Pakistan slips 3 ranks on the Global Competitiveness Report 2019 of the World Economic Forum, secures 110 position among 141 countries

• Islamabad, PK – 09 October 2019 - The World Economic Forum released the Global Competitiveness Report 2019 today. The Report has adopted a new methodology for measuring Competitiveness 4.0. by including indices which represents more knowledge and digital-based ecosystems. The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) 4.0 provides a detailed map of the factors and attributes that drive productivity, growth and human development in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The 2019 edition covers 141 economies, which account for 99% of the world’s GDP.

The World Economic Forum defines competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country. Countries can improve their investment potentials by improving their competitiveness rankings. The Global Competitiveness Report, which in 2018 used a brand new methodology to fully capture the dynamics of the global economy in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, many of the factors that will have the greatest impact in driving competitiveness in the future have never been the focus of major policy decisions in the past. These include idea generation, entrepreneurial culture, openness, and agility. The new tool maps the competitiveness landscape of 141 economies through 103 indicators organized into 12 pillars.
Amir Jahangir at the Launch of the Global Competitiveness Index 2019 Report and Pakistan's Performance on Competitiveness 4.0
Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan and the Country Partner Institute of the Future of Economic Progress System Initiative, World Economic Forum, said, “Pakistan needs to bridge the digital divide between citizens demand for governance and governments’ ability to deliver services through digital and e-governance platforms. The public policy agenda should have ICT adoption as one of the key drivers for transforming the economy to succeed in the fourth industrial revolution era.”

