Minister of State for Finance and Economic Affairs Omer Ayub Khan has said the government is focusing on infrastructure, energy and human resource development to sustain and further improve the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 8.4 percent achieved in the previous financial year.
He was talking to the members of 21st Century Club at a local hotel on Tuesday evening. Omer 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.
The CSF had been established with 11.8 million dollars under the umbrella of Ministry of Finance and the USAID and the partner organisations would match the amount in the fund.
He said that the objective of the 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 the country.
"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 boost the economic growth and create better employment", he added.
The minister said Pakistan now faced an urgent need to ensure the competitiveness of its enterprises and to promote innovation to strengthen its economy 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," he added.
He stressed the need for the promotion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for economic growth and socio-economic development of the country.
Omer Ayub said that due to lack of proper infrastructure, Pakistan was losing four percent of the GDP annually and that was why the government was focusing on development of this sector. Explaining the working of the fund, the minister said that the programme would use one of its financial facilities towards its aim of increasing the competitiveness of Pakistani entrepreneurs and Pakistani products.
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Michael Enright, member of the Competitiveness Institute (TCI), Board of Advisors and Director of Competitiveness Programme, Hong Kong Institute of Economic and Business Strategy, said Pakistan had a lot of potential to further improve its competitiveness.
Highlighting the objectives of the CSF, he said CSF had three financial windows namely matchmaking grants, technical assistance and business incubators and venture capital. He said that a two-day regional conference on "Competitiveness and economic growth in Asia" in collaboration with the Competitiveness Institute would be held in Islamabad from May 15. Arthur Bayhan, Vice-President of TCI and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Competitiveness Support Fund; Dr Junaid Ahmed, Salahuddin Haider and others spoke on this occasion, while a large number of dignities attended the programme.
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