Pakistan’s Entrepreneurial Potential and Private Sector Development Discussed at a Roundtable by CSIS and Mishal Pakistan

Roundtable discussion on "Private Sector Development in Pakistan" by US think tank CSIS in Lahore chaired by Ms. Sadika Hameed,
fellow with Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Mishal Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Entrepreneurial Potential and Private Sector Development Discussed at a Roundtable by CSIS and Mishal Pakistan.

“Pakistan presents a confluence of interest for both U.S. businesses and the people of Pakistan. Despite dire predictions, Pakistan’s economy has a number of structural factors that will translate investment into growth”; Sadika Hameed, Fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said at a roundtable organized by CSIS and Mishal Pakistan. Ms. Hameed is an expert on competitiveness, private sector development, political risk and frontier markets.

CSIS is carrying out a series of roundtables and interviews to discuss the entrepreneurial potential and private sector development in Pakistan. This activity will result in a report for policy makers and the business community in the United Sates and Pakistan. The businesses in both countries will also be brought together through investors conferences in Washington DC and Pakistan as well.

Representatives of political parties, the business community, education, media, and civil society attended the roundtable.

The participants also discussed and agreed on addressing international business and media perceptions of Pakistan. International news coverage and public attention centers on the threats emanating from Pakistan and the strained relationship between the U.S. and Pakistani governments. This focus obscures: first Pakistan’s tremendous economic potential, with its 180 million potential consumers, rapidly growing private sector, second, location as a shipping hub, and third, one of the most favorable demographic age distributions in the world. Investment in Pakistan presents a confluence of interest for both U.S. businesses and the people of Pakistan. Despite dire predictions, Pakistan’s economy has a number of structural factors that will translate investment into growth.

Lack of access to finance in Pakistan also presents opportunities for financial investment. A very low percentage of Pakistani small and medium enterprises (7%) have bank loans. This figure stands in contrast to 32% of SMEs in Bangladesh and 33% in India, indicating potential for growth in the commercial lending sector. From a development perspective, small and medium enterprises are more able to rapidly increase employment than large firms and their local ties ensure that they both invest and operate locally, even in the face of security threats.

Foreign investors have another reason to invest in Pakistan. As Western investors seek to hedge against market volatility, they seek to diversify their investments and reduce exposure to any one market. Recent external research has examined the potential for Africa to provide regional diversification through its low market correlations with the United States and Europe. Research by Pakistani economists indicates that the market correlation with Pakistan is even lower (around 0.05). As banks and institutional investors try to limit their exposure to risk, Pakistani investments are likely to yield good returns and could shield investors from market fluctuations elsewhere.

In the longer term, existing U.S. government institutions for promoting trade, including the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank, can change their priorities to include small and medium business growth in fragile countries, as the Ex-Im Bank has already begun to do. Such a policy could help U.S. companies invest in growing, but potentially risky countries, and at the same time further U.S. foreign policy priorities of poverty reduction and increased stability in fragile states. This approach would be especially appropriate for encouraging U.S. business growth in the commercial centers of Karachi and Lahore.

For 50 years, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has developed practical solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. CSIS scholars provide strategic insights and bipartisan policy solutions to help decision makers chart a course toward a better world.

CSIS is a bipartisan, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C.  The Center’s 220 full-time staff and large network of affiliated scholars conduct research and analysis and develop policy initiatives that look to the future and anticipate change.

5% Children in Azad Jammu & Kashmir
still out of School with remaining 95% learning
not satisfactory as well

Pakistan’s education reporting in media fairly weak:
ILM-O-AGAHI Workshop

Pakistan’s education and academia reporting within the industry is fairly weak. Alarming factors contributing to the knowledge deficit is the media’s limited exposure to real challenges of education sector in Pakistan and lack of relevant trainings in the media sector.

“Most of the issues related to education and literacy are being reported not in the right context; this not only undermines but also diminishes the importance of educational, training and child development challenges faced by the society.” This was stated by Prof. Dr. Muhammad Arif Khan, Principal Govt. Degree College Mirpur, at the inaugural session ILM-o-Agahi education journalism workshop held at Kasmir Press Club, Mirpur Azad Jammu and Kashmir today.

The ILM-o-AGAHI, one day workshop was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program). More than thirty education reporters participated in the workshop.

