World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz on Saturday evening highly commended Pakistan for taking steps to root out corruption from the society, and for launching education programme in Punjab with World Bank''s assistance, which, he said was "very very sound."
He said this in his address to the Joint IMF/World Bank Town Hall meeting with Civil Society Organisations. Besides the delegates from participants to the annual WB/IMF meetings, including Pakistan delegation, those attending were Rodrigo De Rato, Managing Director of the IMF, Trevor Manuel, Chairman of the Development Committee.
Wolfowitz referred to his recent visit to Pakistan and said that he had seen the projects that WB was assisting in the country. He particularly mentioned "a large programme to assist the Government of Punjab in education, particularly girls'' education, and a support for ... the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund."
The project, he added, "is helping small communities with small investments."
The World Bank President said, "I think when, for example, ...the user fees which is school fees for children in Pakistan, the Bank is supporting a programme that not only waives user fees but actually pays parents to send their girls to school."
The WB President added that it seemed to him that these are "very very sound projects that are helping poor children in the country and doing so in a way that, as far as I can tell, is clean of corruption."
Wolfowitz said the corruption issue is an important one. "I think the World Bank has a big responsibility to make sure that in things that we fund, we do everything we can to prevent corrupt practices, and if we find them, we do everything reasonable to punish guilty parties."
He said that Pakistan is a country of 140 million people, "and so many of them are poor."
"I think it is very important to do what we can to contribute (a) to growth and (b) to spreading the benefits of that growth to the poor parts of the population."
The World Bank President made a mention of Pakistan, acknowledging the role model that Pakistan has become in the wake of continuing reform process, boosting of national economy and making an impression on world''s economic map.
He commended Pakistan for extending loans to the small farmers, and ensuring welfare of the agriculture community, and added "Of course, Pakistan is world famous for its organisations."
Pakistan has earned praise of high officials and delegates attending the annual meetings for its sound economic performance and commendable efforts to alleviate poverty, empowerment of the masses at the grassroots level, good governance and continuing economic reforms.
The Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance, Economy and Revenue, Dr Salman Shah, is leading a delegation of economic team to the important annual World Bank and IMF meetings. The Governor of the SBP, Dr Ishrat Husain, is also attending the major world event.