The World Bank's board of executive directors approved $350 million in financing for the Second Resilient Institutions for Sustainable Economy (RISE-II) operation in Pakistan on Tuesday. RISE-II aims to strengthen fiscal management and promote competitiveness for sustained and inclusive economic growth in the country whose economy is struggling to grow, with persistently high inflation and foreign reserves running low.
"Based on the foundations laid through RISE II and parallel support by other IFIs, Pakistan has the opportunity to tackle long-standing structural distortions in its economy after the upcoming general elections," Derek H. C. Chen, task team leader of the operation said in a statement.
"Failing to use this opportunity would risk plunging the country back into stop-and-go economic cycles," Chen added.
The operation also aims to foster growth and competitiveness by reducing the cost of tax compliance, improving financial sector transparency, encouraging the use of digital payments and promoting exports by lowering import tariffs, the World Bank said in its statement.

What is RISE-II operation?
Under the World Bank’s development policy financing, RISE-II is proposed to be supported under the COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility of the Bank and co-financed with the World Bank. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank along with World Bank co-financed RISE-I in 2020, which was first in the proposed programmatic series to assist the Government of Pakistan strengthen its policies for improved macroeconomic management and business competitiveness in the medium term.
The objectives of RISE-II operation is to strengthen the country’s macroeconomic management and support a more sustained and inclusive growth by mitigating the compounded socioeconomic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and other exogenous and domestic shocks.

With Reuter's Inputs