INNDEVCOM: Promoting entrepreneurial growth in Pakistan

INNDEVCOM: Promoting entrepreneurial growth in Pakistan

Promoting entrepreneurial growth in Pakistan

Entrepreneurs seek Government support for creating an enabling environment fostering entrepreneurial culture

Celebrating the Global Entrepreneurship Week, twenty prominent Pakistani entrepreneurs, government officials and academic leaders gathered at a round-table meeting on ‘Creating an Enabling Environment for Entrepreneurship to Grow’ in Islamabad today. Panellists explored ways to promote entrepreneurial growth in Pakistan, emphasizing that entrepreneurs have the potential to create solutions that can transform Pakistan and generate new jobs for millions of young graduates entering the workforce.

The event culminates ‘Global Entrepreneurship Week’ and follows six days of workshops for emerging Pakistani entrepreneurs on how to start and grow a successful business.  The workshops were facilitated by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and held at Abasyn University from November 10 to 15.

After avoiding the collapse of the global financial and economic system, governments around the world are now focused on building a foundation for future growth. In addition to safeguarding the economic recovery, the world is facing a number of transformative challenges, such as an increasing scarcity of natural resources, significant demographic shifts, and the environmental and social implications of climate change.

In dealing with these challenges, governments have taken an increasingly strong interest in entrepreneurship. Speaking on the occasion, Amir Jahangir, Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and CEO Mishal Pakistan, said “Entrepreneurs are recognized as important drivers of economic and social progress, and rapidly growing entrepreneurial enterprises are viewed as important sources of innovation, employment and productivity growth”. Some of the most influential enterprises of our time began relatively recently as small entrepreneurial ventures, he further added.

The participants emphasized the need for the capacity building of the media on creating Entrepreneurship as a new beat in Pakistan. They emphasized the importance of a media fund, which can encourage young entrepreneurs and journalists to create more relevant content on entrepreneurship. The initiative would also be able to create a new breed of mediapreneurs and journalists to understand and report on the opportunities and challenges of being an entrepreneur in Pakistan.

Speaking about ‘Global Entrepreneurship Week,’ Muhammad Farrukh Mahmood, co-founder of Moftak Solutions, said, “We are thankful to the U.S. Embassy for giving us the opportunity to hear from Pakistan’s leading entrepreneurs about the challenges they face in starting and running a business.  The workshops this week helped to bridge the gap between industry and academia, and inspired youth to become entrepreneurs to contribute to the growth of this country."

Many recent public discussions have addressed the challenges that entrepreneurs face in Pakistan. The roundtable moved the discussion to the next level by developing a concrete set of recommendations to the Government of Pakistan on how to overcome the challenges and improve the business environment in Pakistan.

Panellists focused their discussions on the pivotal role of Pakistan’s private sector in spurring job creation.  Were an entrepreneurship ecosystem to take root, panellists said, Pakistan’s economic growth could accelerate.

Many governments are therefore trying to actively promote entrepreneurship through various forms of support. The World Economic Forum has been actively engaging early-stage and later-stage high-growth companies for many years through its Technology Pioneers programme and its community of Global Growth Companies.

Creating Enabling Environment for Entrepreneurship to Grow in Pakistan - Key Recommendations for action:

• Triple helix” entrepreneurial ecosystem components: industry, academia and government);
• Changing policies, laws and regulations to make it easy for startups;
• Improving access to finance—equity, debt and venture capital—and use of movable assets as collateral;
• Removing instruments of rent-seeking , which dwindle resources available for entrepreneurs;
• Building growth cities – urban development in line with the new growth strategy;
• Developing and managing brand, guarantees, warrantees/returns;
• Embedding entrepreneurship in education and business incubations;
• Releasing the energy of the domestic sector;
• Developing Science and Technology policy and its implementation;
• Engendering entrepreneurship;
• Role of intellectual property rights (IPR), including protection of trademarks, websites, copyrights and patents.

Pakistan faces tough challenges on developing its ...

Pakistan faces tough challenges on developing its financial sector:

Pakistan faces tough challenges on developing its financial markets Pakistan ranks at 58 out of 62 economies in the Financial Development Index 2012, World Economic Forum.

