Found at: http://www.competitiveness.org/article/articleprint/724/-1/10/

Pakistan takes broad Initiative to increase Competitiveness

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.

"It will encourage new start-ups and support innovation process and help sustainable economic growth enabling the Pakistani economy to compete more effectively. The Competitiveness Support Fund will contribute to poverty alleviation by providing more income for producers and boosting economic growth countrywide," Omar Ayub Khan said.

At the conference two clusters initiatives were presented at the one of the breakout sessions: Diary and Gems & Jewellery.

Pakistan is also joining the Innovation Journalism Program at Stanford University. Innovation Journalism Fellows from Pakistan will be participating in the program as from 2006.

"As an integral part of our competitiveness initiative, Pakistan has become one of the participating countries in the Innovation Journalism Fellowship programme at Stanford University to increase public focus on innovation and competitiveness, business and technology through news and improving communication within the sectors and clusters." Mr. Omar Ayub Khan said.

"The Government of Pakistan's wish is to build networks between leading Pakistani innovation journalists and their peer from other countries, in order to strengthen the Pakistani overview of innovation in other countries, as well as make the other countries more aware of Pakistan."

The Pakistani Innovation Journalism program will be run by the Pakistan Competitiveness Support Fund, which is being set up and headed by Mr Arthur Bayhan, a former Head of enterprise development for non-member countries at the OECD and a member of The Competitiveness Institute's advisory board and executive committee.

The concept of Innovation Journalism was introduced two years ago by Stanford researcher and Innovation Journalism program director David Nordfors, also Special Advisor to the President of The Competitiveness Institute. The Swedish government agency VINNOVA started the first program and supported Stanford for developing the concept.

Minister Ayub Khan proposed to host a TCI regional conference for Asia and Pacific in May 2006 in Islamabad/Pakistan.

For more information please contact TCI President Lars Eklund: leklund @ competitiveness.org or Arthur Bayhan: arthur.bayhan @ telefonica.net