Pakistan ready to perform better on economic front

WB president says improvement in security environment to lift people from extreme poverty

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s security environment has improved and now the country is poised to perform better on the economic front and lifting people out of extreme poverty, World Bank’s visiting President Jim Yong Kim said on Tuesday.

The World Bank president made these comments during the launch event at the State Bank of Pakistan on “Pakistan’s Path towards Universal Financial Access” here on said that he had met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif two years back in USA and now the country made progress by improving security environment. 

The WB president on the first day of his two-day visit to Pakistan met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, economic ministers and secretaries from provincial and federal governments.

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands said on the occasion that Pakistan placed required regulatory framework for ensuring financial inclusion but for achieving targets for provision of access to 50% youth male and 25 percent female till 2020 needed effective implementation.

Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar said that the government would increase stipend amount of beneficiaries of Benazir Income Support Program by 5.4 percent from July 1, 2016 in next financial year. The minister said that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would further give benefits to achieve economic turnaround. 

The WB’s president said that Pakistan had a great opportunity to become more ambitious in reforming its economy so that more people were lifted out of poverty more quickly and prosperity was more widely shared among its people. Noting that the government had stabilised the economy over three tough years, Kim said that he had discussed in meetings with the prime minister and finance minister about the importance of pressing forward with reforms that would unlock the country’s potential. As part of the World Bank’s continued support to the country, there was discussion of a development policy credit to promote economic reforms.

“Now is the moment for Pakistan to step up to a higher level of growth and opportunity for all its people,” said Kim. “In my meetings with the prime minister and finance minister, we discussed going to a higher level of ambition for reforms for the economy. These could include strengthening the role of the private sector for job creation, accelerating energy reforms, making improvements at the community level for health and education, and ensuring that anti-poverty measures are effective at reaching poor people,” he added.

“The National Financial Inclusion Strategy has come at a particularly opportune moment as new technology and the rapid expansion of branchless banking offer unprecedented opportunities to transform financial inclusion in Pakistan. Pakistan is now leading the way in South Asia when it comes to digital finance and branchless banking”, said Kim.

Kim also participated in a panel discussion on “Managing Displaced Populations” and learnt how the country managed a large Afghan refugee population. The event was co-organised by the World Bank, the Economic Affairs Division and UNHCR, in the context of the continuing global refugee crisis.

He said that the refugees’ crisis was emerging in Africa and Middle East and United Nations Secretary General asked him to prepare a joint strategy to tackle it effectively. Along with Islamic Development Bank, he said that the resources were pooled up as currently there was provision of $200 million for Jordan and Lebanon which would be jacked up to $1 billion. 

“There is much the world can learn from Pakistan, which has for decades hosted refugees from other countries or had to cope with temporarily displaced people within its own borders,” said Kim. “We are committed to support the government of Pakistan in repatriating the crisis affected displaced people through the newly effective cash transfer project.”

Later in the day, he met the provincial leadership of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and learned about province-level reform efforts and development projects under implementation and preparation with World Bank Group support. He underlined the importance of the role of the provincial governments in the effective implementation of reforms.

Kim, later on, plans to meet private sector representatives, students, and the provincial leadership of Sindh.