Pakistan faces tough challenges on developing its financial markets

Pakistan ranks at 58 out of 62 economies in the Financial Development Index of 2012, losing 3 points from its position of 55 in 2011. The Financial Development Report 2012 depicts commercial and retail access to finance shrinking in Pakistan.

Financial systems across the world are stagnating, leading to challenges for a global economic recovery, according to the fifth edition of the World Economic Forum’s Financial Development Report 2012 released today.

“The Financial Development Report shows that financial systems in advanced and emerging economies are stalling”, said Giancarlo Bruno, Senior Director at the World Economic Forum. “Macroeconomic uncertainty, as well as concerns related to regulation, contributes to inhibiting the financial industry from funding much-needed growth.”

Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer - Mishal Pakistan, a country partner institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Performance, World Economic Forum said that “the Financial Development Report 2012 ranks 62 of the world’s leading financial systems and capital markets, analysing the drivers of financial system development in advanced and emerging economies to serve as a tool for countries to benchmark themselves and establish priorities for reform”. The rankings are based on more than 120 variables spanning institutional and business environments, financial stability, and size and depth of capital markets, among other factors, he added.

Top 10 performers on the Financial Development Index 2012 

Pakistan continues to show stability on the Financial Development Index of the World Economic Forum on the indicators; cost of closing a business, where the rank of 5 was maintained, also showing stability in frequency of banking crises and output loss during banking crises, Pakistan again secured the top rank of 1 among 62 economies; similarly on the public ownership of banks, which is a percentage of assets held by the 10 largest banks that is located in banks that are more than 25 percent government owned, Pakistan again secured the top rank of 1.

The Report also shows an improvement in the total number of active borrowers from microfinance institutions per 1,000 adults, where Pakistan has improved its position of 12 in 2011 to 9^th in 2012. 

Pakistan has shown slight improvements on the strength of auditing and reporting standards, where it is ranked 48 in 2012 as compared to 52 in 2011.

On the pillar of legal and regulatory issues Pakistan has shown significant gains, by improving the burden of government regulations, securing 21 rank as compared to 32 last year. The regulation of securities exchanges has also improved 5 points with a rank of 37 out of 62 economies globally.

The current account balance to GDP, a variable, which is the three-year average of current account balance to GDP, indicates the difficulty Pakistan had in mobilizing the foreign exchange necessary for debt service (from 2009 to 2011) has also improved from 53 last year to 40 in the current year.

The economy has also shown improvements in the “aggregate profitability indicator”, which is based on a three-year average of three measures of profitability: net interest margin, bank return on assets, and bank return on equity, this was measured on an average from 2008 to 2010, Pakistan improved 8 points on this, securing 41 rank on the Financial Development Index 2012.

Other area where Pakistan showed improvement of 14 ranks was the real growth of direct insurance premiums, where Pakistan stands at 30^th rank.

However Pakistan showed discouraging performance on various key indicators, where it lost it development advantage on multiple factors, whereas; intellectual property protection (53) and effectiveness of law-making bodies (47) as compared to 48 and 43 from last year.

The distortive effect of taxes and subsidies on competition, which is to what extent does government subsidies and tax breaks distort competition, Pakistan lost its rank from 46 in 2011 to 53 in 2012.

In terms of internet users, Pakistan has seen a decline in its internet penetration, where it lost its position of 54 to 61 as compared to 2011 and 2012 respectively.

On the external vulnerability indicator, which is the sum of several measures of external exposure as a percentage of foreign exchange reserves, Pakistan has lost an alarming 14 points and it stands at 20 in 2012. However Pakistan still maintains a development advantage in this area.

Whereas the world has shown improvements in the banking system, such as Tier 1 capital ratios and non-performing loans to total loans, Pakistan has declined in these two indicators, securing 26 and 57 out of 62 economies in 2012.

The decline in deposit money bank assets to GDP (52); the private credit to GDP which is a variable showing private credit by deposit-money banks and other financial institutions as a percentage of GDP also declined from 48 in 2011 to 56 in 2012.

The Financial Development Report (FDR) shows an alarming increase in banks overhead costs, which is the bank overhead costs as a percentage of total assets has increased from the rank of 22 in 2011 to 45 in 2012, impacting a probable profitability of the banks in the coming years.