On the Competitiveness 4.0, Pakistan has been ranked at 110th among 141 economies, slipping three positions below from last year’s 107. Pakistan has been ranked 107 in Institutions as compared to 109 last year, It is ranked 105 in infrastructure against 93 in 2018, The ICT adoption has slipped to 131 from 127 from a year earlier. With a loss of 13 ranks the Macroeconomic stability at 116 has greatly impacted country’s competitiveness rankings, While the Health pillars at 115 in 2019 has slipped from 109 from last year. The Skills pillar has retained its position as last year at 125. Pakistan has also lost 4 ranks on the Product Market Pillar with global ranking on 126. Pakistan improved its labor market efficiency with one point by securing 120 rank among 141 economies. While the Financial Systems Pillar lost 10 ranks and rests at 99 this year, compared to 89 last years, the country improved its competitiveness advantage by securing an impressive 29 position compared to 31 in 2018. Pakistan showed its best performance on the business dynamism by improving 15 points and securing 52 among 141 economies. This gain was due to Pakistan’s improvements on time to start a business where, it improves several ranks. The country scored 79 on the innovation capability pillar compared to 75 in 2018.
In South Asia, India, in 68th position, loses ground in the rankings despite a relatively stable score, mostly due to faster improvements of several countries previously ranked lower. It is followed by Sri Lanka (the most improved country in the region at 84th), Bangladesh (105th), Nepal (108th) and Pakistan (110th).
The Global Competitiveness Index 4.0 provides a compass for thriving in the new economy of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In the present context of economic uncertainty, trade tensions, and social and environmental challenges, it is even more critical that policymakers use the comprehensive tools of competitiveness to put the world economy on a path of growing productivity, inclusion and sustainability. The report shows this win-win-win combination is possible, but we will need bolder, visionary leadership and multi-stakeholder collaboration to achieve it,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.
“What is of greatest concern today is the reduced ability of governments and central banks to use monetary policy to stimulate economic growth. This makes it all the more important that competitiveness-enhancing polices are adopted that are able to boost productivity, encourage social mobility and reduce income inequality,” said Saadia Zahidi, Head of the Centre for the New Economy and Society at the World Economic Forum.
The Global Competitiveness Report 2019 highlights the fragile economic foundations of several least developed and emerging economies, making them highly vulnerable to shocks. With extreme poverty reduction decelerating and nearly half of humanity still struggling to meet basic needs, the report is a reminder of the need for sustained, productivity-enhancing economic growth remaining critical for improved living standards.
It has also become evident that policymakers face a choice when it comes to setting the right direction for growth through the “quality” of policies and public investments to proactively address challenges such as inequality, climate change and technological divides. The perceived trade-offs between economic, social and environmental factors may emerge from a short-term and narrow view of growth but can be mitigated by adopting a holistic and longer-term approach to sustainable development.
Singapore is the world’s most competitive economy in 2019, overtaking the United States, which falls to second place. Hong Kong SAR (3rd), Netherlands (4th) and Switzerland (5th) round up the top five. The average across the 141 economies covered is 61 points, almost 40 points to the frontier. This global competitiveness gap is of even more concern as the global economy faces the prospect of a downturn. The changing geopolitical context and rising trade tensions are fuelling uncertainty and could precipitate a slowdown. However, some of this year’s better performers in the GCI appear to be benefiting from the trade feud through trade diversion, including Singapore (1st) and Viet Nam (67th), the most improved country in this year’s Index.
The Report is a reminder to national policymakers to apply a holistic approach and better balance short-term considerations against factors whose impact is felt beyond quarterly results and election cycles. For example, the results of the index show that labour and education policies have not been keeping up with the pace of innovation in most countries, including in some of the largest and most innovative economies. Governments must better anticipate the unintended consequences of technological integration and implement complementary social policies that support populations through the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Building on four decades of experience in benchmarking competitiveness, the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 4.0 is a composite indicator that assesses the set of factors that determine an economy’s level of productivity – widely considered as the most important determinant of long-term growth. The GCI 4.0 framework is built around 12 main drivers of productivity, or pillars: Institutions, Infrastructure; ICT adoption; Macroeconomic stability; Health; Skills; Product market; Labour market; Financial system; Market size; Business dynamism; and Innovation capability. It comprises 103 individual indicators distributed across the 12 pillars.
The Global Competitiveness Report is a flagship publication of the World Economic Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of the New Economy and Society. The Platform provides the opportunity to advancing prosperous, inclusive and equitable economies and societies. It focuses on co-creating a new vision in three interconnected areas: growth and competitiveness; education, skills and work; and equality and inclusion. Working together, stakeholders deepen their understanding of complex issues, shape new models and standards and drive scalable, collaborative action for systemic change.
Over 100 of the world’s leading companies and 100 international, civil society and academic organizations currently work through the Platform to promote new approaches to competitiveness in the Fourth Industrial Revolution economy; deploy education and skills for tomorrow’s workforce; build a new pro-worker and pro-business agenda for jobs; and integrate equality and inclusion into the new economy, aiming to reach 1 billion people with improved economic opportunities.
Mishal Pakistan is Pakistan’s leading strategic communication and design company. It is also the country Partner Institute of the Future of Economic Progress System Initiative, World Economic Forum. Mishal is responsible to generate primary data on more than 100 indicators measuring Pakistan’s competitiveness. Mishal’s foremost domain of activity is behavior change communication, strategic communication with a spotlight on media and perception management.

IGNITE National Technology Fund to Contribute to Pakistan Foresight Initiative

IGNITE National Technology Fund to Contribute to Pakistan Foresight Initiative

 

Strategic Partnership between AGAHI and IGNITE on Futures Research and Development to cultivate the dynamics around the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Puruesh Chaudhary, Founder-President AGAHI and Yusuf Hussain, Chief Executive Officer Ignite Sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Futures Research and Development in Pakistan.

Islamabad, August 23, 2017 – AGAHI a not-for-profit organization and the country partner of the Millennium-Project, a Global Futures Studies & Research participatory think-tank, came into mutual agreement collaborating on foresight research and development by signing a memorandum of understanding with IGNITE National Technology Fund (formerly National ICT R&D Fund Company) to spadework Pakistan’s future to lead the Fourth Industrial revolution focusing on technologies and on the ecosystem of development initiatives to fulfill its of fostering a knowledge economy in Pakistan. In a statement, Ms. Ansha Rahman Khan, Minister of State for Information Technology & Telecom said, ‘this is a critical partnership which will position Pakistan globally in terms of research and development of information communication technology sector in the country’.

