ISLAMABAD, Sept 13: The World Bank wants Pakistan to use its $2 billion annual assistance ‘effectively’, particularly for improving the infrastructure and power sector. “We will be holding important talks with the World Bank on issues relating to infrastructure, power, water projects and roads,” Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance Dr Salman Shah said on Wednesday.

Talking to Dawn on phone from Colombo where he is attending a meeting of the Commonwealth finance ministers, the adviser said the government was seeking additional assistance from the World Bank to start new development programmes.

He is scheduled to fly from Sri Lanka to Singapore to attend the annual World Bank-IMF meeting from Sept 15 to 21.

“The focus of the (Singapore) meeting will be on improving the World Bank assistance with a view to meting requirements of other social sectors,” he said.

In reply to a question, Dr Shah said Pakistan was seeking ‘sizable’ assistance from the World Bank to undertake construction of dams.

He said the Asian Development Bank was also expected to offer adequate funding to help execute infrastructure-related projects.

However, sources said the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were against extending subsidies to power and agriculture sectors as “both these sectors were creating distortions and becoming a burden on the Pakistani economy”.

Another issue to be discussed at the meeting will be inflation which was 7.6 per cent at the close of June 2006. It is said that the government will not be able to meet its current financial year’s target of reducing the inflation to 6.5 per cent because of its being ‘too ambitious’.

The inflation, the WB and IMF officials believed, had increased over the past few months and needed to be brought down.