OdishaPlus Bureau
World Bank is optimistic about the Odisha Strategic Partnership for the development of the State. Country Director of World Bank Junaid Kamal Ahmad has informed the Odisha Government in this regard though he is waiting to receive a formal proposal for development policy financing from the Union Government, said official sources. With World Bank Group agreeing to join hands with Odisha Government under Country Partnership Framework (CPF), more areas will be covered with the support of the International Bank.
The World Bank Group consists of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Agency (IDA). Ahmad said that the recent meeting to review on Odisha Rapid State Diagnostic (ORSD) had fruitful deliberations.
While supporting other sectors, World Bank has also suggested supporting Tertiary Health Care Support in Odisha as the State Government is attaching importance on providing health care to all and accords priority to tertiary health care. The World Bank has sought a better understanding of tertiary health care infrastructure in State before including these areas for cooperation.
The World Bank Group’s (WBG) Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for India has set the strategic focus for the Group’s engagement with the country for the period 2018-2022, to support its aspirations as a middle-income economy.
The CPF is based on the Union Government’s development priorities, WBG’s Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) for India, which presents the Group’s analysis of the key challenges facing India to progress towards the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity and WBG’s comparative advantage and value proposition to support India. The CPF also incorporates lessons learnt from during the implementation of the country partnership strategy from 2013 to 2017, the sources added.
Over the past several months, the WBG organized a series of consultations with a broad range of stakeholders across the country. The rich and insightful views, perspectives and ideas received as part of the consultations have provided valuable inputs to understand the progress, opportunities, and challenges facing India’s development to accordingly frame the WBG’s engagement in India for the period 2018-2022.
World Bank is attaching importance for the development of Odisha as it is participating in higher education, water resources, and several other projects while earlier it was involved in the health care sector. The Odisha Government will soon take a call on the issue and the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) will also have to propose a development policy financing to the World Bank. After that World Bank Group will move forward in this regard