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Short-Term Emerging Economic Sector Expert

The USAID Small and Medium Enterprises Activity (SMEA). Pakistan SMEA is a 5-year, $35 million project that is aimed at improvement of financial and operating performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan in seven sectors: Information Communication and Technology (ICT), light engineering, textile (minus spinning), hospitality, minerals (marble, granite, and gems), logistics & packaging, and leather (minus tanning).

Chemonics International seeks a short-time Emerging Economic Sector Expert to conduct a secondary research and analysis to identify emerging economic sectors requiring public sector and donor interventions in the Pakistani economy. The consultant will be required to identify and analyze the sectors in terms of their current performance, past trends an projected performance over the next 5-10 years.

This projected trajectory should help identify sectors that can be the focus of economic growth initiatives by USAID and also enable the SMEA project to select sectors for interventions.

Responsibilities

The primary objective of the consultancy assignment is to identify promising and emerging economic sectors in Pakistan that have the potential to be more competitive domestically and internationally through assistance. USAID and SMEA want to identify sectors which have the potential to grow by leveraging the resources and capabilities of business in both Pakistan and the United States. Through collaboration and targeted initiatives that facilitate business relationships between SMEs in Pakistan and potential partners in the United States to serve as a catalyst for economic growth in Pakistan.

The outputs of the consultancy to help achieve this objective are:

a) Create a sector profile in terms of number of SMEs, geographic spread, production, employment, job creation, GDP contribution, exports, female participation, profitability and products/services.

b) Analyze historical trends to help identify the performance of the sector over time (5-10 years) which would help analyze the sector in terms of competitiveness and sustainability.

c) Provide insights into emerging and regional innovation, product development and market trends.

d) Develop a projection analysis of the performance of the sectors over the next 5-10 years in the domestic and international market in terms of the indicators outlined in (a) above. This should also include opportunities for foreign/local investment and digitization of value chains.

e) Provide an analysis of possible collaboration and partnerships with companies of United States origins, franchising and other supply chain linkages resulting in foreign direct investments.

f) Rationalize the outcomes/ targets of projects in view original of objectives as per the scope of work.

Specific Tasks:

• Undertake a desk research pertaining to the identification of the sectors, covering the economic survey (s), economic development plans (e.g. Five-Year plans, development frameworks etc.), international reports, existing policies, legal, regulatory and institutional reforms at the federal and provincial levels. This will also include a review of the SMEA market led sector analysis report.

• Analysis of the international investment coming to Pakistan (e.g., CPEC, World bank, ADB, USAID, DFID, other donor agencies and the multinationals / private sector organizations) and their targeted sectors. As a part of this, the consultant will also analyze the private investment coming from US companies to Pakistan.

• Review preliminary reports, comparative studies and other related sector reports about the previous experiences / lessons learned

• Targeted meetings (where necessary) with key stakeholders in public and private sectors

• Use tools such as ‘Porter’s Five Forces Analysis’ for the evaluated sectors to analyze the extent of competition in the sector (based on existing and projected saturation and resulting profitability) to evaluate the relative attractiveness of the sectors for investments and partnerships

• Conduct comparative analysis of the sectors vs the international scenario to develop insights into the causes or opportunities behind the growth of each sector.

• Conduct an analysis of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows in the past five years in the region covering countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc. to gauge the trends in FDI from the US and other major international market investors.

• Identify specific areas in the selected sectors for foreign direct investment and collaboration / partnership of the Pakistani private sector (SMEs) with US based companies.

• Analyze and rank sectors in terms of current sector profile, past performance, future growth projection, and industry receptivity.

• Make recommendations on sector specific interventions on the enabling environment and firm level that will help increase FDI, generate more domestic and international revenue, create additional jobs, improve productivity and improve the usage and adoption of ICT/IT in the sector. The recommendations should also cover areas of increased access to finance and technology in the sectors and improving the economic participation of women.

• Assess which sectors which are most promising in terms of their effect on Pakistan’s economy and potential for US/Pakistani firm level partnerships:

o Key standards and requisite certifications which are needed to improve trade flows between Pakistani SME’s and US companies.

o Potential technical skills, equipment and machinery, market information, technology and management expertise that can be sourced from the US to help the evaluated sectors grow.

o Sectoral investment needs, areas and appetite in the sector.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in economics, development economics, development studies, strategic management from a reputed national/international university

• 10 years of experience, undertaking research and diagnosis for economic growth projects.

• Demonstrated experience of developing pro-market feasibility and business plans

• Knowledge in concepts of international business, competitive analysis, trend analysis, industrial analysis etc.

• Strong understanding of the local business environment, macro-economic framework and the corresponding institutional arrangements at the federal and provincial levels

• Deep understanding of the investment climate in Pakistan and preferably in the region

• Good understanding of the policy and regulation constraints faced by the SMEs at the federal and provincial levels

• Previous experience of engaging with the private and public sectors for a robust assessment of the constraints underlying SME growth

• Previous experience of working with USAID projects in economic growth will be preferred

• Experience of working with donor projects in the SME space will be preferred

• Excellent communication and report writing skills

Assignment:

This will be a 30 day assignment with the Competitive Enhancement Component.