The mission of AGAHI is to advance the horizon of Pakistan’s future by establishing Foresight Lab that would be responsible to generate and disseminate cutting-edge knowledge for the benefit of students, of industry, of policymakers, academia and of society. Yusuf Hussain, CEO Ignite said, AGAHI will facilitate the team by identifying emerging trends, opportunities, in developing skills and the curriculum; This strategic partnership will not only strengthen the existing programmes but will also work towards increasing awareness on the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Pakistan, one by creating a taskforce on this significant transition and two by developing a National Strategy paper on the Future of Work. The MoU signing ceremony was convened at the premises of IGNITE in Islamabad. The strategic linkage between the two organizations will provide opportunities to shape institutional transformation and thought leaders to complement the traditional department-based structures with trans-disciplinary knowledge capital, focused on identifying societal challenges and their long-term solutions.

Speaking on the occasion, co-founder Foresight Lab and Chairman, CEO Interactive Group of Companies Dr. Shahid Mahmud stressed on "how in the age of consciousness there is a dire need to develop a deeper sense of how the non-state actors in an environment where the 4^th wave is imminent will be shaping the digital, biological and physical dimensions of futures research".   

Pakistan Foresight Initiative is designed to enable decision-makers to opt for data-driven foresight approach in the policy domain. This Initiative is led by a collaborative-network of academia, think tanks, experts and professionals along with a wider community contributing to futures knowledge. Puruesh Chaudhary, the Founder and President of AGAHI country partner of the Millennium Project said, ‘this partnership with Ignite reinforces our belief in a much promising future of the country; where we’ll be encouraging not only our collaborative-network but also the global community to harness a future that ensures the happiness of the humanity’. Also present at the meeting, Ms. Farzana Yaqoob President Asia Public Policy Institute; and member Policy Network of the Foresight Lab.

The collaboration will also further, amplify the engagement of all relevant stakeholders in foresight activities to help promote broad social debates and formation of futures research programs pertinent to Pakistan’s Foresight initiative, leading to an improved understanding on the paradigm of Fourth Industrial Revolution and how it will shape the futures discourse. AGAHI with its local partners Interactive Group of Companies and Eikon7 along with other leading academic institutions are creating a model that will have the ability to track expected state of the future over time at national, provincial and district levels – that will enable decision-makers to opt for the most informed policy choice. Foresight Lab a facilitative platform engaging 20 different Pakistani universities and think tanks on developing Pakistan State of Future Index ‘Anticipating 2027’, with an aim to improve the wellbeing of the people of Pakistan.

Amir Jahangir, CEO Mishal Pakistan, Partner Institute of the World Economic Forum explained how different indicators from the work that the Forum does contribute to systems and processes globally which enhances the ability of the decision-makers in different countries; this influence is driven by intensely accumulated data insights from over a 130 different nations, Pakistan needs to leverage from such a powerful community in order to improve the quality of life of the people in the country.  The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or 4IR, is the fourth major industrial era since the initial Industrial Revolution of the 18th century. The Fourth Industrial Revolution can be described as a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, and impacting all disciplines, economies and industries. Founder and Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Prof. Klaus Schwab has associated it with the "second machine age" in terms of the effects of digitization and Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the economy, but added a broader role for advances in biological technologies.

AGAHI is a not for profit organization established in Islamabad in 2011 under the Society Registration Act 1860. Its primary function is to create non-paid communication strategies, content intelligence structures, development collaterals and tools for diverse sectors and organizations. AGAHI encourages and advises individuals and institutions in pursuing and supporting initiatives to improve the state of development in Pakistan. It works on developmental frameworks facilitating information and knowledge sharing platforms on understanding challenges in global perspective. Its research work mainly focuses on national and international security, ICT, competitiveness, human security, and governance. AGAHI in association with several leading national and international partners focuses on creating shared spaces for interactive learning, collaborative thinking, and knowledge sharing. It is at the forefront of devising foresight research and future scenarios work in Pakistan. AGAHI works with highly motivated and qualified professionals who have substantial experience in learning and leadership development.

