Understanding a Big Elephant and its Small Chains: SWOT Analysis of Pakistan’s Economy

Abstract

‘What we Foreign Direct Investors need is a level playing field.’ This was claimed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a multinational corporation (MNC) operating in Pakistan for more than 50 years, on two separate occasions during 2015-18. This idiom motivated the authors to understand business nuances associated with Pakistan’s economy not being captured by indices such as the ‘Ease of Doing Business Index’ (EDBI) and ‘Global Competitiveness Index’ (GCI) primarily because of their measurement in quantitative terms. By conducting a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis of the country’s business environment, with the help of in-depth interviews with the CEOs of 19 MNCs and three national corporations (NCs), this study tries to capture some of these nuances. The respondents, based on their availability, were drawn from ten different industries. Based on the analysis, it can be inferred that ‘enduring’, ‘flimsy’, ‘enormous’ and ‘manageable’ are the four words which may be used to define the strengths and weaknesses associated with the opportunities and threats to Pakistan as a market.