Mishal Pakistan Launches “Credibility Lab” for Research on Media and Competitiveness

Mishal Pakistan Launches “Credibility Lab” for Research on Media and Competitiveness

Credibility Lab to adopt the Triple Helix model to develop and launch the Media Credibility Index for Ethical Journalism in Pakistan

Mishal Pakistan launches the Credibility Lab, an initiative to create new frameworks and methodologies to measure current trends and indices on Media Ethics, Journalism Standards, Media Credibility and Rankings to be measured on international benchmarks.

The Credibility Lab among other areas will be working on models to improve more creative interactions between the Triple Helix players.

The Credibility Lab will also be working to explore the potential for innovation and economic development in a Knowledge-based Society, which lies in a more prominent role for the university and the hybridisation of elements from University, industry and Government to generate new institutional and social formats for the production, transfer and application of knowledge.

The Six Pillars of Media Credibility Index

Mishal Pakistan’s Credibility Lab will work as a knowledge sharing for the experts from the industry, academia and policy makers. The Credibility lab will be working with more than 10 research-academic institutions, specializing in journalism studies and media sciences across Pakistan, a similar number of international universities and media development institutions will be partnering with Mishal Pakistan on this initiative.

The Credibility Lab at Mishal will be undertaking new initiatives in this year i.e. the Media Credibility Index (MCI), an initiative started in January 2013 in collaboration with leading research institutions across Pakistan and international journalism and media academics and practitioners. The Media Credibility Index focuses on the relative credibility and believability of various media channels through which content is created.

First time in Pakistan a media credibility index will be developed after an extensive examination of media laws, ethics, rules and regulations drafted by different media groups, regulatory bodies and journalistic organizations both at national as well as international arena. The MCI will explore the state of media in Pakistan against six media credibility indicators and 20 sub-indices.

Mishal has incorporated more than thirty code of conducts, ethical code and journalism principles, which include currently prevalent seven national code of conducts and twenty four international code of ethics from international regulatory bodies, country code of conducts and agreed journalistic codes of ethics across the globe.

Codes of Ethics framed by Pakistani media groups have also being included such as Jang group’s Geo Asool, Dunya’s code of ethics, Express group’s journalism code of conduct and Dawn Group’s principles and code of conduct.

After reviewing the principles of journalism and codes of ethics for journalists; six media credibility indicators with 20 sub-indices have been developed in order to measure the media discourse and credibility of current affair content in Pakistan. This extensive study entails thirty-five current affair programs of the mainstream Pakistani news channels.

The Credibility Lab, through its activities will further strengthen the Triple Helix concept, which relies on three main ideas: (1) a more prominent role for the University in creating new though and research processes, on a par with Industry and Government in the Knowledge Society; (2) a movement toward collaborative relationships among the three major institutional spheres, in which information and knowledge policy is increasingly an outcome of interaction rather than a prescription from Government; (3) in addition to fulfilling their traditional functions, each institutional sphere also “takes the role  of the other” performing new roles as well as their traditional function.

The Credibility Lab will be publishing its research in collaboration with its partners on periodic basis on the state of media and competitiveness in Pakistan.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks, World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating the soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges. Mishal has also launched Pakistan’s first journalism awards on the framework designed jointly with the Center for International Media Ethics and UNESCO’s Media Development Indicators.

Pakistan Needs to Improve its framework on Intellectual Property Protection

Pakistan Needs to Improve its framework on Intellectual Property Protection

On the World Intellectual Property Rights Day 2013, MishalPakistan, a country partner institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network of the World Economic Forum shared the State of IPR in Pakistan.

The country is not being able to improve the environment to protect the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Pakistan is showing substantial deterioration on the indicators to improve the IPR, Pakistan now stands at 106 among 144 countries on Intellectual Property Protection, as compared to 86 in 2010. The trend shows 20% decline in IP protection in the country, announced Mishal sharing the data on IPR from the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum.

On the other hand, an enabling framework required to create intellectual asset in the system continues to perform poor. The capacity of research institutions and private sector spending on scientific research and development has been stagnant for the past three years. This is causing the country to lose its competitiveness by not being able to create implementation mechanism for the citizens to protect their intellectual property.