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Pakistan Ranks 143 Among 144 Countries on the Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum.

Pakistan Ranks 143 Among 144 Countries on the Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum.

Islamabad/Geneva - 26 October 2016 - The world is facing an acute misuse of talent by not acting faster to tackle gender inequality, which could put economic growth at risk and deprive economies of the opportunity to develop, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2016, which is published today.

The report is an annual benchmarking exercise that measures progress towards parity between men and women in four areas: Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, Economic Opportunity and Political Empowerment. In this latest edition, the report finds that progress towards parity in the key economic pillar has slowed dramatically with the gap – which stands at 59% – now larger than at any point since 2008.

Iceland (1) takes the top spot for the eighth consecutive year, closing more than 87% of its overall gender gap. Followed by Finland at 2nd and Norway at the 3rd place. Nordic nations continue to rank among highest performing countries, but several developing and emerging markets have also made it into the top 20; the US falls to 45th

Pakistan at (143) remains the region’s lowest-ranked country and second-to-last ranked overall. It records progress on closing the secondary education enrolment gender gap, and on women’s estimated earned income, but this is partly offset by reversals on wage equality and female-to-male literacy ratios.

Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan, the country partner institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network, World Economic Forum said, “Pakistan remains one of the few countries in the world, which does not have female federal minister, whereas, there are only two state ministers at the centre”. He further said, “the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, each also have only one female minister in their cabinet. Balochistan remains with no female minister in its cabinet”. Jahangir further said, “Pakistan needs to concentrate more in creating enabling environment to bring its women leaders into decision making roles, both in the public as well as private sectors”.

Pakistan’s scores on the Four Pillars of the Global Gender Gap Index has not improved much from last year. Both on the Economic Participation and Opportunity Pakistan Scores at (143) and Education Attainment (135) Pakistan has not changed from last year. On Health and Survival Pilar Pakistan has improved from 125 last year to 124 in 2016. However, on the Political Empowerment, Pakistan has been ranked at 90 as compared to 87 in 2015.

Pakistan's Performance on the Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum	Rankings 2015	Rankings 2016	Change
Economic participation and opportunity	143	143	0
Labour force participation	140	139	-1
Wage equality for similar work (survey)	88	114	26
Estimated earned income (US$, PPP)	140	138	-2
Legislators, senior officials, and managers	124	122	-2
Professional and technical workers	122	119	-3
Educational attainment	135	135	0
Literacy rate	136	138	2
Enrolment in primary education	134	127	-7
Enrolment in secondary education	124	134	10
Enrolment in tertiary education	99	1	-98 methodology change
Health and survival	125	124	-1
Sex ratio at birth	1	1	0
Healthy life expectancy	131	130	-1
Political empowerment	87	90	3
Women in parliament	72	70	-2
Women in ministerial positions	141	139	-2
Years with female head of state (last 50)	26	28	2

The World Economic Forum identifies the key data on Pakistan as; Country GDP at (US$ billions) 269.97GDP per capita (constant '11 intl. $, PPP) 4,745. The total population (thousands) 188,924.87. The Population growth rate at (%) 1.97. The Population sex ratio (female/male) at 0.95 and Human capital optimization (%) 53.10.

“These forecasts are not foregone conclusions. Instead, they reflect the current state of progress and serve as a call to action to policy-makers and other stakeholders to double down on efforts to accelerate gender equality,” said Saadia Zahidi, Head of Education, Gender and Work, and Member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum.

In South Asia, with 67% of its overall gap closed, is home to two of the top 10 climbers of the world since 2006: Nepal (110) and India (87). Nevertheless, progress in closing the economic gap has been negligible and it could take over 1,000 years to close the economic gender gap fully unless efforts are accelerated.

