Islamabad, Feb 5 (.) Pakistan must create as many as 30 million jobs over the next decade if it hopes to turn its large and increasing youth-based population into an economic asset rather than a liability, warned Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank.
His remarks came as Pakistan moves into the implementation phase of the new 10-year Country Partnership Framework (CPF) agreed with the World Bank last year, with Banga stating that the Islamabad is currently facing a demographic crisis.
With millions of young people entering the workforce every year, Pakistan needs to generate between 2.5-3 million jobs annually, which means around 25- 30 million jobs by the mid-2030s in order to avoid further surge in unemployment, social unrest, and outward migration.
He further stressed that employment generation rather than being a secondary policy objective, could prove to be a long-term binding constraint on Pakistan’s growth, given the country’s population dynamics.
Under the CPF, the World Bank Group plans to commit around $4 billion a year in combined public and private financing, with roughly half expected to come from private-sector operations led by the International Finance Corporation.
Banga said the emphasis on private capital reflects Pakistan’s fiscal limitations and the reality that about 90% of jobs are created in the private sector.
As such, he outlined three core pillars for Pakistan’s job strategy: sustained investment in human and physical infrastructure, regulatory reforms to make it easier to do business, and expanded access to finance and insurance — especially for small firms and farmers who typically struggle to obtain bank credit.
According to Banga, labour-intensive sectors such as infrastructure development, primary healthcare, tourism and small-scale agriculture offer the greatest potential for large-scale job creation.
Agriculture alone, he noted, could account for roughly one-third of the jobs Pakistan will need to generate by 2050.
While pointing to the rapid growth of freelancing as evidence of strong entrepreneurial appetite, he nonetheless highlighted that many aspiring freelancers lack the much-needed capital, infrastructure, and institutional support, required to scale up the freelancing ventures into long-term businesses that can generate employment for others.
The consequences of weak job creation are already visible, as nearly 4,000 doctors emigrated from Pakistan in 2025, the highest annual figure on record, according to Gallup Pakistan, citing data from the Bureau of Emigration.
Banga identified reforming Pakistan’s power sector as the most urgent near-term priority. Despite improvements in generation capacity, chronic losses in electricity distribution — driven by theft, poor bill recovery and delayed government subsidies—have weighed on growth and deterred investment.
As one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries — regularly hit by floods, heatwaves and erratic monsoons — Pakistan needs climate-resilient investments in infrastructure, housing, water management and agriculture that both create jobs and reduce long-term risks.
Asked how the World Bank views Pakistan within its global portfolio, Banga said he does not view the country as a topic of crisis, but on the contrary a subject of long-term opportunity — one where sustained job creation will be the decisive factor, provided it can implement the reforms recommended to fix its battered economy.
. . PRS