World Bank asks Sindh to launch‘ambitious’ health, energy projects

World Bank President Dr Jim Yong Kim pledges ‘unflinching support’ for provincial government to undertake such projects 

Karachi

World Bank President Dr Jim Yong Kim on Monday promised Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah of the financial institution’s "unflinching support" to the government, and urged it to undertake extensive projects in the sectors of health, human resource, and renewable energy besides in other urban development sectors.

Visiting Karachi for the first time during his tenure, Dr Kim, in a meeting held at the CM House, was briefed over the provincial government’s initiatives taken in various sectors and the challenges hitherto faced by them.

Areas of cooperation and means to further strengthen partnership between the World Bank and the Sindh government were also discussed.

Appreciating the efforts of the WB, Shah claimed that reducing poverty, developing human resource and focusing on economic growth were the provincial government’s priorities. “Health, education, nutrition and skill- development were being focused upon, in addition to developing infrastructure as well as making the agriculture and industrial sectors more economically viable."

He added that the government was keen on improving economic growth by promoting businesses through special economic zones and public private partnerships.

Thanking the CM for his hospitality, Dr Kim observed that Sindh had the potential to grow into a high economic growth zone, provided that problems of infrastructure gap, energy, human development and ease of doing business were addressed.

"WB prioritises human development, health improvements, disease control and nutrition support world over in developing countries," he said, and added that it would continue to support governance reforms, competitive businesses, infrastructure improvement and social services in sectors particularly education and health in addition to agriculture and irrigation.

He said the financial utility would soon help the provincial government in formulating the Sindh Growth Strategy and also chalk out a strategy for transformation of Karachi. 

He also urged the government to make positive use of the huge population of youth for economic growth by improving their skills and providing employment.

Located along the coastal belt, and strategically located between Europe and the Far East, the province had the potential to become one of the largest logistical and business hubs in South Asia, stated Sindh Minister of Finance Syed Murad Ali Shah.

He further claimed that the government of Peoples Party Pakistan’s (PPP) government took various initiatives to reduce poverty and promote prosperity in the province.

“Tax collection was increased through the Board of Revenue whereas a fiscal discipline was implemented to tap into more resources for the annual development programme.”

Murad added that the WB’s technical assistance on the project focusing on Karachi as well as efforts to analyse the economic potential of other major cities were highly valued by the Sindh government.

Sindh Additional Chief Secretary Development Ajaz Ali Khan while giving a detailed presentation on development initiatives of the government and its achievements, said sectors such as development, improved social services, energy were among a few to had received better budgetary allocations.

He further said the digitization of land records was one of the major programmes to use the WB’s IT services.

Ali added that 60 percent of Sindh’s development financing was contributed by the WB in the overall foreign funded development portfolio. The projects mainly funded by the WB were in the areas of irrigation, agriculture, education, health and public sector management.

He claimed the projects had brought about significant results in the economy and contributed in achieving the twin-goal of the Pakistan Country Partrnership Strategy - signed between the country and the World Bank, a part of which is also shared by the Sindh government – of prosperity and poverty reduction.

The WB funded water sector improvement project was considered to be one of the best projects in Asia - it received the British Construction Award. Projects for improvement in education sector, skill development, health, as well irrigation and agriculture sectors were among important projects. Besides, the government was also working with the WB to improve public sector governance by bettering its financial management, planning and monitoring of public sector resources.  

Senior Minister Education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Minister Health Jam Mehtab Khan Dahar, provincial chief secretary Siddique Memon, federal secretary EAD Tarique Bajwa and others senior officers attended the meeting.

IBA hosts dialogue 

World Bank President Dr Jim Yong Kim said the bank’s enemy and only competitor was poverty and it was solely focused on combating it.

He was talking to students at the Jahangir Siddiqui Auditorium, Institutes of Business Administration, City Campus.

The IBA had organised a dialogue session titled “Economic growth and development: opportunities for Pakistan’s youth”, and invited the WB chief, LUMS Rector Abdul Razak Dawood and Co-Founder Circle and former chief executive officer Kashf Foundation Sadaffe Abid.

The event was streamed to 75 Pakistani universities and an international audience. The forum was a joint initiative of Tte World Bank and government of Pakistan.

Dr Kim noted that 45 percent of children in Pakistan were stunted and that was a great inequality. He challenged every student present to save Pakistan from such underdeveloped individuals, saying that in the next 20 years global competition would be all about digital dialogue and capabilities and these individuals would not contribute much to the work force.

During a conversation with students, Dr Kim stated that he wanted to change the status quo as a few elite people control most of the wealth while the bottom 40 percent of the world's population lived in abject poverty.

Dr Kim -- the 12th president of the World Bank and former president of Dartmouth College --  an Ivy League member, has been ranked amongst Forbes magazine’s list of 100 most influential personalities.

He informed the audience that he had spent a lot of time in seminar halls and auditoriums, and also shared his journey as the president of Dartmouth College to the president of the World Bank and how his degree in anthropology, a subject which President Barack Obama's mother also pursued, enabled him to secure the position at the World Bank.

He mentioned that as WB president, his focus was on eradicating poverty and on working for the well-being of people. “I believe in evidence-based solutions and in order to beat poverty one must learn finance.”

Another speaker, Abdul Razak Dawood, stated that in rural sectors people desperately wanted education for their children and to an extent the private sector had done well in establishing affordable schools in rural areas but a lot more needed to be done.

He highlighted that around 28 million of youths in Paksitan were between 18 and 23 years and all of them could not go to universities due to limited resources and thus they should be provided with vocational training and skill development in order to enable them to earn satisfactory livelihoods and contribute to society.

Sadaffe Abid said that the face of wealth was changing worldwide and the new face of wealth was young, self-created and female. She said today women’s income amounted to $20 trillion globally and for every dollar a woman earned, she invested 90 cents back in for the family so to invest in women is to invest in society.

She said that globally more women were becoming entrepreneurs and for academic institutions like the IBA it was their responsibility to develop courses around women entrepreneurs and teach them to their students to encourage more women entrepreneurs. She also advised the students to stay resilient and take part in experiments.

During her speech, she shared some successful stories of Pakistani-origin women who had done extraordinary work in entrepreneurship.

Earlier, IBA Dean and Director Dr Ishrat Husain highlighted three factors which the IBA had decided to focus on as the oldest business school outside North America. 

Firstly, he said, the IBA wanted to promote upward social mobility and work towards eliminating poverty. Secondly, he said, the IBA reached out to the underprivileged students in remote areas of Pakistan through initiatives like National Talent Hunt Programme, where the institute groomed students and paid for their tuition fees. He said that many other universities had started to model “this initiative of ours, which is very fruitful for social upliftment”. Thirdly, the IBA had made it compulsory for its students to do a social internship for six to eight weeks at social welfare organisations so that the students could get exposed to how the underprivileged led their lives, thus sensitising them to poverty and encouraging them to give back to society and contribute towards eliminating poverty, he added.

Dr Husain said the IBA was also focusing on establishing the entrepreneurial spirit among its students and the community at large and for that “we have established a centre for entrepreneurship at the IBA, offering courses to women entrepreneurs and youth entrepreneurs”.

Students also shared their thoughts and asked Dr Kim questions at the end of the event. 

The IBA director presented s Sindhi Ajrak and a Topi to the chief guest and said the WB president had a busy schedule but yet he decided to interact with the students of Pakistan.

Dr Husain observed that the panel’s interaction with the university students was very fruitful and educational.