WASHINGTON, March 31: A high-powered Pakistani delegation will visit Washington in mid-April to attend spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The delegation will include adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Salman Shah, State Bank Governor Dr Ishrat Husain, Finance Secretary Naveed Ahsan, and Public Debt Office Director General Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan.

The delegation will stay in Washington from April 14 to 18 and will also meet senior US officials, besides attending the spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF and holding bilateral meetings with senior officials of the two international financial organizations.

Meanwhile, the World Bank Board of Directors has approved a $100 million credit for Punjab. The credit is aimed at enhancing improvements in quality and access to education achieved under a similar credit last year.

Aiming to further improve the education indicators in this province of almost 84 million people, the credit contributes towards progress in the achievement of the millennium development goals related to poverty reduction and education for all in the country.

In September 2000, the member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration, which contained eight millennium development goals. Among these eight goals, one of them relates to achieving universal primary education, which means that, by 2015, children everywhere will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. These goals have been commonly accepted by the international community as a framework for measuring development progress.

“In 2003, Punjab embarked on a wide-ranging reform agenda to improve fiscal management, promote devolution, and improve service delivery starting with education,” said Tahseen Sayed, task leader for Second Punjab Education Development Policy Credit.

The credit is the second in a series of three development policy credits to support the government of Punjab’s medium-term education reform programme to enhance access and improve the quality of education.

The interest-free $100 million credit is from the International Development Association, the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm, with a 35-year maturity, a 10-year grace period, and a 0.75 percent service charge.