Country Partnership Framework: WB, govt discuss development priorities

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank (WB) country director Najy Benhassine stated that the next Country Partnership Framework (CPF) of the WB for Pakistan would broadly focus on four strategic areas i.e. education, health, environment and growth, and improved governance as an enabler.

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar held a consultative meeting with Najy Benhassine on Monday. The meeting was aimed to discuss the development priorities of the Government of Pakistan for the next five years, and to seek guidance and views of the minister for Economic Affairs to appropriately accommodate those priorities in the next World Bank Country Partnership Strategy for the period fiscal year 2022-26.

The WB country director informed that the World Bank Group (WBG) has initiated the process of preparing a new CPF for Pakistan that would outline its strategic support in the country for the next five years starting from the fiscal year 2022.

He shared that the WB had started countrywide consultations with key stakeholders including government, parliamentarians, private sector, civil society organisations and development partners to gather diverse views from stakeholders on Pakistan’s economic and social challenges and the ways in which the WBG can support the government in addressing these challenges.

The minister highlighted the need to focus more on the basics where Pakistan critically lags e.g. human capital, poverty alleviation, stunting, revenue mobilization and economic reforms etc.

He also emphasised on avoiding thin spreading of resources and focus concentrating resources on priority areas for achieving greater impact.

The minister for economic affairs also shared with the WB country director that the government wanted to enhance the role of the private sector and for that private sector will be encouraged to take lead in the economic development of the country.

The meeting was also attended by secretary Ministry of Economic Affairs, operations officers of the World Bank and IFC.

The minister thanked the World Bank team for extending their continuous support to the Government of Pakistan in achieving sustainable economic development in the country.

The WB country director assured their continuous support to the government in achieving the priority development objectives.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021