The University-Industry Collaboration is also a matter of concern in Pakistan as more emphasis is being put on non-research initiatives or research in isolation from the industry. This also indicates that the businesses in Pakistan are not benefiting from the R&D being done in academic and research institutions across the country, resulting in lack of indigenous solutions for the local and international challenges.

Although Pakistan has shown improvements on the number of applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) per million populations, where Pakistan stands at 88 among 144 countries globally, a thirty percent improvement as compared to 2010.

The recent developments and initiatives by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan to encourage academia and research institutions to file for patents has resulted in more applications filed for patents in the country, however the lack of expertise and understanding about new ideas and innovations at the Intellectual Property Organization (IPO) has hampered IPR activities in the country.

Pakistan adopted the Intellectual Property Rights Act in December last year, which protects the Intellectual Property Rights including copyrights, trademarks, patents, designs, lay-out designs of integrated circuits, trade secrets and other intellectual property laws; supported by other laws are powerful tools for economic growth. The protection of these and similar intellectual property rights of the citizens is essential to foster creative thinking, stimulate creativity, provide incentives for technological innovations, and attract investment.

An increase in patent filing and lack of capacity of IPO to decide on patent declarations can create a serious situation for IPR appreciation in the country, said Amir Jahangir, CEO of Mishal Pakistan. Intellectual property protection is important for recognizing and respecting creative and intellectual work in a knowledge-based society.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks, World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating the soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges. 

Media Unite to Promote Ethical Coverage of Election

Media Unite in Pakistan to Promote Ethical Coverage of Election 2013

On the day that the battle for votes in next month’s historic elections formally commenced, Pakistan media leaders launched their own campaign – to make reporting of the upcoming national vote to be safe, professional and fair to all parties.

Media Guidelines for Elections 2013 in Pakistan in the picture (R-L): 
Arif Nizami, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, 
Aidan White, Director of the Ethical Journalism and European Union, 
Election Observer Mission’s media analyst Inta Lase

As the Election Commission of Pakistan announced the final list of the candidates for the May 11 vote, broadcasters, publishers and editorial executives across all platforms of media highlighted an unprecedented agreement on media guidelines that aims to ensure fair reporting of the election and to avoid all forms of hate speech and incitement to violence.

The Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Arif Nizami speaking at the meeting of the media and support groups in Islamabad, “Forum on Media Guidelines for 2013 Election” said that the guidelines were essential to ensure a truly democratic vote.

He also said that all journalists and media must be able to report freely without any threat to their security and safety. “Media play a pivotal role in a democratic transition,” he said, “steps should be taken to ensure that they are able to report freely without any threats.”

Earlier, the meeting heard from the European Union, Election Observer Mission’s media analyst Inta Lase, who is helping a team of experts to monitor the performance of selected media outlets in their coverage of the election.

She said a sample of major media had been selected for monitoring.

The team will analyze the time allocated to each party to ensure balanced access for all political parties. They will also identify hate speech and monitor the tone of reporting to test whether the coverage is positive, negative or neutral.

The media guidelines are the result of detailed discussions between the Election Commission of Pakistan, South Asian Free Media Association, Pakistan Broadcasting Association, All Pakistan Newspaper Society, Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, Pakistan Television, National Press Club, Press Council of Pakistan, and the Pakistan Federation Union of Journalists.

The meeting discussed how to help journalists respect the guidelines.

Aidan White, Director of the Ethical Journalism Network moderating the discussion, said that monitoring the performance of media by journalists themselves is vital to the success of the guidelines project. He said media self-assessment would reinforce standards, correct mistakes and strengthen the independence of journalism for the future.

Mr. White was supported by the Election Commission of Pakistan representative Raja Mohammad Iftikhar, Additional Director General (Public Relations), who said that for the first time the Commission is working very effectively with the media to develop and maintain standards.

He stressed that the value of media monitoring is that it will not undermine the independence of journalism in a drastically changing environment.

Among the contributors to the discussion was All Pakistan Newspaper Society, President Sarmad A. Ali who said, that the APNS is in the process of circulating the guidelines to all the member organizations. Meanwhile, the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) will be holding training sessions for the editorial executives on the guidelines.

The Director General of Pakistan Radio, Murtaza Solangi, said that, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation had initiated a top-to-bottom process of informing executives and journalists about the guidelines to ensure that they are put into effect.