On the equity market development pillar Pakistan has shown discouraging performance, where stock market capitalization to GDP has slipped from 43 to 50, stock market value traded to GDP from 33 to 43 and Pakistan’s rank on number of listed companies per 10,000 people has dropped from 36 to 43.

The worst news for Pakistan on the FDR is the commercial and retail access finance, where ease of access to credit has been deteriorated to 43 from 30 last year; similarly ease of access to loan has also become difficult, where the Report has ranked it 40 this year as compared to 28 in 2011.   

The market penetration of bank accounts, which is the number of commercial bank accounts per 100,000 adults has also declined 19 points in 2012, where Pakistan stands at 59 now, simultaneously debit card penetration has also lost development advantage from a rank of 37 in 2011 to 59 in 2012, showing staleness on part of the growth in the banking system in Pakistan.

On the global front, the Report shows that liquidity appears to be stabilizing in a number of top economies, as highlighted by the fact that turnover velocity rebounded in 2011, moving closer to 2006 levels. However, such gains are offset by considerably weaker domestic market capitalization levels across the world’s stock exchanges.

Topping the Index, Hong Kong SAR came in 1st for a second consecutive year as a result of benefits from a large and efficient banking system, well-developed infrastructure and robust equity markets. Despite these strengths, Hong Kong has a relatively underdeveloped bond market and its financial sector has yet to be fully liberalized.

The United States and the United Kingdom also remain in the same positions as last year, 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Both countries have highly developed financial markets, particularly their foreign exchange and derivatives markets, but they struggle with relatively inefficient banking systems. Banking system stability and currency stability are also areas of weakness. The US, however, has more developed equity and bond markets, while the United Kingdom has stronger corporate governance and legal and regulatory mechanisms. Japan and Switzerland each moved up one spot to 7th and 8th space overall. Both countries have improved the size and efficiency of their banking and financial services and have shown improvements in their legal and regulatory framework.

Mishal Pakistan is the country partner institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Performance, World Economic Forum. 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 in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

The Financial Development Report 2012

Pakistan Loses its Competitiveness on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013

Pakistan Loses its Competitiveness on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013

Falls 6 points on the Global Competitiveness Ranking, 124 among 144 economies

Pakistan has been ranked among bottom 20 of the 144 economies around the world in The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013, released today by the World Economic Forum.

According to the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2012-13, Pakistan lacks a long-term view of competitiveness. The level of corruption and poor governance are some of the factors slowing down Pakistan’s economic growth, therefore ranking Pakistan at 124 among 144 other countries on the index. The World Economic Forum ranks countries on more than 100 economic indicators comparing 144 countries.

Klaus Schwab,
Founder and Executive Chairman,
World Economic Forum 

“Persisting divides in competitiveness across regions and within regions, particularly in Europe, are at the origin of the turbulence we are experiencing today, and this is jeopardizing our future prosperity.” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum. “We urge governments to act decisively by adopting long-term measures to enhance competitiveness and return the world to a sustainable growth path.”

Pakistan’s secured ranking on 12 pillars: institutions (115), infrastructure (116), macroeconomic environment (139), Health and Primary Education (117) Higher Education and Training (124), Goods Market Efficiency (97), Labor Market Efficiency (130) Financial Market Development (73), Technological Readiness (118), Market Size (30), Business Sophistication (78) and Innovation (77).

Amir Jahangir
Chief Executive Officer
Mishal Pakistan,
Young Global Leader,
World Economic Forum

‘Pakistan has lost its competitive advantage almost on all the pillars of the competitiveness index except for in Health, Primary Education and Labor market Efficiency’ says Amir Jahangir Chief Executive Officer Mishal Pakistan, countrypartner for the Center of Global Competitiveness and Performance at the World Economic Forum. Further adding, although Pakistan showed good performance on the innovation and sophistication pillars, but on the factors for basic requirements and efficiency enhancer pillars Pakistan continues to show poor performance.

The Pakistani business community has identified Corruption as the most problematic factor for doing business in the country. The report indicates that Pakistan has failed to come up with effective regulations on intellectual property protection, where the country lost its position of 93 to 108 from 2011 to 2012 respectively. Poor governance in terms of favoritism in decision-making (129) and wastefulness of government spending (96) have also shown significant decline in rankings. The Efficiency of Legal Framework in Challenging Regulations has also impacted the competiveness of Pakistan’s economy as it has declined from 79 in 2011 to 97 in 2012.

