ISLAMABAD, Oct 29: The board of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) met here on Monday and approved four innovative projects for economic growth in the country. Presided over by State Minister for Finance and Chairman CSF Omar Ayub Khan the board also reviewed the progress of the fund’s activities. He appreciated the progress made and achievements of CSF activities, especially with regard to impact on the economic growth strategy of the government of Pakistan.

He said that CSF was critical to identify economic sectors that have competitive advantage to grow. He further said CSF was the unique platform of competitiveness activities in Pakistan, where public and private sector, and academia as well as media can meet and create value towards sustained economic growth in Pakistan.

Arthur Bayhan, chief executive officer of the CSF presented the progress report to the board members.

He also briefed the board on the policy assistance of the fund, including regional conference on Economic Growth in 2006, State of Pakistan’s Competitiveness Report, 2007, policy paper for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper II, crafting a competitive advantage and special economic zones’ benchmarking and policy action plan.

The board was also informed about the various sectoral policy analyses that the fund has carried out to identify the sectors that have the competitive advantage and potential to grow.

Sectors studied so far include: policy analysis on the competitive advantage of the motorcycle industry, action plan for fish quality and value adding at Karachi Fish Harbour, policy analysis on the competitive advantage of auto vendor industry in Pakistan and the competitive advantage of gender integration in the economic development and its contribution to the economic growth.

Bayhan also briefed the board about the CSF study on the competitive aspects of the food processing sector: obstacles and prospects; which have resulted in action plans for the horticulture and meat sectors.

The board was briefed on CSF’s agreements and the memorandum of understandings (MoU) to improve Pakistan’s economic competitiveness with leading national and international institutions, including the World Economic Forum (WEF), Competitiveness Institute (TCI), Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC), and government of Sindh, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), Board of Investment (BOI), Pakistan Business Council (PBC) and the FATA secretariat.

The board reviewed the current activities of the matching grant facility of the fund and approved four innovative projects. The projects approved for co-financing will generate a substantial new investment of $4.8 million creating more than 6,200 new jobs in the country.

The CSF will be contributing a total amount of $411,000 for the four projects, which will generate an additional amount of $1 million from the stakeholders. The projects will support cutlery, medicinal fruits, engineering and the dairy clusters in various regions of Pakistan.

The projects will also impact competitiveness of the relevant clusters by increasing their export potential.

The CSF’s investment is expected to create a multiplier effect, where every $1 of investment is expected to generate 12 times more new investment in the country.

All approved projects will support public-private partnerships to link research and development institutions and private sector by involving a three-fold set of stakeholders termed ‘Triple Helix’ by the economic leaders, which includes, private sector, academia, and government.

The competitiveness support fund (CSF) is a joint initiative of the ministry of finance and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to reposition Pakistan’s economy on a more competitive global footing.

The CSF supports Pakistan’s goal to have a competitive economy by providing input into policy decisions, working to improve regulatory and administrative frameworks and enhancing public-private partnerships within the country.

Support for CSF is part of the $1.5 billion in aid that the US government is providing to Pakistan over five years to improve economic growth, education, health, and governance.