower. The Commission will review, devise policy and evolve strategy/prepare training programmes relating to human resource development with a focus on technical and education and training (TVET). NAVTEC’s energies are also dedicated to develop national occupational skills standards, curricula and trade testing certification systems for all sectors in which technical education and vocational training is imparted.

Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz at the launch of the State of Pakistan Competitiveness Report in March this year, asked CSF to create synergies between various line- ministries and relevant institutions to improve Pakistan’s ranking on the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum. The State of Pakistan’s Competitiveness Report 2007 of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) and the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) identified that additional work needs to be done to improve the Global Competitiveness Index ranking of Pakistan. Pakistan should put special emphasis on education, human resource development and expansion of business and vocational training institutions.

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

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