Asia & Pacific

Developing Desert Directions: Rethinking the Future
Alice Springs-Australia, 4–7 November 2008

The Desert Knowledge Symposium is a forum to exchange ideas for the greater use of desert knowledge for sustainable growth. Desert Knowledge Australia, the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre and the Desert Peoples Centre joined to host this 2008 Symposium and Business Showcase

The Competitiveness Institute is issuing a "Call for Expression of Interest" for the organization of its 13th Global Annual Conference to be held in 2010. After 2008 in Africa and 2009 in Europe we are now looking for applicants especially coming from Asia Pacific, but also outstanding applications from the rest of the world are invited to present their expression of interest.

Singapore, 18-23 of August 2008
The Asia Competitiveness Institute is organizing its Executive Programme on developing clusters and national competitiveness, designed for senior executives like national or local government, business managers with responsibilities for government relations or leaders of trade and business association. The Programme aims to inform decision-makers about the importance of microeconomic policy and the role of location in economic performance.

TCI Oceania (TCI-O) has been launched officially during the regional conference. TCI-O will not be a separate entity from TCI, but will rather help to address and enlarge the network of TCI in the Oceania region.

Wellington

The theme for the conference being held in Wellington over 23/24 May was "Driving Local Competitiveness". The conference offered to international participants the opportunity to meet with a wide range of New Zealand cluster development practitioners. 'TCI Oceania' had been formally launched during the conference. Within the next month we will prepare a TCI-O chapter on the website, offering more information on the region and possibilities for networking.

Islamabad did host a TCI Regional Conference on Competitiveness and Economic Growth for Asia on May 15 - 16, 2006: Benchmarking Pakistan's Global Competitiveness.

"Pakistan sits astride the old silk route and has long been a significant economic player in the region. The Conference on Competitiveness for Asia and Pacific in Islamabad in May 2006 will address and identify the competitiveness potential of the leading economies in this region. It will mark also Pakistan's determination to improve its competitiveness both regionally and globally," says Arthur Bayhan, Acting Vice President Asia-Pacific in TCI and working in Islamabad.

Clusters Asia-Pacific (CAP) Inc. have changed name and description to 'The Competitiveness Institute Oceania - The TCI chapter network for regional competitiveness in the Oceania region'.

Pakistan visits TCI

At The Competitiveness Institute's eighth Annual Global Conference in Hong Kong the Pakistan Minister of State for Finance, Omar Ayub Khan, in his keynote address announced that the Government of Pakistan has undertaken major initiative towards improving the competitiveness of its economy by establishing a Competitiveness Support Fund and projecting the creation of an a national Innovation and Competitiveness Council.

The Council will use the Competitiveness Support Fund, financed by the Government of Pakistan together with United States Agency for International Development USAID, as a platform to upgrade the Pakistani industry. The fund is tailored to meet Pakistan's needs and based on international best practices of successful existing funds operating in countries like India, Thailand, Turkey, Ireland and Finland.

The Thai ministry of Industry and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) recently announced a collaboration to enforce three clusters of SMEs.