Omar to lead Pak delegation for TCI Conference at Lyon
By Asad Cheema

ISLAMABAD—The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF), a joint venture of the Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Finance and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), will be participating at the 9th annual conference of The Competitiveness Institute (TCI) in Lyon, France from the 9th to 13th of October 2006. The CSF will be showcasing Pakistan’s commitment to be more competitive.
The Minister of State for Finance and Chairman CSF, Mr. Omar Ayub Khan, will make a presentation on Pakistan’s various initiatives on competitiveness. There will be two breakout sessions, one for bio-technology and one on innovation journalism. At each session a representative/presenter from the delegation will make a presentation followed by comments and interaction with global experts who will provide feedback on competitiveness initiatives in Pakistan.
The Conference will include discussions of selected clusters in Europe, innovation journalism programmes, training sessions, an academic summit, plenaries on hot topics and different levels of breakouts. Members and new participants will join together to share ideas, build alliances and explore the best modes of economic development. Additionally, information will be offered about specific clusters, introductory courses on cluster theory and presentations given by an array of world experts. TCI will provide information about past cluster projects and reports about new developments over the world.
Participation at the Lyon conference will build on an exchange of communications between the Barcelona-based World Competitiveness Institute (TCI) and Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance. The creation of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) and the TCI Regional Conference (held in Islamabad in May 2006) demonstrate Pakistan’s commitment to make its economy more competitive. The Lyon conference will provide a venue for Pakistan’s maiden presentation of its competitiveness plan and how a growing public-private dialogue is working to improve Pakistan’s standing in global competitiveness rankings.