With an average remaining gender gap of 33%, the South Asia region is the second-lowest scoring on this year’s Global Gender Gap Index, ahead of the Middle East and North Africa and behind the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Bangladesh and India are the top-ranked countries in the region, having closed just under 70% and 68% of their overall gender gap, respectively, while the lowest-ranked countries are Bhutan and Pakistan, having closed 64% and 56% of their overall gender gap, respectively. No country in the region has fully closed its Educational Attainment gender gap, and only one country, Sri Lanka, has fully closed its Health and Survival gender gap. However, the region is also home to one of the top five climbers over the past decade on the overall Index and on Educational Attainment: Nepal.



On the global front the global prospects for workplace Gender Equality has Slip to the Year 2186 now. There are several factors behind this decline; One is salary, with women around the world on average earning just over half of what men earn despite, on average, working longer hours taking paid and unpaid work into account. Another persistent challenge is stagnant labour force participation, with the global average for women standing at 54%, compared to 81% for men. The number of women in senior positions also remains stubbornly low, with only four countries in the world having equal numbers of male and female legislators, senior officials and managers, despite the fact that 95 countries now have as many – if not more – women educated at university level. In 2015, projections based on the Global Gender Gap Report data suggested that the economic gap could be closed within 118 years, or 2133. However the progress has reversed since then, having peaked in 2013.

The slow rate of progress towards gender parity, especially in the economic realm, poses a particular risk given the fact that many jobs that employ a majority of women are likely to be hit proportionately hardest by the coming age of technological disruption known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This “hollowing out” of female livelihoods could deprive economies further of women’s talents and increases the urgency for more women to enter high-growth fields such as those demanding STEM skills. “Women and men must be equal partners in managing the challenges our world faces – and in reaping the opportunities. Both voices are critical in ensuring the Fourth Industrial Revolution delivers its promise for society,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

Key Messages
The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2016 finds economic parity between the sexes could take 170 years after a dramatic slowdown in progress
Slowdown partly down to chronic imbalances in salaries and labour force participation, despite the fact that, in 95 countries, women attend university in equal or higher numbers than men
Nordic nations continue to rank among highest performing countries, but several developing and emerging markets have also made it into the top 20; the US falls to 45th

The Methodology
The Global Gender Gap Index ranks 144 countries on the gap between women and men on health, education, economic and political indicators. It aims to understand whether countries are distributing their resources and opportunities equitably between women and men, irrespective of their overall income levels. The report measures the size of the gender inequality gap in four areas:

• Economic participation and opportunity – salaries, participation and leadership
• Education – access to basic and higher levels of education
• Political empowerment – representation in decision-making structures
• Health and survival – life expectancy and sex ratio

Index scores can be interpreted as the percentage of the gap that has been closed between women and men, and allow countries to compare their current performance relative to their past performance. In addition, the rankings allow for comparisons between countries. Thirteen out of the 14 variables used to create the index are from publicly available hard data indicators from international organizations such as the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Health Organization, and one comes a perception survey conducted by the World Economic Forum.
In this year’s report, a key methodological change relates to the cap on the estimated earned income (raised from $40,000 to $75,000) to align with the UNDP’s new methodology and reflecting the change in income levels since the report’s inception in 2006.

System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Education, Gender and Work
In addition to benchmarking gender gaps through the Global Gender Gap Report series and other topical studies, the World Economic Forum’s System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Education, Gender and Work aims to ensure that talent is developed, nurtured and deployed for maximum benefit to the economy and society by mobilizing business, governments and civil society leaders to rethink education, close skills gaps, accelerate gender parity and boost employment.

Established in 2003, 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. Mishal is the country partner institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network of the World Economic Forum. Mishal’s research and capacity building initiatives have assisted and helped successive governments to improve Pakistan’s global ranking on competitiveness, gender gap, trade and information technology indices.

Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017 Ranks Pakistan at 122 among 138 countries.

Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017 Ranks Pakistan at 122 among 138 countries.

