$500m sought from World Bank for policy reforms.

ISLAMABAD -- The government is seeking a loan of $500 million from the World Bank to enhance the policy and institutional framework for improving fiscal management and regulatory framework.

It is learnt that the World Bank executive board will approve the government's request with the start 2020-21 in July.

The proposed Resilient Institutions for Sustainable Economy (RISE) is the first in a programmatic series of three operations focused on addressing foundational reforms through enhancing the policy and institutional framework to improve fiscal management and regulatory framework to foster growth and competitiveness.

RISE is aligned with the government's Covid-19 crisis response programme which aims at scaling up spending on health and social protection while maintaining macro-fiscal stability in the face of a severe economic contraction.

Meanwhile, Securing Human Investments to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) focuses on reforms to enhance human capital accumulation, increase the contribution of women to economic productivity, and improve federal safety nets to respond to shocks...