The law and order situation has been a serious threat to the economic activities, with war on terror and other target killing issues impacting throughout the year, the Reliability of Police Service has gone to 127 in the current year as compared to 116 in the last year. 

On the Macroeconomic Pillar the government’s performance has been weak with the budget balance ranking (% of GDP) deteriorating from 108 to 125 from 2011 to 2012 respectively. The general government debt has also seen poor performance as it has lost 11 points from last year, by being ranked at 107 in the current year.

Although Pakistan ranked 41 in 2011 on the Tax Collection Efficiency index, however the economy has lost its competitive advantage due to decline in 2012 by ranking to 59, limitations on the ease of access to loans and venture capital availability, where Pakistan stands at 65 and 55 respectively.

The labor market efficiency pillar shows a decline in the cooperation between labor and employer relations whereas the rank has slipped from 80 to 90. The GCR also identifies that the businesses in Pakistan are shying away from reliance on professional management as the ranking has decreased from 88 to 101.

  

Although Pakistan has seen some improvement on the broadband usage, but the individual internet usage has declined, ranking the country at 120 in 2012 from 98 in 2011. The government’s procurement of advanced tech products has not been a priority where it showed deterioration from 91 to 109 this year as compared to last year.

The state of cluster development has also been neglected and reflects in the report where the rank has plunged from 48 to 62. The commercialization of research has not been a priority in Pakistan, where the industry university collaboration has also seen negative fall from 69 to 81.

Nonetheless, Pakistan has also shown some positive indicators on improving its competitiveness, where the burden of government regulation has improved from 76 in 2011 to 62 this year, similarly the transparency of government policy making has also been improved from ranking of 119 to 109. The country credit rating index has also improved from 123 this year to 116 compared to last year.

The economy has shown flexibility in the hiring and firing practices where it has improved the rank from 33 last year to 21 this year. The pay and productivity index has also shown gains where Pakistan has improved 13 points and ranks at 73.

The report has shown significant improvements on the performance of the Securities and Exchange Commission, where Pakistan has shown improvements on the regulations of securities exchanges by being ranked 55 as compared to 70 last year.

Switzerland, for the fourth consecutive year, tops the overall rankings in The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 Singapore remains in second position and Finland in third position, overtaking Sweden (4th). These and other Northern and Western European countries dominate the top 10 with the Netherlands (5th), Germany (6th) and United Kingdom (8th). The United States (7th), Hong Kong (9th) and Japan (10th) complete the ranking of the top 10 most competitive economies.

Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 
Professor of Economics,
Columbia University, USA 

Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Professor of Economics, Columbia University, USA, said: “The Global Competitiveness Index provides a window on the long-term trends that are shaping the competitiveness of the world’s economies. In this light, we believe it offers useful insight into the key areas where countries must act if they are to optimize the productivity that will determine their economic future.”

The report indicates that Switzerland and countries in Northern Europe have been consolidating their strong competitiveness positions since the financial and economic downturn in 2008. On the other hand, countries in Southern Europe, i.e. Portugal (49th), Spain (36th), Italy (42nd) and particularly Greece (96th) continue to suffer from competitiveness weaknesses in terms of macroeconomic imbalances, poor access to financing, rigid labour markets and an innovation deficit.

Despite growing its overall competitiveness score, the United States continues its decline for the fourth year in a row, falling two more places to seventh position. In addition to the burgeoning macroeconomic vulnerabilities, some aspects of the country’s institutional environment continue to raise concern among business leaders, particularly the low public trust in politicians and a perceived lack of government efficiency. On a more positive note, the US still remains a global innovation powerhouse and its markets work efficiently.

The large emerging market economies (BRICS) displayed different performances. Despite a slight decline in the rankings of three places, the People’s Republic of China (29th) continues to lead the group. Of the others, only Brazil (48th) moves up this year, with South Africa (52nd), India (59th) and Russia (67th) experiencing small declines in rankings.

