Leaders Gather to Focus on Pakistan’s Competitiveness

Pakistan will host the Asian Regional Conference of The Competitiveness Institute (TCI) to foster competitiveness, economic growth, poverty reduction and private enterprise. The conference will also provide a platform for the Government of Pakistan to present its "second generation reforms" and other initiatives to build on recent economic growth to achieve sustainable growth and poverty reduction.

Islamabad, PK (PRWEB) May 15, 2006 -- Pakistan will host the Asian Regional Conference of The Competitiveness Institute (TCI) on May 14-16 to foster competitiveness, economic growth, poverty reduction and private enterprise. The conference will bring together business and public sector leaders from Asia, the Pacific, the United States and Europe to share views on policies necessary for creating a competitive economy. This will assist the Government of Pakistan as they develop initiatives to build on recent economic growth.

The conference has been organised by the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) under the sponsorship of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and it will be held under the guidance of TCI and the Ministry of Finance.

Over the past several years, Asia’s industries have become more competitive globally, generating rapid economic growth. Conference participants will work to understand why and how this has happened so that the factors contributing to competitiveness can be identified and replicated.

The conference will also provide a platform for the Government of Pakistan to present its "second generation reforms" and other initiatives to build on recent economic growth to achieve sustainable growth and poverty reduction. The Ministry of Finance will showcase its competitiveness initiatives which strengthen its industries’ linkages with regional partners and global markets.

The Competitiveness Support Fund was established by the Government of Pakistan in partnership with the USAID. The Competitiveness Support Fund will help to co-finance competitiveness-building initiatives undertaken in private-public partnerships and encourage the formation of innovative business incubator programmes to promote knowledge based enterprise development. It will also assist innovative education-industry linkages and support the Government’s economic policy reforms to promote long-term economic growth driven by innovations.

The United States, through USAID, is providing more than $1.5 billion in development assistance to Pakistan over the next five years to improve education, health, governance and economic growth.

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