WEF appraisal of PPP govt’s performance
The World Economic Forum has released its annual Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 which assesses the business environment in individual countries and domestic conditions that improve or impede it.
“The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 assesses the competitiveness landscape of 144 economies, providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity. The Report series remains the most comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide.”
Although Pakistan’s GC ranking went up five places to 118 (out of 142 world economies) in 2011, the year 2012 saw a deeper drop in the country’s position as it slumped to 124th place, its lowest ranking in the last three years .
The WEF did, however, give a resounding ‘thumbs up’ to the PPP-led coalition government in certain areas.
A comparison of Pakistan’s GC rankings in 2011-12 (Source: Dawn Economics & Business Weekly; Sept 17,2012)
The government’s efforts to reduce red tape in the performance of business activity have been recognised by the WEF which ranked Pakistan at 62nd out of 144 world economies. A whopping rise of 12 places over its 2011 ranking of 76!
Transparency of policy development was another area where the government was appreciatively judged. Pakistan saw a rise of 10 places to 109 in its current year ranking.
Regulation of security exchanges improved in the period 2011-2012. The rise in Pakistan’s ranking in this area was the highest by far. It appreciated by 15 places to 55th rank this year. Coincidentally or otherwise, 2012 was also the year in which the Karachi Stock Exchange was de-mutualised and converted into a public limited company in a landmark re-structuring of the exchange.
Other areas in which Pakistan was highly ranked include:
- Judicial independence (57th out of 144)
- Strength of auditing and reporting standards (86th)
- Strength of investors protection (29th)
- Railroad infrastructure (66th)
- Port infrastructure (60th)
- Quality of the educational system (75th)
- Quality of management schools (71st)
- Effectiveness of anti-monopoly policy (71st)
- Pay and productivity (73rd)
- Ease of access to loans (65th)
- Venture capital availability (55th)
A cursory glance at the statistics compiled in the GCR clearly show Pakistan has been ranked low in far more areas than where it has been ranked high. Many of the readers of this post will want to draw attention to that. Solely to those aspects of this report in fact. The purpose of this post, as with this blog, is to fight the negativist and hateful propaganda of right wing and fake liberal critics of this PPP-led coalition government that seek to draw a bleak picture of the Pakistani economy. The areas where the WEF recognised improvements in Pakistan’s economy are few. But they are more than enough to appreciate the work done by this Peoples government in some very trying financial difficulties.
Thank you, Mr. Junejo. PPP haters in the media will never refer to these statistics.
Excellent post by Ravez – it is balanced bcos it acknowledges criticism while still supporting PPP on merit.
Thanks for presenting this data. However in many ways the performance of the PPP has been horrible in many ways. And the criticism the PPP gets, cannot always be discarded as ”right wing” propoganda, most of it is honest.
Also its kind of arrogant to say that the masses and people on TV, are ignorant or misguided in terms of the current government, some people can be wrong, everyone cant be wrong.
I still see the PPP as curropt and incompetent. I know Pakistan deserves a better future.
Thank you Mr Jadoon and Mr Malik. As stated, purpose of this post was pointing out exactly the two things you two have right now.
@Mustafa
1. If “most” of anti-PPP criticism is correct, you accept that the other half IS uncalled for, in which case the point of my post is made.
2. Our masses get their guidance from our mass media which can be (rather, is!) biased and has a history of blotting out news stories that go against its news agenda or might anger an intelligence agency. Why do you think our people are so damn ignorant about the human rights violations in Balochistan?! Likewise, the lamestream media has also ignored positive economic data in the past or denied the PPP credit for it.
3. Do you have evidence of PPP’s corruption and incompetence? If you do, please send it to Mr Abdul Nishapuri, the editor of this blog. Even if its circumstancia, your piece will be published at LUBP.
FYI though, corruption in Pakistan has actually gone DOWN under the PPP govt. Ask the good people at Transparency Int’l Pakistan who say so.
You may be able to get loans using your personal credit, so why bother building business credit? It’s best to keep personal and business matter separate. Building business credit works so why bother building business credit and it’s used differently. You can also protect yourself by building business credit.