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Summary
The World Bank (WB) and Pakistan on Tuesday signed three agreements amounting to US $350 million in different social sectors aiming at enhancing productivity of education, social protection and water resources management. The agreements were signed by Acting Country Director WB, Said AL-Habsy and Secretary Economic Affairs Division, Farrukh Qayyum. An agreement amounting to US $100 million was signed for Higher Education Support Programme, aiming at improving the quality and relevance of teaching and research besides expanding access and enhancing equity in higher education. US$200 million project of Social Safety Net Development Policy Credit was also among the three agreements signed today which has objective to recognize the need to provide immediate support to poor families and improvement existing safety net programmes. Yet another agreement for additional financing of US $50 million for Sindh On-Farm Water Management Project was signed by Pakistan and WB. The objective of this project is to enable farmers to better manage irrigation water and increase agriculture productivity by improving efficiency, reliability and equity of irrigation water distribution. Speaking on the occasion, Secretary EAD, Farrukh Qayyum said that the amount is likely to be received within a week and expressed the hope that these projects would help improve performance of these three sectors. In his remarks, WB Deputy Country Director said that WB was already financing water management projects in Sindh and the current agreement was an additional financing keeping in view that success of projects.
