Pakistan ranked at 89 in promoting business, improving investment climate
By Asad Cheema

ISLAMABAD—The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF), partner institute of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Pakistan Wednesday released the “WEF Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008.” The report ranks Pakistan 89 out of 127 countries in terms of nations’ preparedness to effectively promote business, improve investment climate and develop infrastructure.
“It is evident that technology is playing a leading role in accelerating economic growth and promoting development,” said CSF’s Chief Executive Officer, Arthur Bayhan.
“A coherent government vision on information and communications technologies, coupled with an early focus on education and innovation, are keys to spur network readiness and to lay the foundations for sustainable growth.”This year’s ranking shows a five-point decline for Pakistan from last year when it was ranked 84 out of 122 countries. Although telecom operators are aggressively upgrading their network infrastructure to launch broadband data and multimedia services, Pakistan still ranks low on the cost of broadband and on the security of Internet servers. Furthermore, the number of days and procedures to enforce a contract in Pakistan is also a key challenge in achieving sustainable impact. According to the Global Information Technology Report of the World Economic Forum, Pakistan is ranked at 89 out of 127 countries, which is a 5 step down ranking from last year, where Pakistan was ranked at 84 out of 122 countries.
The decline is a result of a weakened political and regulatory environment (100) and the infrastructure environment (101), which refers to network facilities, network capacity and capabilities. Published for the seventh consecutive year, the WEF Global Information Technology Report is the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of information and communication technologies on nations’ development and competitiveness.