World Bank ties $600 million loan to wheat, sugar reforms
The World Bank has proposed a $600 million financing package for Pakistan that would require sweeping changes to business regulations, trade policies and investment rules. The changes include removing wheat and sugar from the Import/Export Order, 2022, and allowing greater private sector participation in urea imports.
The proposal is called the Pakistan Bold Reforms for Investment Driven Growth and Employment programme, or BRIDGE. It aims to tackle structural barriers that have kept private investment at around 10 percent of gross domestic product, less than half the level of regional peers. Foreign direct investment remains particularly low, at about 0.6 percent of GDP.
The programme is still a proposal. It is scheduled for approval in January 2027.
A $1.19 billion programme over five years
The five-year initiative aims to attract private investment, expand financing access, improve export competitiveness and align workforce skills with market demand.
The programme has an estimated total cost of $1.193 billion. That figure comprises $600 million in proposed World Bank financing and $593.38 million from the government. It includes a $1.173 billion results-based component and $20 million for technical assistance.
The Ministry of Finance will coordinate the programme. It comes as Pakistan seeks to move beyond macroeconomic stabilisation towards sustained, investment-driven and export-oriented growth.
The World Bank names complex regulations, limited financing, high trade costs and skills mismatches as the main obstacles. Each shows up in the programme’s three components.
Business rules and trade barriers come first
The first component seeks to reduce regulatory, financial and trade barriers. It proposes the Pakistan Business Portal as a one-stop digital platform for business approvals. A modernised Investment Act would strengthen investor protection and transparency.
The proposed reforms also include a unified corporate insolvency law and a dedicated factoring law, which lets businesses raise cash against unpaid invoices.
The full operationalisation of the Export Import Bank of Pakistan is also part of the plan, with a banking licence and internationally compliant export credit and guarantee products. Trade measures would focus on reducing import and export clearance times and expanding internationally recognised accreditation for Pakistani businesses.
For exporters, clearance times and accreditation are practical costs: goods held at ports lose value, and firms without recognised accreditation struggle to enter regulated markets.
Wheat, sugar and urea markets face changes
The second component targets agribusiness and therapeutic goods, including pharmaceuticals. The World Bank has proposed a single national system for approving seed varieties, greater private sector participation in urea imports, and removing wheat and sugar from the Import/Export Order, 2022.
The proposed changes are intended to deregulate the two agricultural commodity markets and encourage private investment. Wheat and sugar sit at the centre of Pakistan’s food economy. Their prices affect household budgets, farm incomes and government subsidy bills alike.
That is why the reform matters beyond trade policy. A more open wheat and sugar market could bring private investment and competition, but it would also test how the government protects consumers and farmers during price swings.
Fertiliser supply and price shape each cropping season, so wider private participation in urea imports matters too.
The programme also seeks to improve pharmaceutical exports by helping the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan achieve World Health Organization Regulatory Maturity Level 3 status and join the Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme.
Skills and jobs form the third part
The third component targets the gap between workers’ qualifications and employers’ needs, with a national Labour Market Information System, stronger vocational qualifications and digital migration services.
The programme also envisages Global Skills Partnership agreements for structured overseas employment pathways. The World Bank noted that more than three million Pakistanis enter the labour market each year.
Women have been identified as a priority beneficiary group across all three components.
Linked to the URAAN Pakistan plan
The financing is aligned with URAAN Pakistan, which seeks private investment of 15 percent of GDP by 2035, up from about 10 percent now.
Progress will be measured through business registrations, access to financing, trade clearance times, accreditation and vocational qualifications. None of that is guaranteed by a loan proposal. The test will come in January 2027, when the programme goes for approval, and in the reforms that follow.
What is the World Bank BRIDGE programme?
What changes does it propose for wheat and sugar?
When is the programme due for approval?
- ProPakistani, “World Bank Ties $600 Million Loan to Wheat, Sugar Market Reforms” (28 October 2026): https://propakistani.pk/2026/10/28/world-bank-ties-600-million-loan-to-wheat-sugar-market-reforms/
- Feature Pakistan, “Pakistan private equity framework $15 billion” (published 28 October 2026): https://featurepakistan.com/pakistan-private-equity-framework-15-billion-october-2026/
- Feature Pakistan, “Shehbaz Sharif export-led growth PSX” (published): https://featurepakistan.com/shehbaz-sharif-export-led-growth-psx/
