In Islamabad: Shahzad Sharjeel (92-51) 2279641 ssharjeel@worldbank.org In Washington: Erik Nora (202) 458 4735 enora@worldbank.org Islamabad, November 1, 2007 ─ In discussions with Pakistan’s leadership, World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick pledged increasing World Bank support to drive competitiveness by investment in infrastructure and human development which are all critical to addressing poverty in Pakistan. “I have come here to learn and listen carefully. From what I’ve seen, investing in infrastructure and facilitating programs in the social sectors are the keys to strengthening competitiveness in the long term,” said Zoellick after meetings with President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the country’s economic leadership team. Zoellick concluded a two-day visit to Pakistan today during which he also held wide-ranging discussions with representatives of Pakistan’s education system, non-governmental organizations, the private business sector and citizens who had benefited directly from World Bank-supported poverty programs and earthquake recovery assistance. “While Pakistan has done very well on growth, the next challenge is to become more competitive in international markets,” said Zoellick. “The World Bank will expand its range of services in Pakistan to offer more global knowledge and experience, a stronger presence of our private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, and a deepening engagement in infrastructure and human development.” He said he had discussed with both the President and the Prime Minister the potential opportunities for regional integration, Pakistan’s energy and water management needs, and the challenges of meeting the Millennium Development Goals, which would mean an aggressive focus on health and education. Currently financial assistance from IDA and IBRD was around US$1.5 billion a year and could increase to around US$2 billion, while IFC’s portfolio of over US$500 million had room to grow to over US$800 million during the next year. Since 1952 the World Bank Group had provided Pakistan with around US$10 billion in assistance. Themes that were common across Zoellick’s meetings were Pakistan’s need for top-rate international experience to support development, quality education that provided the skills needed to drive the economy, and the second-generation reforms that would underpin such advances. These included financial sector development and the development of domestic bond markets, professionalization of the civil service, enhanced revenue mobilization, institutional reforms for telecoms, ports, electricity, transport and water management and the drive to make local governments both more accountable and more effective. A broadly representative group of educationists and community workers gave Zoellick their insights in a discussion on Wednesday morning highlighting impressive gains in expanding access to education while underlining the challenges ahead to improve quality across all levels of education. From a group of public and private players, non-governmental organizations, policy makers and practitioners, women and men, he learned about the sharp distinctions between poor quality mainstream public, low-cost private and madrassah education on the one hand and the higher quality British-based private education opportunities for the elite on the other. University professors and administrators described the challenge of bringing new entrants up to speed before they could even begin their higher learning. Women from Balochistan, NWFP and the rural tribal areas bordering Afghanistan told Zoellick that their work in education included mobilizing families to bring their children, especially girls, to school. The education challenge for women ran way beyond the classroom to problems of water, drought, family health, agricultural knowledge and security. Zoellick heard that security had become a major constraint for the work in these areas. “Education is critical to the future of this country,” said Zoellick. “And critical to that is the quality of education and how it prepares Pakistan’s young people to enter the economy, find jobs and live productive lives.” Zoellick was particularly interested to hear from the education professionals how current education opportunities prepared graduates for jobs and linked them to the needs of the private sector. He heard that the women’s university in Balochistan had its young graduates sought after by their own communities as valuable teachers. At the other end of the spectrum, the challenge was the large drop-out factor among girls, the children of the poorest who were being left out altogether, and the fact that some provinces were forging ahead with education reform while others lagged. Zoellick said afterwards he was impressed by the energy and engagement of the people he had met but that clearly the challenge of improving education quality and creating a much sharper focus on linkages between education offered and skills needed in the marketplace required tremendous support. The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund has been receiving support from the World Bank for the past seven years and most recently its extensive countrywide network of NGO partners was mobilized to help emergency victims following drought, floods and the 2005 earthquake. The fund has reached over 10 million people across Pakistan. Zoellick met a representative gathering from all corners of the country to learn more about the impact of the micro-credit, community-scale infrastructure, skills training, and livelihoods programs the fund supports. He heard from a woman with a honey making business in Gilgit who, as a bee master, had shared her skills with 150 other women. He heard about local water schemes that had changed the lives of communities and how small businesses had grown from benefiting one household to reaching out to others. “There is such tremendous creativity and ideas and work in each community,” Zoellick told the gathering who had come to meet him. “If we at the World Bank can play even a small role to create pathways for progress we are pleased to do so because the work is all yours and you should be very proud.” Zoellick was accompanied by Praful Patel, World Bank vice-president for South Asia, and Yusupha Crookes, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan. The Bank president will head to India from Pakistan and conclude his South Asia visit in Bangladesh.
For more information on the Bank’s work in Pakistan, please visit http://www.worldbank.org.pk
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