Pakistan improves four points on the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum. For the eighth consecutive year, Switzerland ranks as the most competitive economy in the world, narrowly ahead of Singapore and the United States.

Pakistan has shown some extraordinary recovery on the economic front, where the country has been successful in improving its macroeconomic framework to improve its global competitiveness.

Pakistan is classified as a factor driven economy, which basically depends on improving its institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, health and primary education indicators. Pakistan improved from 119 to 111 on the institutions pillars, while infrastructure improved only one point and stands at 116 this year. On the Macroeconomic Stability Pillar Pakistan jumped from 128 in 2015 to 116. A solid 12 points gain, which shows the country has made economic progress on gross national savings percentage of GDP, where Pakistan improved from 115 in 2015 to 107 this year. While the government debt percentage to GDP also ranks at 95 among 138 economies in the world. The biggest gain however is in the area of inflation; annual percentage change where Pakistan moved from 127 in 2015 to 93 in 2016.

On other pillars, among 138 countries, Pakistan ranks at Health and Primary Education 128, Higher Education and Training 123, Goods Market Efficiency 117, Labour Market Efficiency 129, Financial Market Sophistication 107, Technological Readiness 119, Market Size 29, Business Sophistication 95 and Innovation 75.

Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan, the Country Partner Institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network of the World Economic Forum said, “Pakistan has shown improvements on some of the key indicators to improve its global competitiveness, however the country still needs to integrate itself into the digital and cyber world. Pakistan with approx. 186 million population offers great prospects if data and knowledge-based policy making is introduced in the country”. He further said, “decision making based on big-data can enable the governments to engage their citizens in policy making and democratization of development process. In the fourth industrial revolution Pakistan can make a larger digital footprint in the cyber world, thus making its mark on the global policy making, however the country needs to equip its next generation with education and knowledge through digital services and mobile broadband”.

This year among 114 global competitiveness indicators, Pakistan showed improvements on 54 key indices, whereas on 50 indices the country lost its previous position. While 10 indices remained same as last year.
   

Pakistan at 122, ranks last amongst its South Asian neighbors, where India leads at 39 followed by Sri Lanka 71, Bhutan 97, Nepal 98 and Bangladesh at 106. South Asia continues its upward trend as competitiveness improves in most countries in the region. India has been the best performer, climbing to 39th from 55th last year. Over the past decade, the subcontinent has focused on improving overall health and primary education levels and upgrading available infrastructure, areas of particular importance given the resource-driven nature of its economy. However, the latter remains the second weakest spot in the region, just after technological readiness.

To improve the soft-data on Pakistan, the World Economic Forum closely worked with Mishal Pakistan, the country partner institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network of WEF. This year a total of 350 respondents from the business community were reached out through the annual Executive Opinion Survey, whereas 114 were selected from last year and 236 from this year. The World Economic Forum reached out to 14,000 business executives globally.

The report also shows performance of some of the key regulatory bodies and other government institutions, which have shown progress as well. Among 138 countries the institutions are ranked as following: Intellectual Property Organization (109), Judicial Independence (88), Police Services (118), Auditor General of Pakistan Revenues (121), National Highways Authority (77), Pakistan Railways (53), Civil Aviation Authority (91), NEPRA (121), Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (115), National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (97), Competition Commission of Pakistan (96), Pakistan Customs (113), State Bank of Pakistan among other 138 Central Banks at (101), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan at (106) and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (135). The SEC of Pakistan has been losing its global ranking at an alarming rate from 51 in 2014 to 106 this year. 

 

The report also indicates that a ten-year decline in the openness of economies at all stages of development poses a risk to countries’ ability to grow and innovate, according to The Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017. The report is an annual assessment of the factors driving productivity and prosperity in 138 countries. The degree to which economies are open to international trade in goods and services is directly linked to both economic growth and a nation’s innovative potential. The trend, which is based on perception data from Global Competitiveness Index (GCI)’s Executive Opinion Survey, is gradual and attributed mainly to a rise in non-tariff barriers although three other factors are also taken into account; burdensome customs procedures; rules affecting FDI and foreign ownership. It is most keenly felt in the high and upper middle income economies.

