PARIS, 19 April — Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz is expected in Paris on April 29 to attend the two-day Pakistan Development Forum meeting to be held at the World Bank’s European headquarters on April 29 and April 30.

Anne Davis, a spokesman for the World Bank said: “The meeting will bring together Pakistani authorities with representatives of the community of official development partners — bilateral partners and multilateral and international organizations — to discuss the country’s economic situation and its development plans and priorities toward poverty reduction.” She also noted that “since 1952 the World Bank has approved 84 loans and 111 credits for Pakistan, totaling more than $12.8 billion.”

A press conference to unveil the results of the two-day meeting will be held on April 30 and will be presided by Aziz. World Bank Vice President for South Asia Mieko Nishimizu will also be present to answer questions, according to Davis. As for the local press in Pakistan, Davis said, the World Bank has made arrangements for Pakistani journalists to participate by video-conference. Because of the presence of Aziz, journalists attending the event are being screened to be able to attend the event, with Davis saying a security check will also be made at the entrance of the World Bank’s Avenue Iena European headquarters in Paris.

Nobody at the World Bank would comment as to the coincidence between the press conference and the holding of a national referendum called by Gen. Musharraf for the same day.

In a background paper issued to coincide with announcement of the forum, the World Bank notes that “Pakistan has made some development progress in its 50 years of independence,” but that “it continues to face severe challenges of economic growth and human development.”

The World Bank notes, moreover, that “health and education services have expanded and improved in Pakistan, and life expectancy has increased.

Immunization rates over the past decade have doubled to over 70 percent for most groups of children. The country has achieved a dramatic increase in the knowledge of family planning, which is now almost universal, and the average number of births for women in Pakistan has decreased from around seven in 1980 to five in 1999. Infant and maternal mortality rates have dropped, as have illiteracy rates, although there is still a significant gender discrepancy. Male illiteracy rates, which were 50 percent ten years ago, have dropped to around 41 percent. Female illiteracy rates dropped from 79 to 70 percent over the same time frame. On the economic front, notes the World Bank, Pakistan has made “notable reforms” in trade liberalization and banking. Restrictions have been lifted on the export of agricultural products and the government has plans to deregulate the oil, gas, power and communications sectors. As a result of banking reforms, nationalized commercial banks have reduced operating losses and have recovered a third of the stock of loan defaults. The government of Pakistan, according to the World Bank, is currently implementing a national development agenda which focuses on poverty reduction and governance reforms. It includes steps for stabilization of the economy, further deregulation, devolution of power to local governments, accelerated growth and improved social services.

Despite this notable progress, however, the World Bank admits in its document that poverty rates in Pakistan, “which had fallen substantially in the 1980s,” remained stagnant in the early 1990s and rose toward the end of the decade. The quality of health and education services remains low compared to other developing countries.

As for Pakistan’s GDP growth, which had averaged 5-6 percent per year in the 1980s, it “slowed to just over 3 percent in the latter half of the 1990s, in the estimation of the World Bank. The impact of Sept. 11, 2001 in the United States and the current conflict in Afghanistan are likely to keep growth below 3 percent this fiscal year, predicts the World Bank.

Also, it notes, “while inflation was brought down to single digit, increases in per-capita incomes have been negligible in recent years, due in part to a high population growth of 2.2 percent per year.”