By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Pakistan must generate as many as 30 million jobs over the next decade to harness its surging youth population as an engine of growth or face heightened risks of domestic unrest and a brain drain abroad, World Bank President Ajay Banga said.
The South Asian nation is shifting into the execution stage of a decade-long Country Partnership Framework sealed with the World Bank last year, even as it collaborates with the International Monetary Fund to shore up macroeconomic stability. Yet Islamabad remains under intense scrutiny to foster durable expansion and employment amid persistent fiscal strains and structural hurdles.
“We’re trying to move the bank group as a whole from the idea of projects to the idea of outcomes,” Banga told Reuters in an interview in Karachi this week during a trip to the country. “Job creation is the North Star.”
With millions of young Pakistanis poised to enter the workforce, the country needs to churn out 2.5 million to 3 million positions annually—totalling 25 million to 30 million through the 2030s—Banga said. Falling short could spur “illegal migration or domestic instability.”
He emphasised that Pakistan’s demographic profile elevates employment to a core driver of long-term growth, not merely an ancillary objective. “This is a generational challenge,” Banga said.
The framework pledges about $4 billion annually in blended public and private funding from the World Bank Group, with approximately half anticipated from private-sector initiatives spearheaded by the International Finance Corporation.
Banga noted that the emphasis on private capital aligns with Pakistan’s realities: a government hamstrung by constrained fiscal space and an economy where the private sector accounts for 90% of job generation.
The employment blueprint hinges on three key elements: bolstering human and physical infrastructure, enacting reforms to ease business operations, and broadening financing and insurance options, especially for small enterprises and farmers often shut out of formal credit channels. Labor-intensive industries like infrastructure, primary health care, tourism, and smallholder farming hold the strongest promise for job growth, he said, with agriculture potentially delivering one-third of the positions required by midcentury.
An expanding cadre of freelancers underscores the country’s entrepreneurial drive, but they require enhanced capital access, infrastructure, and advisory services to evolve into larger, job-spawning ventures, Banga added.
The pressures are starkly evident in the outflow of talent. Some 4,000 physicians left Pakistan in 2025 alone—the largest yearly tally ever recorded—according to Gallup Pakistan figures derived from Bureau of Emigration data, highlighting how dim employment prospects and subpar conditions are driving skilled professionals overseas.
Addressing dysfunction in the power sector stands as the most pressing short-term imperative, Banga said, pointing out that distribution losses and inefficiencies continue to cap economic potential despite gains in power production.
Pakistan’s electricity system has for years been mired in escalating debt stemming from transmission shortfalls, poor revenue collection, and tardy subsidy payments from the state, burdening public coffers and deterring investors. This circular debt has repeatedly surfaced as a linchpin in IMF-supported bailout packages, with various administrations grappling to curb deficits without spiking energy prices.
Banga stressed that advancing privatisation and greater private involvement in distribution will prove essential to boost efficiency, trim losses, and rehabilitate the sector’s fiscal health. He cautioned that the swift uptake of rooftop solar—while alleviating costs for consumers and companies—could destabilise the grid if distribution overhauls lag. “Electricity is fundamental to everything—health, education, business and jobs.”
Banga advocated weaving climate resilience into core development expenditures, rather than silo it as a peripheral issue. As one of the globe’s most exposed nations to climate threats, Pakistan has endured recurrent deluges, scorching heat spells, and unpredictable rains. Investments in resilient infrastructure, housing, water systems, and farming should dovetail with job promotion to mitigate future vulnerabilities, he said. “The moment you start thinking about climate as separate from housing, food or irrigation, you create a false debate. Just build resilience into what you’re already doing.”
When queried on Pakistan’s place in the World Bank’s worldwide commitments, Banga said he eschews framing it in terms of fragility or turmoil, instead seeing it as a prime avenue for sustained employment gains. “We’re in the business of hope,” he added.
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