“Declining openness in the global economy is harming competitiveness and making it harder for leaders to drive sustainable, inclusive growth,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum.

The report also sheds light on why quantitative easing and other monetary policy measures have been insufficient in reigniting long-term growth for the world’s advanced economies. The report finds that interventions by economies with comparatively low GCI scores failed to generate the same effect as those performed in economies with high scores, suggesting that strong underlying competitiveness is a key requirement for successful monetary stimulus.

The report offers insight into how priorities may be shifting for nations in earlier stages of development. While basic drivers of competitiveness such as infrastructure, health, education and well-functioning markets will always be important, data in the GCI suggests that a nation’s performance in terms of technological readiness, business sophistication and innovation is now as important in driving competitiveness and growth. The Global Competitiveness Report’s competitiveness ranking is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), which was introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2005. Defining competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country, GCI scores are calculated by drawing together country-level data covering 12 categories – the pillars of competitiveness – that collectively make up a comprehensive picture of a country’s competitiveness. The 12 pillars are: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation. 

 Key Findings:

• The Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017 finds declining openness is threatening growth and prosperity.
• Monetary stimulus measures such as quantitative easing are not enough to sustain growth and must be accompanied by competitiveness reforms.
• For emerging economies, updated business practices and investment in innovation are now as important as infrastructure, skills and efficient markets.
• Switzerland, Singapore and the United States remain the world’s most competitive economies; India is the highest rising economy, climbing 16 places
• Access the full report, infographics, videos and more visit: weforum.org

Despite challenging environment Pakistan offers relatively efficient border administration for enabling trade

Despite challenging environment Pakistan offers relatively efficient border administration for enabling trade. 

Global Enabling Trade Report 2014, World Economic Forum

Failure to Tackle Trade Reforms Puts Social and Economic Progress at Risk. Pakistan Ranks at 114 among 138 Countries on the Enabling Trade Index of the World Economic Forum.

The report’s Enabling Trade Index indicates that the world’s large emerging economies face enormous challenges as they seek to enable trade and progress to the next stage of their development. Barriers to trade are holding back the global economic recovery. Many governments are still failing to enact sometimes-straightforward reforms that could have a far-reaching effect on growth and social progress, according to The Global Enabling Trade Report (GETR).

Pakistan has been ranked at 114 among the 138 countries being evaluated on the Global Trade Enabling Index of the World Economic Forum. There are number of challenges in Pakistan’s economy which effects country’s performance on Global Enabling Trade Index. However despite challenging environment Pakistan offers relatively efficient border administration systems for enabling trade with Pakistan.

“Pakistan’s performance on the four sub-indices is also reflective of its integration into the global trade, where Pakistan has been ranked as 128 on Market Access, 71 on Border Administration, 95 on the Transport and Communications Infrastructure and 123 on the Business Environment”, this was revealed by Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan, a country partner institute of the World Economic Forum.

“After several difficult years trying to advance the Doha Round, the Bali package, with the Trade Facilitation Agreement at its centre, provides a much-needed window to focus on eliminating the practical obstacles to trade. In this light, we believe the report’s unique measurements will help leaders to identify successful policies and areas for improvement,” said Espen Barth Eide, Managing Director, World Economic Forum.

In the SAARC region, Pakistan outperformed Bangladesh and Nepal at 115 and 116 respectively on the Global Trade Enabling Index but lacked behind Sri Lanka (84), India (96) and Bhutan (107).

 

Among the BRICs, China, the world’s largest exporter, ranks 54th out of 138 economies, a few notches ahead of South Africa (59th).  Brazil (86th), India (96th) and the Russian Federation (105th) achieve disappointing performances, appearing in the bottom half of the ranking. Turkey (56th) leads the MINT group, ahead of Indonesia (58th) and Mexico (61st).  Nigeria (124th) is near the bottom.

