Pakistan hits bottom on the Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum.

Pakistan moves down in the rankings from 134th to 135th position due to a worsening in political empowerment and occupies the last spot in the Asia and Pacific region. The country performed among the worst in the world on the Economic Participation and Opportunity by securing the 135th position among 136 countries globally.

Pakistan has shown poor performance on all indicators of the Global Gender Gap (GGG) Report, issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The world’s gender gaps narrowed slightly in 2013 on the back of definite if not universal improvements in economic equality and political participation between the sexes, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, published today.

“Both within countries and between countries are two distinct tracks to economic gender equality, with education serving as the accelerator. For countries that provide this basic investment, women’s integration in the workforce is the next frontier of change. For those that haven’t invested in women’s education, addressing this obstacle is critical to women’s lives as well as the strength of economies,” said Saadia Zahidi, co-author of the Report and Head of the Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme. The areas where Pakistan showed improvements are labour force participation (134 last year to 131 this year), estimated earned income (131 to 129 this year), enrollment in primary education (133 last year to 125 this year), enrollment in secondary education (126 in 2012 to 114 this year) and enrollment in tertiary education (105 last year to 95 this year).

Global Gender Gap Report 2013

Other countries however out-shined Pakistan’s gains by adopting pro-active approach for bridging the gender gap. The country shows no progress on improving it’s ranking on most of the indicators of the GGG index. This identifies lack of commitment from the policy makers both at public as well as private sector to include more women’s participation in economic, social and political spheres. Among areas where Pakistan lost its rankings are; wage equality for similar work 110 in 2012 to 113 in 2013.The level of gender parity among professional and technical workers was downgraded, losing 3 points for Pakistan, ranking at 108 among the 136 countries globally.

On the political empowerment pillar, although Pakistan is doing relatively better, it still lost 12 points on the Political Empowerment pillar and stands at 64 this year, similarly, women in parliament has been ranked 64 this year, as compared to 52 in 2012. The report also shows that Pakistan has a large undocumented economy, where 3% of the female population has an account in a formal financial institution, the percentage for male population is 17%. The female and male employment in the informal sector (% of non-agricultural employment) 76% and 79% respectively.

“Countries will need to start thinking of human capital very differently – including how they integrate women into leadership roles. This shift in mindset and practice is not a goal for the future, it is an imperative today,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.The eighth annual edition of the Report ranks 136 countries on their ability to close the gender gap in four key areas: economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment, health and survival, educational attainment, political participation and economic equality. Of the 133 countries that were measured in both 2012 and 2013, 86 actually improved their gender gap during this time. Overall, the Report finds Iceland the most advanced country in the world in terms of gender equality for the fifth year running. It, along with Finland (2nd), Norway (3rd) and Sweden (4th), has now closed over 80% of its gender gap. These countries are joined in the top 10 by the Philippines, which enters the top five for the first time, Ireland (6th), New Zealand (7th), Denmark (8th), Switzerland (9th) and Nicaragua (10th).

Elsewhere, in 14th place Germany is the highest-placed individual G20 economy, although it falls one place from 2012. Next is South Africa (17th, down one), the United Kingdom (level on 18th) and Canada (up one to 20th). The United States comes 23rd, also down one place since 2012. After South Africa, the next highest BRICS nation is Russia (61st), followed by Brazil (62nd), China (69th) and India (101st). At the bottom of the ranking are Chad (134th), Pakistan (135th) and Yemen (136th).

At the global level, the Report finds that in 2013, 96% of the health and survival gender gap has now been closed. It is the only one of the four pillars that has widened since the Report was first compiled in 2006. In terms of education, the global gender gap stands at 93%, with 25 countries having closed their gaps completely.

The gender gaps for economic equality and political participation are only 60% and 21% closed respectively, although progress is being made in these areas, with political participation narrowing by almost 2% over the last year. In both developing and developed countries alike, relative to the numbers of women in tertiary education and in the workforce overall, women’s presence in economic leadership positions is limited. To mobilize various stakeholders and to keep track of progress, it is important that there are quantitative benchmarks widely available.

Since 2006, through the Global Gender Gap Report series, the World Economic Forum has been quantifying the magnitude of gender- based disparities and tracking their progress over time. By providing a comprehensive framework for benchmarking global gender gaps, the Report identifies countries that are role models in dividing their resources equitably between women and men, regardless of the overall resource level.