The meeting agreed to the following:

• Media guidelines should be distributed internally to all editorial executives and news journalists for organising election coverage and reporting
• Guidelines should be published widely to encourage public engagement in the work of creating a comprehensive and inclusive public debate around the elections
• The process of monitoring of media performance should continue after the vote, when the media will be invited to review the impact of the guidelines and will prepare new strategies and structures for coverage and monitoring of future elections.

The forum was organized as a joint collaboration between Democracy Reporting International and Coalition for Ethical Journalism including other stakeholders and media support groups.

The role of ICT for sustained economic growth and job creation is crucial to improve Pakistan’s competitiveness

Pakistan lost 3 ranks on the World Economic Forum’s Network Readiness Index (NRI), securing 105th position among 144 countries on the Global Information Technology Report 2013.

Despite efforts in the past decade to improve information and communications technologies (ICT) infrastructure in developing economies, there remains a new digital divide in how countries harness ICT to deliver competitiveness and well-being, according to the 12th edition of The Global Information Technology Report, released today by the World Economic Forum.

Published under the theme, Growth and Jobs in a Hyperconnected World, the Report suggests that national policies in some developing economies are failing to translate ICT investment into tangible benefits in terms of competitiveness, development and employment. This is in addition to the profound digital divide that already exists between advanced and developing economies in access to digital infrastructure and content.

Pakistan continues to lag behind in the rankings. Unable to achieve a sustained rapid economic growth may put Pakistan’s ICT-competitiveness in jeopardy unless the right investments are made in ICT, skills and innovation.

Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan, a partner institute of Global Competitiveness & Benchmarking Network of the World Economic Forum said, “As other countries are improving rapidly, Pakistan has shown little change, this is a matter of concern. Pakistan is 37 ranks behind India. The big challenge for the next government in Pakistan would be to put more emphasize on ICT environment and regulatory framework. The role of ICT for sustained economic growth and job creation is crucial to improve Pakistan’s competitiveness". "ICT has revolutionized the way businesses are done and the country has not being able to capitalize on this”, he further added.

Pakistan's Score on the Global Information Technology Report 2013

Some of the areas where Pakistan lost its ICT competitiveness are; govt’s procurement of advance technologies, which ranked 109 this year as compared to 91 in 2012. Although Pakistan has improved the fixed broadband Internet tariff substantially by making Pakistan the 68^th most competitive broadband provider in the world, individuals using Internet, which depicts affordability of Internet for citizens is shrinking. Pakistan lost 22 points in 2013 and ranks at 120 on individuals using Internet. The report highlights that the gains in broadband affordability are being achieved by cannibalizing the individual Internet users.

Pakistan achieved significant gains in the last decades, when it embraced the mobile technologies and led the region by providing human resources capital and technical knowhow to the global pool of mobile communication providers. However this gain has been greatly diminished due to lack of advancements and inconsistency in decision making to adopt new technologies at the right time. The Importance of ICTs to govt’s vision has deteriorated from 92 to 117 in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Making ICT as one of the least priority areas for the govt. in Pakistan. 

On the economic impact pillar, Pakistan failed to show progress on creating impact of ICTs on new organizational models by losing 10 points (91). Keeping businesses in mostly traditional areas and connecting Pakistan with the global knowledge economies.

Similarly, government’s failure to create social impact through ICT also showcases it’s poor understanding of innovation ecosystem and value creation for the citizens in the digital age. 

The government failed to create value through ICT use and improving efficiency, where Pakistan lost an alarming 16 points (121 among 144 countries). Not being able to improve any regulations on venture capital availability has also created a bottleneck for an innovation economy in the country. This signifies Pakistan’s lack of correlation between innovation and competitiveness with finance, thus further isolating Pakistan from moving towards a knowledge-based economy.

Pakistan also lost 15 points on the E-participation index, where government engages citizens through online services and grievance mechanism, thus resulting in stronger red-tapism slower economic progress.

On the overall political and regulatory environment, the efficiency of legal system in challenging regulations has also deteriorated, where Pakistan is ranked 97 as compared to 79 in 2013 and 2012 respectively. Intellectual property protection has also been neglected and Pakistan lost 13 points by securing 103 on the network readiness index.

Some of the areas where Pakistan has shown improvements are on the business and innovation environment pillar, where the business sector has ensured the availability of latest technologies for ICT competitiveness by improving 10 points and securing 83 rank among 144 countries.