Speaking at the workshop, Syed Abid Hussain Shah, President, Kashmir Press Club, said that “the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative will help strengthen media institutions and create awareness on the education emergency. The initiative will facilitate sustainable literacy and educational development, providing children especially girls a better access to educational facilities.” He further said “It will encourage journalists to create narratives which enable equal access to education for all while analyzing the policy reforms within the education sector.” Media will play its role to safeguard the right of the citizens to education and better life, added Hussain.

Senior Journalist, Mubashir Zaidi conducted the training workshop and shared with the participants that, “more awareness amongst the general public on issues concerning quality and quantum of education in Pakistan is required. It is important to create dialogue on such issues fetching immediate attention of concerned authorities and stakeholders.” Zaidi told the participants the according to article 25-A of the constitution of Pakistan, “The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 5 to 16 years in such manner as may be determined by law”, 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.”

Zaheer Abbas, ASER Pakistan representative, discussed ASER’s findings on education inAJK with the Journalists during the session. He said according to the Annual Status of Education Report – ASER 2013 National Survey, fortunately, the percentage of out of school children, in AJK, is one of the lowest in the country, at 5%. However, despite this good news, the learning levels of the remaining 95% are not satisfactory.

Through the ILM-o-Agahi initiative, 18 education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters will be selected to enhance their capacity to report on identified educational challenges and issues, improve understanding and skills among journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice including children’s voice.

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.

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. 

Mishal to Conduct Nationwide Survey to Measure Pakistan’s Global Competitiveness Ranking for 2014-2015

Mishal to Conduct Nationwide Survey to Measure Pakistan’s Global Competitiveness Ranking for 2014-2015

The World Economic Forum in partnership with Mishal will conduct the Executive Opinion Surveys across Pakistan.

The World Economic Forum in partnership with Mishal Pakistan will conduct the Executive Opinion Survey 2014 in Pakistan beginning in March 2014. 

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, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan 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 2014-2015 is expected to be issues in the Q4 of 2014.

Established in 2003, Mishal Pakistan is the Partner Institute of the Global Competitiveness & Benchmarking Network, World Economic Forum. As a partner institute Mishal is working on measuring Pakistan’s performance on multiple international indices and reports including the Global Competitiveness Index/Report, Global Gender Gap Index, Global Enabling Trade Index, Global Information Technology Report - Network Readiness Index, Financial Development Index and the Global Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index.

AGAHI Awards 2014 to have special categories for Radio journalism.

AGAHI: World Radio Day: AGAHI announces special categories for AGAHI Awards 2014

AGAHI announces special categories for Radio journalists in AGAHI Awards 2014.

Radio plays an essential role in rural development in educating and in improving the livelihoods of the lesser privileged communities. – says Puruesh Chaudhary, President AGAHI.

Radio is the most effective tool in stimulating debate, to promote interest in radio journalism, AGAHI will create special categories in Radio Journalism at the upcoming AGAHI Awards 2014.

The World Radio Day is celebrated on 13th February, all over the world to sensitize journalists, radio station owners, executives and governments in developing gender-related policies and strategies for radio and building radio skills for youth radio production, with a special focus on young journalists as producers, hosts and reporters.

“Radio plays an essential role in rural development in educating and in improving the livelihoods of the lesser privileged communities. There are 12 million radio listeners, 138 commercial and 40 campus radio channels, but as the focus has been increasingly on entertainment content; there is an incredible need for developing and broadcasting content that empowers the vulnerable of the society” said Puruesh Chaudhary, President AGAHI on the World Radio Day 2014.

To promote news content and current affairs programming on radio, AGAHI aims to acknowledge and recognize quality work being produced local radio journalists. Local communities are the building block of democracy and no medium communicates with the local communities better than the radio. Radio journalists have the rare opportunity to use this medium in a very artistic and creative manner, said Murtaza Solangi, Former Director General, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation.

The AGAHI Awards are an annual series of journalism awards in Pakistan, developed under the umbrella of the Credibility Lab in collaboration with AGAHI Foundation and Mishal Pakistan, to encourage ethical and quality content. The evaluation methodology and criteria of the awards has been designed on the pillars of Media Development Indicators of UNESCO, with support from the Center for International Media Ethics (CIME) and UNESCO headquarters in Paris. AGAHI Awards were inaugurated in March 2012 and have become the most prestigious awards for the journalism industry in Pakistan.

User Generated Content Verification Handbook for Journalists Launched by the European Journalism Centre

The European Journalism Centre Releases the Verification Handbook for Journalists.