Mishal Pakistan is the country partner institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Established in 2003, Mishal has been engaged with key stakeholders in Pakistan to improve the state of competitiveness and media through good governance initiatives.  

Download the full report, covering 136 economies including rankings, video and an interactive map.

Pakistan Ranks at 133 Among 148 Countries on the Global Competitiveness Rankings of the World Economic Forum

Pakistan fails to address its security challenges and business risks - slipping competitiveness ranking to 133.

Institutions and innovation increasingly important for competitiveness

Excellent innovation and strong institutional environments are increasingly influencing economies’ competitiveness, according to The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014.

“Innovation becomes even more critical in terms of an economy’s ability to foster future prosperity,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. “I predict that the traditional distinction between countries being ‘developed’ or ‘less developed’  will gradually disappear and we will instead refer to them much more in terms of being ‘innovation rich’ vs. ‘innovation poor’ countries. It is therefore vital that leaders from business, government and civil society work collaboratively to create education systems and enable environments which foster innovation.”

Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan, a partner institute of the WEF, in his findings said that “Pakistan needs to focus on competitiveness or the economy can slide into a dangerous downward spiral. The road to economic recovery will be difficult if Pakistan fails to address its security challenges and business risks.”

Pakistan has slipped down to 133 rank among 148 countries on the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum, announced in the Global Competitiveness Report 2013-14. Pakistan was ranked at 124 in 2012-13 and 118 in 2011-12.

The gradual slipping of Pakistan’s rank shows weakening of its institutions and capacity of the economy to create space for innovation. The areas of public and private partnerships for cooperation for improving competitiveness are also diminishing as well. This indicates increasing mistrust between the public and the private sector due to increase corruption and policy instability issues.

The report has included the views of more than 14000 business leaders globally to measure the competitiveness of 148 countries. More than 200 business leaders in Pakistan, identified corruption as the most problematic factor for doing business, followed by policy instability, access to financing, inadequate supply of infrastructure, inefficient government bureaucracy and high inflation as some of the areas identified in the GCR.

Pakistan has lost on almost all indicators of the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI); an in-depth analysis on each pillar has been discussed below:

1^st Pillar: Institutions

The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-14 shows that, Pakistan has shown poor performance on governments’ use of diversion of public funds from 76 in 2012 to 103 in 2013. It further states that the wastefulness in government spending has also increased and the rankings have dropped from 96 last year’s to 116 this year. Similarly the burden of government regulation has also deteriorated from 62 to 82 in 2012 and 2013 respectively. The efficiency of legal framework in challenging regulations, which means, how easy is it for private businesses to challenge government actions and/or regulations through the legal system has fallen 11 points since last year and ranks at 108 this year. This depicts a SRO culture has been prevalent in the country for economic decision making instead of legislations through legal frameworks.

The businesses in Pakistan has also shown reluctance in improving the efficacy of corporate boards by fallen to 123 in 2013 from 111 in 2012. However the regulator on the securities market has shown improvements in terms of and protection of minority shareholders’ interest from 83 in 2012 to 73 this year. Pakistan has maintained its competitiveness advantage in the region by securing the rank at 31 this year.

The biggest impact on the pillar of institutions has been due to law and order and Pakistan’s fight in the war on terror, where Pakistan ranks among the least 10 in the world; business cost of terrorism 144, business cost of crime and violence 138 and organized crime 141 among 148 countries globally. Pakistan has shown improvements on judicial independence, improving from 57 to 55.

2^nd Pillar: Infrastructure

The overall infrastructure in the country has deteriorated from last year, where Pakistan stands at 119 as compared to 105 last year among 148 countries. Quality of air transport (88) lost 10 points this year, however the scheduled available airline seat kilometers per week originating in country is where Pakistan has a competitiveness advantage securing 46 out of 148 countries, this depicts the governments policy to open airspace to airlines however poor performance at the part of the Civil Aviation Authority in Pakistan.

3^rd Pillar: Macroeconomic Environment

Government’s budget balance % of GDP has fallen to an alarming 138 place as compared to 125 last year; similarly the gross national savings has also dropped to 125 from 107 in 2013 and 2012 respectively.

4^th Pillar: Health and Primary Education  

Although Pakistan has lost five points on the Health and Primary Education pillar from 117 in 2012 to 128 in 2013, the country has been successful in improving its ranking on business impact of tuberculosis 120 to 114, business impact of HIV/AIDS 106 to 97 and HIV prevalence as percentage of population 12 to 11 in 2012 to 2013 respectively.