The Report’s Networked Readiness Index (NRI), which measures the capacity of 144 economies to leverage ICT for growth and well-being, finds Finland (1st), Singapore (2nd) and Sweden (3rd) take the top three places. The Netherlands (4th), Norway (5th), Switzerland (6th), the United Kingdom (7th), Denmark (8th), the United States (9th), and Taiwan, China (10th) complete the top 10.

“This analysis shows how matching investments in ICT with investment in skills and innovation can help economies cross a ‘magic threshold’, beyond which return on investment increases significantly,” said Bruno Lanvin, Executive Director of the e-Lab at INSEAD and co-editor of the report. “Individual countries need to identify what separates them from reaching that threshold if they have not reached it yet in order to fulfill long- term growth, competitiveness and innovation targets” he added.

“ICT’s role in supporting economic growth and the creation of high-quality jobs has never come under such scrutiny. Despite initial concerns that ICT would hasten the deployment of resources towards developing countries, the benefits of ICT are now widely recognized as an important way for companies and economies to optimize productivity, free up resources and boost innovation and job creation” said Beñat Bilbao-Osorio, Economist, Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network, World Economic Forum, and co-editor of the report.

Against this backdrop, “countries need tools to measure and track progress and the report has become the most comprehensive and respected international assessment, providing policy-makers, business leaders and civil society at large with a useful tool for designing national strategies for increased networked readiness and for benchmarking their country’s performance against other relevant comparators” said Soumitra Dutta, Anne and Elmer Lindseth Dean at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and co-editor of the report.

“Digitization created 6 million jobs and added US$ 193 billion to the global economy in 2011. Although in aggregate positive, the impact of digitization is not uniform across sectors and economies – it creates and destroys jobs” said Bahjat El-Darwiche, Partner, Booz & Company and sponsor of the Report. He added that “policymakers wishing to accentuate the positive impact of digitization need to understand these different effects if they wish act as digital market makers in their economies.”

“This report demonstrates that economies that fail to implement comprehensive national broadband strategies risk losing ground in global competitiveness and may fall behind in the delivery of societal benefits from ICTs. Plans that incorporate both supply and demand-side measures offer countries the best opportunity to advance broadband adoption," said Dr. Robert Pepper, Vice President for Global Technology Policy, Cisco and sponsor of the report. "

The Network Readiness Index (NRI) uses a combination of data from publicly available sources and the results of the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the Forum in collaboration with partner institutes. This Survey of more than 15,000 executives provides insight into areas critical for networked readiness.

The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1971 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.  

Pakistan Ranks at 122 on the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013

Pakistan improves 3 Ranks on the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013 of the World Economic Forum; 122nd Among 140 Countries

WEF Travel & Tourism Report Focuses on Reducing Barriers to Economic Growth and Job Creation. Analyzing, Pakistan’s performance among 140 countries on the travel and tourism competitiveness index on a biennial basis.  

Pakistan has shown slight improvement on the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013. The biennial report, published under the theme, Reducing Barriers to Economic Growth and Job Creation, sees considerable movement in the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index’s 14 pillars in terms of Pakistan’s performance according to the fifth Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report, released today by the World Economic Forum.

Amongst the areas, where Pakistan showed poor performance are policy rules and regulations dropping ranking from 106 in 2011 to 120 this year and prioritizing of travel & tourism, which secured 131 in 2013 as compared to 121 in 2011.

Pakistan showed improvements in the areas of human resources, where the indices on education and training have improved to the rank of 125 this year to 134 in 2011, similarly availability of qualified labor showed an improvement of 79 in 2013 as compared to 100 in 2011, an indication of a return of skilled labour force from middle east and other countries. 

Other area where policy, rules & regulations impacted Pakistan was the business impact of rules on FDI ranking, which deteriorated from 73 in 2011 to 94 in 2013

The war on terror has impacted the countries travel and tourism competitiveness, in terms of the safety and security pillar; Pakistan was ranked at business costs of crime and violence (128), road traffic accidents/100,000 population (101) and business costs of terrorism (139).

Pakistan showed lack of attention and prioritization of the travel and tourism in 2011/12, ranking 131 out of 140. The poor performance of railways and the quality of railroad infrastructure also deteriorated in the last two years where Pakistan scored 65 this year as compared to 55 in 2011.

