Pakistan doing well on economic front: World Bank

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has stated that the scale of the donor pledges made on April 17 in Japan was a manifestation of regard for the tough measures the economic team led by Shaukat Tarin has taken in Pakistan in the past few months.

The complimentary message for the Pakistan government and Shaukat Tarin came from WB vice-president Isabel Guerrero at the end of Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FODP) conference co-hosted by Japan and IFI’s.

The message said the present government took robust stabilising measures and entered into an International Monetary Fund Stand-By Arrangement on November last year which remains on track.

In a world crowded with problems, Pakistan won important aid commitments, it said. “The international community rallied to support Pakistan’s economic programme with more than US $5 billion in funding designed to meet its immediate needs and protect expenditures on safety net and human development initiatives critical for poor people.”

Through this difficult adjustment made all the harder by a global downturn Pakistan has done well to protect the poorest 25 per cent of its citizens, said the WB vice-president for South Asia in the message.

The Government of Pakistan shared development plans at the conference and committed to tough measures that would sustain macroeconomic stability while rolling out expanded social safety nets and laying the foundation for accelerated growth. Development partners supported new social safety net programmes being introduced by the government.

The World Bank is working with Pakistan to refine the targeting of these programmes to make sure support reaches the poorest citizens in a transparent manner, the message underlines. The successful monitoring and evaluation of this programme was of particular concern to donors.

The Donors’ sideline evaluation of the government’s ongoing 9-point economic reforms agenda has lent credence to the scale of robust efforts Pakistan has undertaken in core economic areas like macro-economic stabilization, social protection, agri reforms, industrial competitiveness, Human Resource Development, integrated energy generation plan, capital market reforms, Public-Private Partnership and administrative reforms.

Redesigning the internal fiscal policies through various economic structures undertaken by the central bank is part of the package of economic measures and monetary operations put in place by the government.

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