Pakistan's Productivity Challenge

Its not a good time for Pakistan on international ranking charts. Now the country is ranked as the second least-efficient country on the Economist Intelligence Units Creative Productivity Index (compiled for the ADB). Among the 24 Asian economies covered, Pakistan is ranked 23rd when it comes to measuring efficiency in converting inputs to outputs.

The Creative Productivity Index takes into account six key elements that determine the efficiency of any country to become competitive, particularly human capital, infrastructure, competition, firm dynamics, financial institutions and governance. Vulnerabilities in these crucial areas have tossed Pakistan in an unfavourable spot.

In terms of human capital, Pakistan secured the lowest ranking. With the education system being out of reach for the low-income group, that is hardly surprising. According to the report, the mean years of schooling in Pakistan is 5.5 years compared with 11.3 years in Taipei, China, which secures the finest ranking in this domain.

As for infrastructure and competition, Pakistan is again poorly ranked at 20. Snags in the regulatory mechanism, high entry barriers, and low productivity of state-owned enterprises have been attributed as the key reasons behind the troublesome infrastructure capacities and unfit competitive positioning of the country.

But, there is some level of comfort. In the context of firm dynamics, financial institutions and governance, Pakistan's ranking relatively better, at 9th, 12th and 17th respectively. To add, the country scores better for the soundness of university-industry collaboration and the enrolment ratio of tertiary students in science.

However, with the lack of global recognition of these institutions and limited educational outreach to underprivileged people, Pakistan achieving a better ranking in the near future seems difficult. Building a firm educational system, focusing mainly on primary and secondary schooling should top the list of governments priorities.

This fragile standing of the country in relation to other Asian economies is not surprising. A lot has been said and written on the subject. Its high time that the government re-evaluated its priorities and fixed the loopholes to make better use of the country's resources and deploy technological solutions to social issues.

=============================================== Creative Competitiveness Index =============================================== (Rankings of 5 least efficient Asian economies) =============================================== Overall Input Output =============================================== Bangladesh 20 22 21 Fiji 21 18 20 Myanmar 22 24 23 Pakistan 23 16 22 Cambodia 24 19 24 ===============================================