In the Middle East and North Africa, Qatar (11th) leads the region while Saudi Arabia remains among the top 20 (18th). The United Arab Emirates (24th) improves its performance while Kuwait (37th) slightly declines. Morocco (70th) and Jordan (63rd) improve slightly. In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa (52nd) and Mauritius (54th) feature in the top half of the rankings. However, most countries in the region continue to require efforts across the board to improve their competitiveness.

The Global Competitiveness Report’s competitiveness ranking is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), which was first developed for the World Economic Forum by Sala-i-Martin, a co-author of this year’s report, in 2004. 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 public and private data around 12 key categories – the pillars of competitiveness – that together make up a comprehensive picture of a country’s competitiveness.

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 agendas.

Read the Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 at http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-competitiveness

Global Information Technology Report Highlights Emergence of a New Digital Divide

Global Information Technology Report Highlights Emergence of a New Digital Divide

• The 11th edition of The Global Information Technology Report 2012: Living in a Hyperconnected World was launched today with a special focus on the transformational impacts of ICT on the economy and society.
• The report’s evolved framework introduces a new set of impact-oriented metrics to measure networked readiness on country competitiveness.
• Sweden ranks first among 142 economies, followed by Singapore and Finland; the Nordic countries lead the ICT revolution.
• The United States, ranked 8th, benefits from strong ICT infrastructure, but weaknesses in the political and regulatory environment hinder its overall performance.
• Despite recent improvements in overall competitiveness rankings, the BRICS, led by China at 51st, lag behind more advanced economies.
• Read the full report, watch interviews, access data and other materials at www.weforum.org/gitr.

Despite efforts over the past decade to develop information and communications technologies (ICT) infrastructure in developing economies, a new digital divide in terms of ICT impacts persists, according to the latest rankings of The Global Information Technology Report 2012: Living in a Hyperconnected World, released today by the World Economic Forum.

Sweden (1st) and Singapore (2nd) top the rankings in this year’s report in leveraging information and communications technologies to boost country competitiveness. Switzerland (5th), the Netherlands (6th), the United States (8th), Canada (9th) and the United Kingdom (10th) also show strong performances in the top 10.

However, ICT readiness in sub-Saharan Africa is still low, with most countries showing significant lags in connectivity due to insufficient development of ICT infrastructure, which remains too costly, and displaying poor skill levels that do not allow for an efficient use of the available technology. Even in those countries where ICT infrastructure has been improved, ICT-driven impacts on competitiveness and well-being trail behind, resulting in a new digital divide.

Despite improvements in many drivers of competitiveness, the BRICS countries – led by China (51st) – still face important challenges to more fully adopt and leverage ICT. An insufficient skills base and institutional weaknesses, especially in the business environment, present a number of shortcomings that stifle entrepreneurship and innovation.

With a record coverage of 142 economies worldwide, the report remains the most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on competitiveness and the well-being of nations. After a two-year review process, the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) featured in the report has evolved to ensure that it captures the main drivers of a rapidly changing ICT industry and remains relevant for public- and private-sector decision-makers.

The NRI has increased its focus on the impacts of ICT to better align with areas of public policy. It has added new, relevant indicators such as mobile broadband subscriptions, and dropped other outdated indicators.

“The Networked Readiness Index (NRI) has been adopted by several governments as a valuable tool for assessing and leveraging technology for competitiveness and development. The success of the NRI emphasizes the importance of continuing to evolve its framework with the changing landscape of technology and the new opportunities it creates,” said Soumitra Dutta, Roland Berger Professor of Business and Technology at INSEAD, a co-editor of the report. “To measure this impact effectively, we have introduced a new set of impact-oriented metrics this year that assess not just the availability of technology, but also the ways in which economies put that technology to greater use. Considering how ICT has become omnipresent, the focus has moved from access to making the best use of ICT in order to improve business innovation, governance, citizens’ political participation and social cohesion,” added Dutta.

Under the theme Living in a Hyperconnected World, the report explores the causes and consequences of living in an environment where the Internet is accessible and immediate; people and businesses can communicate instantly; and machines are interconnected. The exponential growth of mobile devices, big data and social media is a driver of this process of hyperconnectivity and, consequently, fundamental transformations in all areas of society are being witnessed. This year’s report tracks how societies leverage ICT to derive important competitive advantages and increase social well-being.

