World Bank approves $450 mn assistance to Pak

The World Bank on Thursday approved a financial assistance worth $450 million to Pakistan to support its efforts to help the poor and most vulnerable people in the country. The Finance for Growth Development Policy (FGDP) is a policy credit of $300 million that would assist Pakistan's efforts in promoting an inclusive and transparent financial sector, a statement by the World Bank said.

The bank said the programme aims to raise financial access throughout Pakistan to 50 percent of adults, including 25 percent women, by 2020, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported. According to the statement, in the next three years, FGDP aims to boost

private sector credit access to small and medium enterprises to 15 percent from 7 percent in 2015. "Pakistan has made significant progress in the implementation of economic reforms," WB Country Director for Pakistan Illango Patchamuthu said.

However, despite the substantial development in the initial reform programmes and recent progress in the financial sector; there remains a significant unfinished reforms agenda as financial access and inclusion remain low, Patchamuthu added.

An amount of $100 million, under the National Social Protection Programme, will help Pakistan strengthen the national social safety net systems for the poor in a bid to improve their human capital and to promote beneficiary families' access to complementary social and productive services. It will also support the Benazir Income Support Programme for accurately identifying right candidates for cash transfers, other social programmes and incentivise improvements in service delivery systems.