5^th Pillar Higher Education and Training

Pakistan showed improvements on the tertiary education enrolment indicator, where it moved to 121 this year from 125 in the last year. While the quality of Math and Science education dropped to an alarming 104 in 2013 from 88 in 2012, the extent of staff training has gone from bad to worst this year by securing the rank of 128.

6^th Pillar: Good Market Efficiency

On goods market efficiency pillar, the extent of market dominance has lost 12 points from 65 to 77, the effectiveness of the anti-monopoly policy has decreased from 75 to 85 and the effect of taxation on incentives to investment from 72 to 82 in this year.

The buyer sophistication has also declined from 78 to 88 in 2013, indicating a more price conscious business environment instead of quality, thus creating more space for imports from other countries for large consumptions.

The intensity of local competition has improved ranking from 85 to 79 this year, in addition to improving prevalence of trade barriers from 114 from 92 this year. However the country was successful to improve the extent of rules and regulations to encourage or discourage foreign direct investments, thus improving the business impact of rules on FDI and securing the 75 rank this year as compared to 96 last year.

7^th Pillar: Labor Market Efficiency

Labor Market Efficiency pillar has shown insights into the human resource face of the economy, the cooperation in labor-employer relations have worsened in the last one year from 90 to 105, similarly, the hiring and firing practices have slipped down from 21 to 35 this year, although keeping a competitiveness advantage in the region. The pay and productivity indicator has also fallen from 73 in 2012 to 86 in 2013.  Pakistan is also among the worst countries to include women in its workforce, ranked at 144 among the 148 countries.

8^th Pillar: Financial Market Development

Both the financial market regulators have shown great improvements, while the incumbent regulator of the securities market, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has shown significant improvements this year, improving seven points and securing the rank of 48 on the regulations of securities exchanges from 55 last year; the State Bank of Pakistan has also shown solid improvements in the soundness of the banking sector in the country. Improving to 71 this year to 85 in the last year. However this gain has not able to improve the constantly declining the state of venture capital in Pakistan, slipping down to 77.

9^th Pillar: Technological Readiness  

Pakistan has shown significance gains on the technical readiness pillar, with the availability of latest technologies (79), firm-level technology absorption (81). Improvements in the international Internet bandwidth has been a catalyst for businesses to move towards a more knowledge-based economy, with ranks gaining from 108 last year to 101 this year. While the mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 population has fallen from 121 to 126.

10^th Pillar: Market Size

Pakistan is maintaining its regional competitiveness advantage on the domestic market size index at 27

11^th Pillar: Business Sophistication

The businesses have shown restrain on delegation of authority, shown corporate insecurity from large investors to professional managements, especially in the family owned businesses, the rank fell from 94 in 2012 to 122 in 2013.

12^th Pillar: Innovation

Pakistan has shown improvements on capacity for innovation by improving 11 points and securing regional competitiveness advantage at 49. While the quality of scientific research institutions 75 and company spending on research and development 75 have been on the loss. The university-industry collaboration for research and development has been declined from 81 to 98, making industry depend on replicating instead of creating new products and services. 

The report’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) places Switzerland at the top of the ranking for the fifth year running. Singapore and Finland remain in second and third positions respectively. Germany moves up two places (4th) and the United States reverses a four-year downward trend, climbing two places to fifth. Hong Kong SAR (7th) and Japan (9th) also close the gap on the most competitive economies, while Sweden (6th), the Netherlands (8th) and the United Kingdom (10th) fall. 

The United States continues to be a world leader in bringing innovative products and services to market. Its rise in the ranking is down to a perceived improvement in the country’s financial market as well as greater confidence in its public institutions. However, serious concerns persist over its macroeconomic stability, which ranks 117 out of 148 economies.

Among the Asian economies, Indonesia jumps to 38th, making it the most improved of the G20 economies since 2006, while Korea (25th) falls by six places.  Behind Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, Japan and Taiwan (China) (12th) all remain in the top 20. Developing Asian nations display very mixed performances and trends: Malaysia places 24th while countries such as Nepal (117th), Pakistan (133rd) and Timor-Leste (138th) are near the bottom of the ranking. Bhutan (109th), Lao PDR (81st) and Myanmar (139th) join the index for the first time. 

Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Professor of Economics, Columbia University, USA, said: “The reporthighlights a shift in the narrative of the global economy from one year ago, when fire-fighting still characterized much of global and regional economic policy. This has now given way to an increasing urgency for leaders to make wide-ranging structural reforms to their economies.