“Hyperconnectivity is redefining relationships between individuals, consumers and enterprises, citizens and state, and we are beginning to see fundamental transformations in all areas of the economy and society,” said Robert Greenhill, Chief Business Officer, World Economic Forum. “Traditional organizations and industry infrastructures are facing challenges as industries converge. This will inevitably have consequences for policy and regulation as regulators will have to mediate the blurring lines between sectors and industries and will be obligated to oversee more facets in a pervasive way,” he added.

“We believe that in an emerging era of hyperconnectivity, ICT will enable a bold new chapter that is entwined with the sustained growth of the global economy,” said Sun Yafang, Chairwoman of the Board, Huawei Technologies. ”The importance of ICT goes beyond its role as a driver of future economic growth as smart devices and cloud services continue to become a greater part of our daily lives. By strategically integrating ICT as part of overall economic growth plans, countries are in a better position to capitalize on the hyperconnected global economy and increase competitiveness on a global scale.”

“Digital applications offer unprecedented potential for economic, social and political development,” said Karim Sabbagh, Senior Partner and Global Head of Communication, Media and Technology Practice at Booz & Company. “Policy-makers need to be aware of both growth and transformational opportunities, and how they can craft policies that promote ubiquitous digitization in a timely manner. They must facilitate the creation of new models enabled by digitization at a faster pace than the old models are breaking down,” he added.

The report is the result of a long-standing partnership between the World Economic Forum and INSEAD, a leading international business school, within the framework of the Forum’s Industry Partnership Programme – particularly its Information Technologies & Telecommunications Industry Team – and the Centre for Global Competitiveness and Performance.

The Networked Readiness Index 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, a network of over 150 leading research institutes and business organizations. This survey of over 15,000 executives provides insight into areas critical for networked readiness.

The presentation of the NRI rankings is followed by contributions by academics and industry experts, exploring the drivers and consequences for individuals, businesses and governments of living in a hyperconnected world, including:

1. Convergence of ICT
2. Issues in a hyperconnected world, with a focus on the role of regulation
3. Network neutrality
4. Increasing importance of mobile broadband to empower individuals
5. Cost of broadband
6. Role of in-memory technology and analytics to harness the power of big data
7. Role of real-time analytics to make sense of big data
8. Value of digital traces for commercial strategy and public policy
9. The promise and perils of hyperconnectivity for organizations and societies
10. Maximizing the impact of digitization
11. Effect of technology in education

In addition, two policy case studies highlighting efforts to develop and spread the positive effects of ICT in Azerbaijan and Mauritius are covered.

The report contains detailed country profiles for the 142 economies featured in the study, providing a snapshot of each economy’s level of ICT uptake and economic and social impacts. Also included is an extensive section of data tables for the 53 indicators used in the computation of the index.

The editors of the report are Soumitra Dutta, Roland Berger Professor of Business and Technology, INSEAD, and Beñat Bilbao, Associate Director and Economist, Centre for Global Competitiveness and Performance, World Economic Forum.

World Economic Forum ranks Pakistan at 102, dropping 14 points on the Global Information Technology Report 2012

World Economic Forum ranks Pakistan at 102, dropping 14 points on the Global Information Technology Report 2012.

Mishal Pakistan in partnership with the Center for Global Competitiveness and Performance, World Economic Forum releases Pakistan’s ranking on the Global Information Technology Report, measuring the Network Readiness Index of 142 economies over 10 different pillars.

The lack of seriousness from the government of Pakistan reflects in the 11^th Global Information Technology Report 2012 of the World Economic Forum. According to the Report, the Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology being headed by Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Prime Minister of Pakistan; shows lack of efficiency and poor governance at the part of the Government of Pakistan.

Despite efforts over the past decade to develop information and communications technologies (ICT) infrastructure in developing economies, a new digital divide in terms of ICT impacts persists, according to the latest rankings of The Global Information Technology Report (GITR) 2012: Living in a Hyper connected World, released today by the World Economic Forum. The GITR indicates Pakistan’s challenges and opportunities on 10 different pillars, where Pakistan has not been able to show any remarkable improvements in the previous year.

