ISLAMABAD: The World Bank signed an agreement with Pakistan on Wednesday for a loan of $304 million for the Punjab Resource Improvement and Digital Effectiveness Programme (PRIDE) at the Economic Affairs Division.

The programme aims to help the Punjab government to increase its revenue and to improve reliability of resource allocation and access to digital services for people and firms in the province.

PRIDE interventions would primarily address three challenging areas, those of fiscal risk management, revenue mobilisation and expenditure management through better use of information systems, officials said.

Economic Affairs Division Secretary Noor Ahmed signed the agreement on behalf of the government of Pakistan while the representative of Punjab government signed the operational agreement.

World Bank Country Director Najy Benhassine signed the agreement on behalf of the World Bank.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar reiterated the commitment of the government to improve fiscal management by augmenting domestic revenues and enhancing spending on pro-people development projects.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2020