Government’s policy on the information technology and telecommunications also showed lack of focus as the Report signifies that the ICT use for business-to-business has dropped from 103 to 115 from 211 to 2013 respectively. The performance of the regulatory body for ICT also showed an alarming figure, where Pakistan’s lost 20 ranks in 2013 as of 119 as compared to 99 two years ago.

In an effort to improve the revenue stream, governments in Pakistan have also the mid-to-long term interest of the travel and tourism industry, the price competitiveness in terms of the extent and effect of taxation the country lost 23 ranks in the last two years and ranking on 68 now.

The quality of education system showed an improvement by ranking 74 this year as compared to 87 in 2011 among 140 countries globally. The country also showed flexibility in hiring and firing practices, thus showing a competitiveness advantage by securing the ranking of 21.

On the cultural resources pillar, although Pakistan still maintains its competitiveness advantage, Pakistan lost its ranking of 29 to 39 in 2011 and 2013 respectively on the no. of world heritage sites. Similarly Pakistan’s position on number of international fairs and exhibitions at 88 in 2011 has been dropped to 117.

Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan, the country partner institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Performance, World Economic Forum said, that “the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index covers 140 countries and uses a combination of data from publicly available sources, international travel and tourism institutions and experts”. It also incorporates the results of the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum and its network of partner institutes. Mishal being the country partner institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Performance of the World Economic Forum works closely with the Forum for data on Pakistan. The survey provides data on many qualitative institutional and business environment issues.

As well as providing insight into how countries are fostering the development of their travel & tourism industry, the report also offers a snapshot on the health of the industry and its role in driving global economic growth. With travel and tourism accounting for one in 11 jobs globally, the report highlights that the industry has proven resilient during the global economic downturn and can be a key factor in paving the way for developing and emerging markets to diversify into higher value economic activities.       

Switzerland, Germany and Austria lead the world in terms of their travel and tourism industry competitiveness with Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Canada, Sweden and Singapore completing the top 10.

Among developed economies, New Zealand and Japan improved strongly; the former climbing to12th from 19th and the latter moving up eight positions to 14th. Emerging market economies reported mixed levels of progress, with India being the only BRIC nation to move up in the rankings. In this category, rising stars include Panama, climbing from 56th to 37th, and the Philippines, which climbed from 94th to 82nd on the back of policy improvements supporting the industry.

“Industry resilience has been driven by the growth of the middle class in emerging markets, although advanced economies too are displaying positive momentum. Better policies, harnessing technology and facilitating the movement of people over borders will allow the industry to capitalize on this tailwind and support rising prosperity into the future,” said Jennifer Blanke, Chief Economist and Head of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network at the World Economic Forum.

“The travel and tourism industry has weathered the global downturn and is now playing an important role in helping tackle serious global challenges, including youth unemployment, economic development and environmental sustainability. The challenge for the industry and its stakeholders today is to maintain this powerful contribution to economic growth and employment, while continuing to proactively pursue the shared goals of facilitating global travel and tourism and protecting host cultures, identities and environments,” said Thea Chiesa, Director, Head of Aviation, Travel & Tourism Industries, World Economic Forum.

The report’s cross-country analysis of the drivers of competitiveness in travel and tourism provides comparative information that is useful in business decision-making and supporting policies of governments wishing to improve their travel and tourism environments.

In addition, the report includes contributions from industry experts. Several chapters explore issues such as how visa facilitation can play a role in stimulating economic growth; the importance for policy-makers to leverage local competitive advantages to thrive in a volatile environment; the impact of the tourism sector on employment creation; and how the connectivity that aviation sector creates sustains economic development.

The report also contains detailed country profiles for the 140 economies featured in the study, including a comprehensive summary of their overall positions in the Index and a guide to the most prominent travel and tourism competitive advantages and disadvantages of each. Also included is an extensive section of data tables covering each indicator used in the Index’s computation.

The World Economic Forum produced the report in close collaboration with its Strategic Design Partner, Booz & Company, and its Data Partners, which include Deloitte, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Mishal Pakistan and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The Forum also received important feedback from Industry Partners in the effort, namely Airbus/EADS, BAE Systems, Bahrain Economic Development Board, Bombardier, Delta, Deutsche Lufthansa/Swiss, Embraer, Etihad Airways, Jet Airways, Hilton, Lockheed Martin, Marriott, Safran, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and VISA.

