News: Competitiveness Support Fund
Name of the Newspaper: Newsletter Pakistan Financial Services Sector Reform Programme (PFSSRP)
Date of publication: April - June , 2006

Competitiveness Support Fund

The Ministry of Finance and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have established the CSF which is a part of the initiatives to help raise Pakistan’s overall competitiveness ranking to 60th percentile by the year 2010. This private sector led facility will
promote cluster development, establish linkages between industry and academia, enhance the quality of services, promote knowledge based enterprise development, and conduct policy relevant analysis for competitiveness. To achieve its objectives, the fund will employ instruments like match-making grants, venture capital, business incubators and technical assistance. Its first achievement is the Recently held TCI Regional Conference which took place in Islamabad.

Regional Conference on Competitiveness and Economic growth

The TCI Conference was held in Islamabad from 14 to 16 May 2006 under the auspices of Ministry of Finance (Government of Pakistan) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The said event was organised by the CSF and The Competitiveness Institute (TCI) and was attended by delegates from 13 different countries, entrepreneurs, academicians, representatives from the public sector and civil society, senior management of TCI, USAID, J.E.Austin Inc., and most notably Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Omar Ayub Khan. Key note speakers included the honourable Minister himself, Mr. Jonathan Addleton (Director USAID Mission to Pakistan), Mr. Rashid Bajwa (CEO National Rural Support Programme),Professor Michael Enright (University of Hong Kong), Mr. Albert Reynolds (Former PM of Ireland) and other dignitaries. Among other topics pertaining to competitiveness, a Plenary Session was also conducted on “Competitiveness Vision of the European Union (The Lisbon Process)”.