Digital Economy Enhancement: World Bank-funded project struggling to deliver results on ground

ISLAMABAD: The USD 78 million Digital Economy Enhancement Project, financed by the World Bank, aimed at streamlining business registration, licencing and government-to-business (G2B) services, is struggling to deliver results on the ground, with zero transactions recorded on the Pakistan Business Portal while disbursement remained at just over seven percent nearly two years after approval.

Official documents of the bank noted that while institutional frameworks have been notified, core business-facing components remain non-operational.

Under Component 2 of the project, the Pakistan Business Portal was designed to digitise registration, licences, certificates and other regulatory approvals to reduce compliance costs and improve ease of doing business.

READ MORE: Digital Economy Enhancement Project: MoUs between MoITT, provincial govts still pending: World Bank

However, the report confirms that no Registration, Licences, Certificates and Other (RLCO) transactions have been processed to date, and no B2G services have been moved online.

The project, approved in March 2024 has disbursed only USD 5.32 million — equivalent to 7.39 percent of total financing. The project is scheduled to close on July 31, 2028.

The project’s development objective is to enhance the government’s capacity for digitally enabled public service delivery for citizens and businesses.

Overall progress toward achieving the PDO is rated “Moderately Satisfactory,” while implementation progress also remains “Moderately Satisfactory.” The overall risk rating has improved from “Substantial” to “Moderate,” though macroeconomic risk continues to be assessed as “High.”

According to documents, Pakistan has issued around 850,000 digital IDs following the soft launch of its national digital identity system in August 2025, marking a key milestone under the project. The digital ID rollout follows the enactment of the Digital Nation Pakistan Act, 2025, which formally established the country’s digital government institutional framework. From August to December 2025, a total of 849,177 digital IDs were issued.

The Digital Vault, accessible via the PakID app, currently provides seven verifiable credentials, including family registration certificates, vehicle registration documents, vaccination certificates and dematerialised national ID cards.

The National Data Exchange Layer (NDXL) — a key backbone for inter-agency data sharing — has processed 1.2 million transactions, while seven entities have been integrated into the platform as of January 2026. Regulations governing Digital ID and the NDXL have been approved by the federal government.

However, broader enabling reforms remain work in progress. Adoption of a whole-of-government enterprise architecture, data governance and interoperability framework, and a comprehensive cybersecurity roadmap are yet to be completed.

The project also envisages reducing right-of-way permit processing time for broadband network rollout from 120 days to 65 days by November 2027. No progress has yet been recorded on this front.

By November 2027, targets include reaching 40 million users of digitally enabled services, processing 4,000 annual RLCO transactions through the business portal, achieving a 75 percent user satisfaction rate, and expanding integration across public and private sector entities.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026