“Professor, Michal Enright, arriving on 26 March, 2006 for a four day visit to Pakistan to discuss the international best practices on Innovation and Competitiveness”

ISLAMABAD, March 25, 2006 -To discuss competitiveness, innovation driven long term economic growth and building a knowledge-based competence economy, Prof. Michael Enright, member of the Competitiveness Institute (TCI), Board of Advisors and Director of Competitiveness Programme, Hong Kong Institute for Economic and Business Strategy will arrive Pakistan on 26th of March for a four days visit.

The arrival of Prof. Enright will be a pre-conference visit, which is scheduled to be held in Pakistan on 15 - 16 May 2006. The said conference is being considered highly significant as being regional conference; it will involve a large number of stakeholders especially from Asia and Pacific region. The conference is organized by the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan and the Competitiveness Institute and sponsored by the USAID.

During his stay in Pakistan, Prof. Enright will share his views with Pakistani officials about the international best practice on innovation and competitiveness and will meet the high-level Government officials including Mr. Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister.

Prof. Enright will be joined by Mr. Omar Ayub Khan, Minister of State for Finance and the Chairman of Board of the CSF and Mr. Arthur Bayhan, CEO of the CSF in a series of visits to make presentations at the Federal Chambers in Karachi, in Lahore and in Islamabad on the following topics:

1. Pakistani Perspective on a Vision for Domestic and Regional Competitiveness.
2. The Role of the newly created Competitiveness Support Fund to develop innovation systems and competitiveness in Pakistan.
3. International Competitiveness as a model that integrates firms into industries, clusters, and economies linked with the global economy; critical approaches for improving developing country competitiveness; and use and misuse of the World Competitiveness Report and similar instruments.
4. The rise of China and India: how modern information technology, knowledge/learning platforms, global production chains, and government and corporate reform agendas are changing business in Asia and what corporate responses seem most promising.
5. China threat or opportunity: Understanding China why the rise of China is changing the world economy and what developing countries can and cannot do about it.

Prof. Enright is also scheduled to meet high-level government officials, including Mr. Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan during his visit I Pakistan.

TCI’s 8th annual conference offered a platform for Pakistan during the 8th annual conference, which was held in Hong Kong in November last year. The Pakistani delegation led by Mr. Omar Ayub Khan participated in the conference as part of the CSF's initiatives to introduce its competitiveness efforts, project an image of Pakistan poised to fully participate in the competitive global market place.

During his visit, Prof. Michael Enright will share his views regarding the preparations of forthcoming important regional conference in Pakistan. Its being expected that the conference will provide Pakistan with an opportunity to showcase its competitiveness initiatives and efforts underway to improve Pakistan's standing in the global value chain --

- ENDS -

About The Competitiveness Institute (TCI)
www.competitiveness.org

TCI is a global professional body with members in 40 nations and a network of the competitiveness experts and cluster practitioners worldwide. The TCI network provides a valuable resources for all triple helix actors with exchange of ideas, best practice and know-how regarding methodologies for economic growth. The Board of the TCI composes the well known innovation competitiveness individuals, including Prof. Michael Porter and Prof. Michael Enright. TCI's mission is to promote innovation-driven economic growth by fostering cluster-based development initiatives throughout the world.

About the TCI Regional Conference on Competitiveness and Economic Growth in Asia, 14 – 16 May, 2006 in Islamabad

Islamabad will host a TCI Regional Conference on Competitiveness and Economic Growth for Asia on May 14 - 16, 2006: Taking Stock of Pakistan's Global Competitiveness. The conference is organized by The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF), sponsored by the USAID, and under the Auspices of TCI and the Ministry of Finance, the Government of Pakistan. For more information on conference,

please visit
http://www.competitiveness.org/article/articleview/752/1/10/

About The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF)

The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) grows out of a benchmarking exercise that identified a gap in Pakistan’s efforts to become more competitive: the need for a vehicle to finance and support interventions that drive innovation, promote cluster development, establish linkages between academia and industry, encourage formation of innovative business incubator programmes and venture capital, promote knowledge based enterprise development, create better jobs and boost innovation-driven long-term economic growth.

The principal objective of CSF is to: 1. Promote knowledge- based enterprise start-ups and increase the productivity of the country’s enterprises, 2. Enhance the quality of the services and create new and better job opportunities, 3. Improve regulatory framework for viable business environment, and 4. Reinforce innovation-driven economic growth.