Pakistan lost its competitive advantage on the fixed broadband internet tariffs, where it dropped the ranking from 36 in 2011 to 79 in 2012, which means residential monthly fee in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). The extent of information and communications technologies improving access for all citizens to basic services (health, education, financial services, etc.) also took a dip to 113 with losing 30 points from last year. Government prioritizing of ICT also achieved a rank of 103 from 83 last year, making a variation of 20 points.

A serious concern and bottleneck on Pakistan’s business and entrepreneurship initiatives have been identified by the GITR on Pakistan’s policies on the tax regime introduced in 2011, this actually sum of profit tax, labor tax and social contributions, property taxes, turnover taxes, and other taxes, as a share (%) of commercial profits, Pakistan stood 58 this year from 39 last out of 142 economies in the world. The GITR also identified that the extent of information and communication technologies creating new organizational models are also weakening in Pakistan, going 81 from 63 last year.

However, Pakistan improved its competitiveness in certain areas including, efficiency of the legal system in challenging regulations, where Pakistan improved from 95 in 2011 to 79 in 2012 out of 142 countries. The judicial independence was also highlighted as one of the advantages in Pakistan, where the improvements were made on 11 points, thus ranking Pakistan at 62 in the world. The effectiveness of the law making body has also improved 9 points, with a ranking of 93 this year. The quality of education system and the capacity for innovation also shows improvement of 7 points each ranking at 79 and 51 respectively.


On the ten pillars of the Global Information Technology Report (GITR) 2012 out of 142 countries Pakistan scored as follows: on the 1^st pillar; Political and regulatory environment (110), 2^nd pillar; business and innovation environment (96); 3^rd pillar, infrastructure and digital content (108); 4^th pillar doing well on the affordability pillar (26); 5^th pillar; Skills (129), 6^th pillar; individual usage (104); 7^th pillar; business usage (96), 8^th pillar; government usage (103); 9^th pillar; economic impacts (94) and on the 10^th pillar; of social impacts (99).

Pakistan's Ranking on the Global Information Technology Report 2012

Sweden stood (1st) and Singapore (2nd) top the rankings in this year’s report in leveraging information and communications technologies to boost country competitiveness. Switzerland (5th), the Netherlands (6th), the United States (8th), Canada (9th) and the United Kingdom (10th) also show strong performances in the top 10.

However, ICT readiness in sub-Saharan Africa is still low, with most countries showing significant lags in connectivity due to insufficient development of ICT infrastructure, which remains too costly, and displaying poor skill levels that do not allow for an efficient use of the available technology. Even in those countries where ICT infrastructure has been improved, ICT-driven impacts on competitiveness and well-being trail behind, resulting in a new digital divide.

Despite improvements in many drivers of competitiveness, the BRICS countries– led by China (51st) – still face important challenges to more fully adopt and leverage ICT. An insufficient skills base and institutional weaknesses, especially in the business environment, present a number of shortcomings that stifle entrepreneurship and innovation.

With a record coverage of 142 economies worldwide, the report remains the most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on competitiveness and the well-being of nations. After a two-year review process, the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) featured in the report has evolved to ensure that it captures the main drivers of a rapidly changing ICT industry and remains relevant for public- and private-sector decision-makers.

Established in 2003, as a social enterprise, Mishal has recently being signed as the country partner institution of the World Economic Forum’s Center for Global Competitiveness and Performance. The Data on Pakistan for the for Global Competitiveness Report for 2012-13 and the Global Information Technology Report 2013 is being collected through the Executive Opinion Surveys.

Mishal is at the forefront of devising and delivering communication solutions for a cross-section of stakeholders and is actively pursuing and supporting initiatives to improve the state of media and journalism in Pakistan. Mishal has recently launched Pakistan’s first journalism awards to create media diversity and to promote journalism across all platforms of media delivery mechanisms, including print, television, radio and the internet journalism.

Mishal has undertaken the task to build the capacity of press cubs and journalist associations in Pakistan by creating a learning platform for the media and journalists across Pakistan. The initiative is building the capacity through interactive workshops, conferences, collaborative thinking and knowledge sharing. It is also focusing on improving the competitiveness of the media by creating competition amongst the various verticals through media and journalism awards for the professionals in the field of communications by creating a national knowledge grid.

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 head-quartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.