By Saad Saud 

ISLAMABAD—The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF), a partner institution of the World Economic Forum (WEF), will conduct the Executive Opinion Survey 2010 in Pakistan beginning this week. 

The Executive Opinion Survey, the voice of the business community, is a major component of the Global Competitiveness Report and provides the key component that turns the report into a representative annual measure of a nation’s economic environment and its ability to achieve sustained growth. 

The survey gathers valuable information on a broad range of variables for which hard data sources are scarce or non-existent. Top level business executives operating in Pakistan will be surveyed to capture their opinion on the business environment in which they operate. The 2009-2010 Global Competitiveness Report polled over 12,000 business executives worldwide. The survey is designed to capture a broad range of factors affecting an economy’s business climate. 

The Global Competitiveness Report has been the World Economic Forum’s flagship publication since 1979 and is widely recognized as the world’s leading cross-country comparator of factors affecting economic competitiveness and growth. Its coverage has expanded each year and now extends to 133 countries. 

The World Economic Forum issues the report in October each year, which is the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the comparative strengths and weaknesses of national economies, used by governments, academics and business leaders. Arthur Bayhan, Chief Executive Officer of CSF notes that it is vital that each executive sampled completes the survey to ensure that Pakistan has accurate and reliable data in the report, so that the weaknesses and strengths of Pakistan’s economy are elaborated. 

CSF engages university students from all over Pakistan for the survey. These students come from such institutions like Preston University, SZABIST, Kinnaird College for Women, Virtual University, Punjab University, Lahore School of Economics (LSE), Lahore College for Women University, University of Gujarat and the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi. 

The students are pleased to be part of this initiative which provides them an excellent opportunity to get an insight into the real business world and how chief executive officers conduct their businesses. 

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 global competitive footing. USAID support for CSF is part of the $2.8 billion aid that the US government has provided to Pakistan since 2002 to improve economic growth, education, health and governance and to reconstruct the earthquake-affected areas.