By Charlotte Greenfield
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s prime minister on Wednesday welcomed a first-of-its-kind agreement with the World Bank for a plan to focus $20 billion in lending to the cash-strapped nation over the coming decade on development issues like the impact of climate change as well as boosting private-sector growth.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a post on social media platform X that a new plan known as the Country Partnership Framework announced by the World Bank overnight would focus the global institution’s pledge of $20 billion in areas including clean energy and climate resilience in the ten years from 2026.
The World Bank said in a statement that policy and institutional reforms to boost private sector growth and expand fiscal space for government investment in crucial areas would also be key.
“We are focused on prioritising investment and advisory interventions that will help crowd-in much needed private investment in sectors critical for Pakistan’s sustainable growth and job creation, including energy and water, agriculture, access to finance, manufacturing and digital infrastructure,” said Zeeshan Sheikh, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation Country Manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan in a statement.
The World Bank has currently committed about $17 billion to Pakistan for 106 projects.
The country has teetered on the brink of economic crisis for several years and economists and international financial institutions have called for major economic reforms.
Pakistan is currently under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund bailout program, which requires the country to boost government revenues and shore up external sources of financing, much of which comes from loans from China and Gulf nations.
(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield, Editing by Louise Heavens)