Common barriers to trade in the developing and emerging world include red tape at borders, corruption, inadequate infrastructure, and low levels of security. Among advanced economies, most apply low import tariffs, but some, such as Switzerland, Norway and EU members, have complex tariff regimes that are hard to navigate.

The good news is that some of these barriers, such as inefficiencies related to border clearance, can be removed relatively quickly, at a low cost and using limited political capital. The Report points to a number of success stories ranging from Chile (8th), to Malaysia (25th) and Mauritius (29th) that have been able to considerably improve their standing through targeted reforms and investments.

The Global Enabling Trade Report 2014 assesses the performance of 138 economies, in four areas: market access; border administration; infrastructure; and the operating environment. At the top end of the scale, the Index shows Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, and the Netherlands as the most successful countries in terms of enabling trade.

The assessment is based on the Enabling Trade Index, a methodology that measures the extent to which economies have in place institutions, policies, infrastructures and services facilitating the free flow of goods over borders and to their destination. These trade-enabling factors are organized in seven pillars: 1) domestic market access; 2) foreign market access; 3) efficiency and transparency of border administration; 4) availability and quality of transport infrastructure; 5) availability and quality of transport services; 6) availability and use of ICTs; and 7) operating environment. For this fifth edition of the report, the framework has been improved and enriched with a number of new indicators.To measure these various aspects, a total of 56 individual indicators were sourced from various international organizations, including the International Trade Centre, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Bank, as well as World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey. The Executive Opinion Survey is done by Mishal Pakistan in close collaboration with WEF in Pakistan. Other data partners include the Global Express Association.These findings will be discussed at a special session at the World Economic Forum on Latin America, which takes place in Panama, 1-3 April.

The Global Enabling Trade Report 2014 is part of the World Economic Forum’s Enabling Trade programme, supported by the Forum’s Supply Chain & Transport Industry Partnership community, which includes A.P. Möller Maersk, AB Volvo, Agility, Brambles Limited, Brightstar Corp., Deutsche Post DHL, DNB ASA, Emirates Group, International Container Terminal Services Inc., Royal Vopak, Stena AB, Swiss International Airlines Ltd, Transnet SOC Ltd, UPS and Volkswagen AG.

MISHAL launches Education Advocacy Program, “ILM-o-AGAHI”

MISHAL launches Education Advocacy Program, “ILM-o-AGAHI”

Every child has the right of free education in Pakistan, but only 59% children enrolled in schools.

Mishal Pakistan has launched ‘ILM-o-AGAHI’ Education Advocacy Program to sensitize the media and policy makers to build consensus on priority education issues. Under the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, Mishal will conduct education journalism workshops for reporters and editors responsible for education related content. Round table meetings and provincial level education conferences will create consensus among the stakeholders to highlight education issues among media, educationists, policy-makers and legislators. This fourteen month long activity is being funded by Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program).

According to Article 25-A of the constitution of Pakistan, “it is the right of every child to have free education and the government to provide free education to every child”, however according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan (2011-12) only 59% of children have been enrolled in schools across Pakistan.

Asif Farooqui, Program Manager, ILM-o-AGAHI, while discussing the salient features of the initiative said that, a learning platform for journalists on education would be developed as a ready reference for journalists working on education related issues. He further said, “Mishal is also introducing special categories on education journalism in the upcoming annual journalism “AGAHI Awards 2014” to promote education journalism in Pakistan.”

Through the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, a series of education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters. The workshops aims to increase the capacity of journalists and improve coverage on education related issues in media. 30 education reporters will be selected to participate in each workshop, to enhance their understanding on the key education issues identified in this initiative and build the skill-set of journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice when reporting on the aforementioned issues.

These education journalism workshops will be held in Islamabad, Peshawar, D.I. Khan, FATA, Lahore, Multan, Bahawalpur, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Quetta, Mirpur and Muzaffarabad in Azad Jammu and Kashmir throughout March and April 2014.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education. 

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.