$69.01m DEEP: Implementation progress ‘moderately satisfactory’: World Bank

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has rated the implementation progress of the “Pakistan: Digital Economy Enhancement Project (DEEP)”, worth $69.91 million aimed at enhancing the government’s capacity for digitally-enabled public services delivery for citizens and businesses, as moderately satisfactory.

The original cost of the project was $78 million, which is revised to $69.91 million. However, as per the documents no amount has been disbursed so far.

The bank stated that the project faced delays during its initial start-up phase.

To meet targets for the year, implementing entities should prioritise time-sensitive administrative tasks and begin coordinating with the provinces on the prioritisation of digital services.

The project documents revealed that it will support activities that will increase access to and promote the use of digital services across Pakistan, with a focus on broadband access and reducing the significant digital divide currently existing in many parts of the country.

The project will also support cross-cutting improvements in the enabling environment supporting reforms to expand broadband connectivity and to strengthen the policy and legal framework for the digital economy.

The DEEP will also enable institutional, policy, and regulatory global best practices through technical assistance to the implementation agencies, including the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), the Board of Investment (BoI), and other provincial institutions.

Under the project, Nadra under the Ministry of Interior will build a data exchange layer for government agencies to exchange information securely, as well as, provide citizens with a digital “wallet” to secure credentials. This is potentially transformative for increasing citizens’ access to public and private services (everything from birth certificates to banking).

The project is aligned with the 2018 Digital Pakistan Policy, and in particular objective, which calls for the establishment of a holistic (government-wide) enterprise architecture and the integration of government databases and systems through e-government service portals.

The project is comprised three components.

Component 1: Improving digital economy, governance and service capabilities. This component will provide technical assistance to MoITT for policy and regulatory reforms to address regulatory and market failures in the country’s connectivity infrastructure.

It will include: i. Right-of-Way (RoW) reforms, development, and adoption of a RoW-single-window, on-boarding and change management of major civic agencies in the RoW-single-window, and development of RoW dispute resolution procedures. ii. Broadband demand analysis and stimulation options to improve the affordability of smartphones and update of digital services. iii. Broadband infrastructure mapping, assessment of market failures. iv. Review and recommendations on the institutional and structural alignment of the MoITT to meet emerging challenges and opportunities for digital transformation. v. Nationwide stakeholder engagement, training, and workshops.

Component 2: Pakistan Business Portal. This component will support BoI to modernise regulatory regimes in Pakistan at three levels of government: federal, provincial, and municipal.

The first stage entails reviewing, mapping, and developing a catalogue of registrations, certificates, licenses, and others (RLCOs) across the three levels of the government, potentially including up to 800 government agencies relevant to dealing with investing and operating businesses in Pakistan.

Component 3: Project management.

This component will cover the establishment of Project Management Units (PMU).

The project will be implemented by the MoITT, which has the required institutional mandates. The Member for Information Technology “Member, IT” will provide general implementation and coordination oversight.

Despite the policy instruments available at the federal and provincial levels, the responsible institutions lack implementation support causing missed opportunities across various sub-sectors. Despite the presence of relatively strong national ID and payment systems the lack of interoperability frameworks and mechanisms has limited the capacity of the government (as well as, non-government actors) to exchange data securely and seamlessly.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025