World Bank president to visit Pakistan in Nov

Islamabad, Aug 23 (IANS) World Bank President David Malpass will visit Pakistan in the first week of November to finalise enhanced financial support for institutional reforms and growth agenda, the Ministry of Finance has announced.

The Ministry on Thursday said that the World Bank's country director in Pakistan Patchamuthu Illangovan and his team called on Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh to apprise him of Malpass's upcoming visit, Dawn news reported.

The delegation conveyed "a strong desire from the World Bank management to work with Pakistan to drive institutional reforms and support the growth agenda of the government through any technical or financial assistance required from the bank", said a statement.

The visit follows Prime Minister Imran Khan's meeting with Malpass during his recent visit to the US.

Illangovan is understood to have highlighted the problems being faced by the existing projects and slowdown in the project planning and process in the wake of a long political transition and its aftermath, even though a few financing agreements worth $950 million were signed with the World Bank last month.

Another project of about $1.5 billion is now coming up for approval by the World Bank board, but some of the projects faced significant challenges.

Informed sources said that one of the projects facing problems was the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Corridor (KPEC) worth about $450 million being described by the Planning Commission as "road to nowhere".

Meanwhile, about three major projects worth over $1.6bn are being designed for the World Bank financing with additional support from the Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Agence Francaise de Development, Dawn reported.

The total portfolio of these projects goes beyond $2.6 billion.