News: Focus on innovation and competitiveness: The Minister
Name of the Newspaper: Business Recorder
Date of publication: Tuesday March 28, 2006

LAHORE: The Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub Khan has said the government is focusing on innovation and competitiveness to ensure sustainable economic growth, while the emerging market economies had already adopted the strategy of innovation and competitiveness.

He stated this while speaking at a seminar on 'Competitiveness and Economic Growth' at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Monday.

LCCI President Mian Shafqat Ali, Senior Vice-President Abdul Basit, Professor Michael Enright, member of the TCI, Board of Advisors and Director of Competitiveness Program, Hong Kong Institute for Economic and Business Strategy and Arthur Bayhan, Vice-President of TCI and CEO of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) also spoke on the occasion.

Omar Ayub said the government had established a Competitive Support Fund (CSF) in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a platform for innovation and competitiveness in Pakistan. He added that the objective of CSF was to catch up the progress made in various countries on innovation and competitiveness to propel economic growth, enhance the quality production and create better employment opportunities for youth in future. "The CSF through its financial facilities will develop appropriate instruments to upgrade the competitiveness of the economy and promote overall competitiveness in Pakistan, which will ensure economic growth and create better employment," the minister said.

Omar further said Pakistan now faced an urgent need to ensure the competitiveness of its enterprises and services and to promote innovation to strengthen its economy which is productive and create conditions for the economic well-being of its citizens. "Pakistan needs to strengthen the conditions and institutions that will allow the Pakistani economy and society to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the newly risen global knowledge-based competitive economy."

Explaining working of the CSF, he said the programme would use one of its financial facilities to promote knowledge-based enterprises.

Speaking on the occasion, Professor Michael Enright said Pakistan had a lot of potential to further improve its competitiveness. Highlighting the objectives of CSF and the conference planned in May, he said CSF had three financial windows namely Matchmaking Grants, Technical Assistance and Business Incubators and Venture Capital. Enright who is one of the fathers of competitiveness presented the economic development and competitiveness of the Chinese economy.

In his address, LCCI President Mian Shafqat Ali said that at this juncture of history the biggest challenge before the policy makers and the business community is how to keep the momentum of growth going and remain competitive. He said the competitiveness requires commitment to learn new technologies and to change according to the requirement of customers. Top management's need to understand that only those organisations survive in environment of tough competition that supports their team members to think and provide opportunities to learn.

The LCCI Senior Vice President Abdul Basit while throwing light on the subject said that the Organisation which have strong research and development wing are more fit to survive in the complex competition of large markets. With trade liberalisation, the impact of free market economy is bound to bring extinction to the organisations that are inefficient, ineffective and have poor productivity standards.

Basit also appreciated the step to initiate relationship with consultant organisations that can provide the required mechanisms and thinking paradigms for modern Pakistani Business Entrepreneurs for staying competitive.