Daily Times

KARACHI: In the wake of the Sindh Government’s agenda to provide 50,000 new job opportunities in the province, the World Bank (WB) will prepare a project in support of the Sindh Government’s recruitment plan, Daily Times learnt on Thursday.

“We are working with the provincial government to support their efforts to improve competitiveness which would enable them to create more jobs. We have ongoing projects in Punjab and Khyber Paktunkhuva (KPK) and will shortly be working with the Government of Sindh to prepare a project in support of their jobs agenda shortly,” said Enrique Blanco, a lead country economist at WB for Pakistan.

During the live session on social media, WB experts answered the general public’s questions in detail in which the experts opined that Pakistan’s competitiveness is declining because of weak human development, cumbersome business environment, and protectionist trade policies. Blanco, replying to another query said, “China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) could provide a significant boost to agriculture sector. China will be importing a significant amount of the food it consumes relatively soon, and it has technologies to improve yields which it can share with Pakistan. That would bring obvious benefits to many people in the agriculture sector.”

A plan of $50 billion of infrastructure investment means a lot of construction jobs, which again will benefit the common people, which could generate a large number of jobs at all skill levels, he added. However, there is a lot of work that needs to be done by different governments (federal, provincial, district), together with the private sector, to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that will be generated.

Muhammad Waheed, a senior economist at Macroeconomic and Fiscal management Global Practice of the WB, said that Pakistan has one of the lowest investment ratios in the world. In this background, CPEC is a welcome development. It will bring lots of much needed investment in energy, ports, and roads. It will have a direct impact and in the medium to long term, indirect impact through improving competitiveness. This will increase growth and create jobs.

‘The government continues to deliver on its structural reform agenda in FY16, but much remains to be done if growth is to be strengthened and sustained. The government’s next challenge should be to invest in health, education and nutrition; Pakistan’s staggering fall in poverty over the last 14 years has not been accompanied by a similar improvement in wellbeing. The country’s long-term growth depends on this investment in its people-this is what will make growth matter for Pakistanis.’

Balnco informed that the WB provides financing to the Government of Pakistan. “A large share of our financing is going to the provinces, we are fairly active in all four provinces, focusing on those areas that the provincial governments suggest, e.g. water in Balochistan, skills and agriculture in Punjab, urban development in Sindh or agriculture in KPK are some of the sectors in which we’re engaged in each of the provinces.”