World Bank President Meets Pakistan’s Prime Minister

Washington, October 2, 2003—In a meeting today with Prime Minister of Pakistan  Mir Zafarrullah Khan Jamali, World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn welcomed the continuation of economic reforms in Pakistan and urged deeper attention to the outstanding agenda in areas like education, power sector, and civil service reform.

Wolfensohn said Pakistan had laid the basis for faster economic growth, a vital component to underpin the country’s poverty reduction efforts.  Meeting the Prime Minister for the first time, he congratulated him on his election.

“Pakistan has so far stayed the course on an important reform program and recognizes the challenges ahead to deepen and sustain this,” said Wolfensohn.   “The country has ambitious poverty reduction goals, as it seeks to meet its commitment to improve the quality of life for all citizens.  I believe the nation’s leaders understand the critical links between the pursuit of sound economic policies—including a healthy business environment and the necessary infrastructure to facilitate growth—and dramatic improvements to the delivery of social services that will make the real difference in the lives of Pakistanis.”

During the meeting, Prime Minister Jamali shared his government’s vision and development priorities which included increased agriculture production; better management of water resources; improved infrastructure, especially in power and roads sectors; better education and health services and human resource development.  Wolfensohn assured the Prime Minister of the Bank’s continued assistance for Pakistan’s poverty reduction strategy and suggested that the World Bank would be ready to scale up its assistance to be responsive to Pakistan’s development needs.

The Bank was prepared to increase the level of its assistance from the current US$600 million a year to up to US$1 billion a year, provided that Pakistan sustains its economic program and develops the sectoral reform programs needed to strengthen governance, institutions, and regulatory capacity.  Wolfensohn said that Pakistan could build on its commendable reforms to date by tackling the large remaining reform challenges in some key structural areas like education, power sector reform, privatization, and civil service reform.

He added that water management in Pakistan was critical and that the Bank saw good potential to expand its support for the rehabilitation and possible expansion of water and irrigation infrastructure.