KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday said that with the support of the World Bank the provincial government wanted to work for development of human capital, poverty reduction, stunting, revenue mobilisation and economic reforms.

The World Bank country chief assured the chief minister that stuck-up funds of the Bank would be released shortly so that the projects in progress with the support of the WB could be completed within time.

The chief minister was talking to WB Country Director Najy Benhassine here at CM House.

The Bank’s country chief was accompanied by operation manager Melinda Good and senior operation officer Amena Raja.

The meeting was attended by two provincial ministers and others.

The meeting participants discussed 18 projects of $3.25 billion, including $1.64bn ongoing and $1.605bn in the pipeline.

The chief minister said that five projects were scheduled to be completed during the current financial year.

18 projects costing $3.25bn are under way or in the pipeline

They include Sindh Agriculture Growth project of $86 million, Sindh Irrigation Agriculture Productivity Enhancement project of $76m, Public Sector Management Reform of $50m, Sindh Enhanced Response to Reduce Stunting ($187m) and Karachi Neighbourhood Improvement Programme ($86m).

Mr Shah said that the World Bank committed to releasing $461m against which $267.7m was released so far and the remaining amount of $193.3m was yet to be released.

He said that these projects would complete by the end of this year, therefore they should be given priority in terms of financial support.

It was pointed out that the projects to be launched in partnership with the World Bank included Sindh Water & Agricultural Transformation, Sindh Early Warning Enhancement Through Class Room Transformation.

Mr Shah urged the WB country director to expedite their formalities so that the projects could be started from the next financial year.

Talking about Sindh Resilience Project (SRP), the P&D chairman said that it was revised to include modified scope of work which needed to be approved by the ECNEC.

Anti-encroachment activities

The meeting participants were informed that anti-encroachment activities around main drains were in progress.

Mehmoodabad nullah has been cleared and clearance of encroachments from Gujjar nullah and Orangi nullah would be started very soon.

The chief minister said that he had notified a working group on the development of city-wide resettlement and rehabilitation framework by Feb 4 to work with the social development team of the Bank.

He said that commissioner of Karachi, deputy commissioners/administrators of KMC, administrator and revenue officials were already working with the World Bank.

The WB country chief said that currently their 12 projects worth $1.64bn portfolio were active and in progress while six projects with the portfolio of $1.605bn were in the pipeline.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2021