ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The World Bank’s Country Director for Pakistan Najy Benhassine has said that the World Bank Group (WBG) has initiated the process of preparing a new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Pakistan that would outline its strategic support in the Country for the next five years starting from FY 2022.
In a consultative meeting with the Minister for Economic Affairs Khusro Bakhtiar at the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Islamabad on Monday, Najy Benhassine shared that the next World Bank Pakistan Country Partnership Framework would broadly focus on four strategic areas i.e. education, health, environment & growth, and improved governance as an enabler.
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 FY 2022-26.
The Country Director World Bank informed that World Bank had started countrywide consultations with key stakeholders including government, parliamentarians, private sector, civil society organizations and development partners to gather diverse views from stakeholders on Pakistan’s economic and social challenges and the ways in which the World Bank Group can support the government in addressing these challenges.
The Minister for Economic Affairs 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.
Khusro Bakhtiar also emphasized on avoiding thin spreading of resources and focus on concentrating resources on priority areas for achieving greater impact.
The Minister also shared with the Country Director that the government desires 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 the Secretary Ministry of Economic Affairs, Operations Officers of World Bank and IFC.
The Minister for Economic Affairs thanked the World Bank Team for extending their continuous support to the government of Pakistan in achieving sustainable economic development in the Country.
The Country Director World Bank ensured their continuous support to the government of Pakistan in achieving the priority development objectives.