The European Journalism Centre (EJC) has released the Verification Handbook, the first ever guide for using user-generated content (UGC) during humanitarian emergencies.

Whether it is debunking images of ‘street sharks’ during Hurricane Sandy, or determining the veracity of videos that depict human rights abuses, reporting the right information is critical in shaping responses from the public and relief workers as a crisis unfolds.

By providing the exact methods needed to validate information, photos and videos shared by the crowd, the Verification Handbook forms an essential component of any organisation’s disaster preparedness plan.

The Verification Handbook draws on the experiences of practitioners from some of the world’s premier news and aid organisations, including BBC, Storyful, The Guardian, ABC, Buzzfeed UK, NHK, Poynter Institute, Digital First Media, the Tow Center, GigaOM, the Qatar Foundation’s Computing Research Institute (QCRI), the Internews Center for Innovation & Learning, OpenStreetMap, Amnesty International, Circa, Meedan, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), WITNESS, the Dart Centre Europe, and Shabab Souria.

The Media Development Trust in collaboration with Mishal Pakistan will be publishing an Urdu of the Verification Book for the journalists’ community and the media industry in Pakistan.

Three Fatima Jinnah Women University students secured “Trust Gold Medals”.

Three Fatima Jinnah Women University students secured “Trust Gold Medals”.

Media Development Trust developed the “Trust Gold Medals” to encourage more women to come in media.

The "Trust Gold Medal Award" winners Umm e Kalsoom, Ifrah Zahid and Humna Tassawar 

of Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi 

Media Development Trust in collaboration with Mishal Pakistan and AGAHI created the trust gold medals to improve more human capital in the field of media and communication. These trust gold medals are awarded to the top position holders of Media & Communication in leading journalism schools across Pakistan.

Governor Punjab and Chancellor Fatima Jinnah Women University, Chaudhary Muhammad Sarwar awarded the trust gold medals to three position holders of Communication and Media Studies department at the 13^th convocation of the university at the Convention Center, Islamabad. Addressing the students, the governor said that higher education opens unlimited vistas and possibilities of success and growth. He stressed the need for valuing time and stated that intelligence did not work alone; hard work is the key to success in practical life.

President Media Development Trust and CEO Mishal Pakistan, Amir Jahangir and President Agahi, Puruesh Chaudhary were also present at the occasion. The trust gold medals were awarded to the top position holders in Masters Program, Umm e Kalsoom and Ifrah Zahid and top position holder in bachelors program Humna Tassawar.

On this occasion President Media Development Trust and CEO Mishal Pakistan, Amir Jahangir said that Media Development Trust is working to bridge the gap between academic research institutions for a more focused approach on industry-academia collaboration. Discussing the global development scenario, he said that Pakistan unfortunately ranks at 131 in literacy rate at Global Gender Gap report of the World Economic Forum.Pakistan at 95 in enrollment in tertiary education and at 131 in labor force participation among 136 countries according to the Global Gender Gap report of the World Economic Forum. There is a dire need to develop industry-academia collaboration to improve the human capital and bridge the gender gap.

President AGAHI, Puruesh Chaudhary while sharing her views said that media’s contribution to the sustainability of functioning democracies and its potential to serve as a catalyst for human development provides the justification for the creation of Trust Gold Medals to encourage qualified workforce in the field of journalism. It is an effort to foster an enabling atmosphere in which free and independent media can flourish with plurality and diversity and to create high level of professional standards among the journalists.

Sharing her views about Trust Gold Medals, an initiative of Media Development Trust, Chairperson Communication and Media Studies Department, Dr. Shamim Mahmood Zaidi said that we are honored to be a part of industry academia collaboration with Media Development Trust and will put all its efforts to make this initiative credible and objective.

She said that the Department of Communication and Media Studies (DMCS) has been envisioned as a center of excellence for promoting media and communication studies in the country. We aim to accomplish this in a manner that can be useful for the media professionals, academic scholars, researchers, development sector, policy-makers and regulators.

Media Development Trust established in 2011 and it is third time that “trust gold medals” awarded to the Fatima Jinnah women University students. Media Development Trust is an initiative to improve industry-academia linkage through media and communication, the initiative engages leading professional and researchers in media development across the globe. Media Development Trust also creates synergies and understanding through media and communication between societies for better understanding of issues arising from cultural, social and political challenges.