World Bank Asks Pakistan To Do More And Put House In Order

World Bank - The News Today - TNT

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has asked Pakistan to put the house in order and work on wide-ranging reforms to achieve better economic development and prosperity for its population.

The WB also asked the world leaders to come forward to compensate climate-affected countries through carbon pricing to deter emissions.

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The WB Vice President for South Asia Martin Raiser in an exclusive talk with Pakistani media house blamed limited and lack of long-standing reforms in the energy, water and revenue sectors for many of the challenges Pakistan faces now and called for protecting the sanctity of the contracts in dealing with investments, particularly in the energy sector.

He said Pakistan had made some initial decisions that went in the right direction, but a lot more good decisions are needed, and implementations should be made on these decisions.

He said the World Bank did not have a Country Partnership Framework (CPF) with Pakistan after 2015, a period that saw the Covid-19 pandemic and then floods. Therefore, the bank has now considered a longer 10-year engagement as some challenges were enormous and could not have been addressed in three to four years.

Raiser revealed that “in order to deal with the issue of climate change, we do need pricing instrument that disincentivises the emissions of carbon” so that it can generate resources to invest in resilience. However, he said the climate justice and transfer from historic emitters to those affected was very complicated in global negotiations due to politics, although the moral case for compensation was very strong.

He said as the World Bank was hosting a loss and damage fund as an outcome of COP28, a lot more funding was required so that at least 50pc of such investments in climate go into adaptation to help countries that did not contribute to climate crisis but regularly get affected and need to be helped in preparing for the consequences.

He said the World Bank decided to be selective and more outcome-oriented and ensure stronger processes through a combination of World Bank Group instruments and financing models to ensure both sides remain focused on tangible targets.

Read more: SBP To Announce Sixth Straight Rate Cut To Revive Economy

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