CSF begins work on second Competitiveness Report
By Muhammad Ali Malik

ISLAMABAD—The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) has started work on the second Competitiveness Report for Pakistan to spotlight the areas of progress and sort out the areas which need further attention.
The CSF team held a meeting with the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Ms. Shamshad Akhtar to introduce the preliminary work of the State of Pakistan’s Competitiveness Report 2008, a CSF press release said here on Thursday. Akhtar appreciated CSF’s efforts for preparing the report which would help Pakistan to improve its global competitiveness rankings to generate more job opportunities. The Governor asked CSF for financial and technical cooperation to fund an overview of the informal sector and its impact on macro-economy and competitiveness. The report will explain the results of the Global Competitiveness Report of 2007-2008 of the World Economic Forum and benchmarking Pakistan’s progress against its peers. It would also evaluate country’s progress in raising its competitiveness in 2008-09.
The 2008 Report will highlight a thematic area that may require focused attention from Pakistan’s economic leadership.
CSF has started its interaction with key stakeholders, including all relevant ministries, leading public and private sector institutions, business councils and trade bodies along with academia and the media to identify the areas to improve Pakistan’s competitiveness.