Home » News » Asia - Middle East

Arthur Bayhan - Asian countries are moving up in the list

"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.

If you would like to register to the conference, please follow this link: www.competitiveness.org/article/articleview/756/1/18.

Arthur Bayhan is Acting Vice President Asia-Pacific in TCI. He is also working in Pakistan as the Chief Executive Officer of The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF).

"The fund was formed by the Government of Pakistan and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to up-grade the competitiveness of Pakistani economy, increase the productivity of the country's enterprises, reinforce economic growth, and to create new and better job opportunities", he says.

The Fund will focus on supporting the development of innovation systems, upgrading of enterprises' competitiveness, help start-ups that have completed the business incubation process, facilitate commercialisation of the results of research to create new start-ups, support pilot projects identified as part of better strategy, and help competitive enterprises which have potential for increasing a sector's domestic market and export.

"In this way, the fund would contribute to promoting and speeding up the process to bridge existing competitiveness gaps and catch-up with respect to the progress made in other successful economies and in the more advanced countries in the region", Bayhan says.

TCI has a unique position

Arthur Bayhan thinks TCI has an excellent position helping the Asian region with regional development.

"TCI has a unique organization with its worldwide networking potential on competitiveness. Cluster formation could provide important policy tools for the regional economic development in Asia. In my view, the experiences of the competitiveness experts and cluster practitioners from Europe and North America are vital for the regions in Asia," Bayhan says.

"TCI should organise more workshops in the region and demonstrate the value added of its activities. The TCI initiatives in Asia could provide more insight of the importance of the dialogue between the private industry, university and public sector for regional economic development, clusters, and knowledge based enterprise development, better employment and competitiveness."

Improvements in Pakistan, but legal systems lag behind

If you read the CIA World Factbook you find that 'Pakistan, an impoverished and underdeveloped country, has suffered from decades of internal political disputes, low levels of foreign investment, and a costly, ongoing confrontation with neighboring India.' (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pk.html)

However, International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved government policies, bolstered by generous foreign assistance and renewed access to global markets since 2001, have generated solid macroeconomic recovery the last four years. The government has made substantial macroeconomic reforms since 2000, although progress on more politically sensitive reforms has slowed.

"The region will, in my view, have some difficulties in the long term to maintain the economic growth when the countries continue to be cost-effective manufacturing base. In parallel they should go on the value-added," Bayhan says.

"Second obstacle relates to a weak of legal framework in these countries which has a significant impact on employment and productivity. Therefore, one of the instruments for a viable business environment and sustainable economic growth is to establish an appropriate legal framework which includes, among others, such as the intellectual property protection, insolvency, competition law etc."

"Furthermore, the inefficient judicial system of the countries in the region does not allow transparent and low-cost settlement of disputes. By improving the quality of legislation, it creates the right incentives for business, cutting unnecessary costs and removing obstacles to adaptation and innovation. The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness report has been ranking the level of the public institutions of the Asian countries very low in comparison to the countries in the OECD area. Specifically, there is a need for civil sector reform to improve the efficiency ensure the professionalism of the public institutions."

Pakistan jumps 8 places on global competitiveness

Pakistan has jumped up by eight places to 83rd position in global competitiveness during 2005, according to the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum (WEF) 26th Global Competitiveness Report for 2005-06. According to the report, Pakistan has secured 80th position regarding technology and 69th position in macroeconomic environment, while it shown discouraging performance pertaining to strengthening of public institutions in the country and scored 103th position among 117 economies of the world.

"The Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum indicates that Asian countries are moving up in the list of more competitive economies yet serious constraints still exist and must be overcome," Bayhan says.

"I would say that the one of the main strengths of Pakistan is that Pakistan is geographically placed in a region that has a huge domestic market with about 85% of the world consumers. The home market has the critical mass advantage which is unique to the region."

"The second strength is the diversity of the people in Asia with entrepreneurial culture. There is a well organised skilled workforce with low wages which boost for knowledge based manufacturing industry, create job opportunities and contribute to economic growth in Asia."

Conference on Competitiveness Asia and Pacific May 2006

The Regional Conference on Competitiveness for Asia and Pacific in May 2006 in Islamabad will address the obstacles for the sustainable economic development and lay out strategies how to remove these impediments.

"The conference will identify the competitiveness potential of the leading economic in these countries. The participants will discuss how other countries in the region and those outside the region can better benefit from progress made in China and elsewhere in Asia? What programmes and policies would be necessary to develop a competitive economy in this new regional environment? Are there opportunities for a wider intra-regional "pull" factor such as that between Hong Kong and China?" Bayhan says.

"The conference will take place in Pakistan to mark also Pakistan's determination to improve its competitiveness both regionally and globally. Pakistan sits astride the old silk route and has long been a significant economic player in the region. This will be an opportunity to listen to and exchange ideas with Pakistan's public and private sector leaders engaged in a nationwide dialogue to reposition Pakistan in the global market."

The conference will also provide a platform for Pakistan to present its economic policy reforms intended to create higher value and increase productivity as elements of a nascent competitiveness strategy that will also improve Pakistan?s standing in global competitiveness rankings.

If I want to participate, who do I contact? (I don't literally mean me, but the reader)

"The draft agenda and the coordinates for registration to the conference are at the TCI webpage. The conference is scheduled to take place 15 - 17 May, 2006 in Islamabad. The participants of the conference will include the high level government official, representatives of the private sector, the cluster practitioners and competitiveness experts from Asia and Pacific as well as the experts from Europe and North America."

For more information contact Arthur Bayhan, arthur.bayhan @ telefonica.net .

You can also have a look at the preliminary agenda of the conference here: www.competitiveness.org/article/articleview/752/1/10. If you would like to register to the conference, please follow this link. All registered participants will become TCI Members for 2006. The conference fee - including TCI membership - is covered by the organizers.

Contributions and Proposals for the program are very welcome. If you are interested to participate as a speaker please contact TCI ( fblunck @ competitiveness.org ) or directly Arthur Bayhan.