The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1971 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan or national interests (www.weforum.org).

Mishal to Conduct Nationwide Survey to Measure Pakistan’s Global Competitiveness Ranking for 2013-2014

Mishal to Conduct Nationwide Survey to Measure Pakistan’s Global Competitiveness Ranking for 2013-2014

The World Economic Forum in partnership with Mishal Pakistan will conduct the Executive Opinion Survey 2013 in Pakistan by January 2013. 

The Executive Opinion Survey, “The Voice of the Business Community” is a major component of The Global Competitiveness Report and provides the key ingredient that turns the Report into a representative annual measure of a nation’s economic environment and its ability to achieve sustained growth. The Survey gathers valuable information on a broad range of variables for which hard data sources are scarce or nonexistent. High level business executives operating in Pakistan will be surveyed to capture their opinion on the business environment in which they operate.

The Global Competitiveness Report has been the World Economic Forum’s flagship publication since 1979 and is widely recognized as the world’s leading cross-country comparison of factors affecting economic competitiveness and growth.

A sample of company executives in Pakistan will be asked to complete this important and confidential survey.  Mr. Amir Jahangir of Mishal Pvt. Limited notes that it is vitally important that each executive sampled complete the survey to ensure that Pakistan has accurate and reliable data in the Report. The report for 2013-2014 is expected to be issues in the Q4 of 2013.

NPO collaborates with Mishal for improving Pakistan’s global competitiveness ranking

NPO collaborates with Mishal for improving Pakistan’s global competitiveness ranking.

National Productivity Organization (NPO) signed MOU with Mishal Pakistan, a country partner institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Performance at the World Economic Forum. Mishal is working closely with key institutions in Pakistan on identifying the gaps and opportunities on improving competitiveness issues for long term economic growth Pakistan.

Mishal and NPO will work together to develop initiatives for improving Pakistan ranking on the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum. It was also agreed that NPO will assist Mishal to conduct the annual Executive Opinion Survey of the World Economic Forum to measure Pakistan’s ranking on World Economic Forum’s various indicator on competitiveness. 

Both the organizations have also agreed to jointly execute activities to develop initiatives for measuring Pakistan’s competitiveness and improving its ranking; whereas, to create a hybrid pool of resources for knowledge sharing.

Khawaja Muhammad Yousuf

While addressing the occasion, Khawaja Muhammad Yousuf, Chief Executive Officer of NPO, highlighted that “Pakistan rank 124 from a total of 144 countries and there is a need to synergize country’s resources both technically and physically to uplift our industry with special focus towards competitiveness and productivity”. He hoped that NPO and Mishal together will play a unique role through various special initiatives including research on productivity to improve Pakistan’s ranking. He further said that, “NPO will assist MISHAL Pakistan in developing the annual Pakistan’s State of Competitiveness Report”.  

Amir Jahangir

Speaking on the occasion, chief executive officer ofMishal and Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Amir Jahangir shared that Pakistan is facing though competition both in the region and globally, nations around the world are improving their productivity and competitiveness systematically, Pakistan needs to focus its initiatives to improve its own competitiveness.

MISHAL and NPO will also work together to develop institutional capacity of various government institutions and departments to understand the challenges faced by Pakistan on the competitiveness front, for this, MISHAL will provide technical assistance to NPO in establishing a separate department within NPO that will specialize in addressing the issues of competitiveness.

To improve competitiveness, both parties have also agreed that Mishal will be working closely with the management of the National Productivity Organization to reach out to other stakeholders to mobilize resources including knowledge partnerships, donor assistance and institutional collaborations.

Established in 1961, NPO is the partner of the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and World Confederation of Productivity Science (WCPS) & World Network of Productivity Organizations (WNPO). NPO  is striving hard to reach out to the economic sectors with the help of its regional offices and nationwide initiatives which include training, consulting, productivity audits and benchmarking exercises, energy efficiency, Prime Minister Quality Awards, Transfer of best practices, quality certifications and standardization, mass awareness and outreach Programmes on improving productivity.

Mishal Pakistan is the country partner Institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Performance at the World Economic Forum. World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry. Established in 2003, as a limited by liability company under companies ordinance 1984, Mishal has been engaged with some of the most dynamic organizations, including media enterprises and global development agencies helping them develop their communication strategies and solutions for better understanding and creating synergies with their concerned stakeholders.