World Bank officials have noted persistent delays in formalising the Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) between Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) and provincial governments that are specified in the financing agreement for the $78 million Digital Economy Enhancement Project (DEEP). While the Bank’s implementation status and results reporting shows momentum across several operational fronts, pending intergovernmental agreements remain a material constraint to onboarding provincial and local government services onto the project’s platforms. DEEP’s core objective is to strengthen government capacity for digitally enabled public service delivery to citizens and businesses; finalising institutional arrangements with provinces is central to realising that goal.
The Bank’s assessment records concrete early progress: three designated accounts have been opened and disbursements have commenced, project staff have been recruited, and procurement processes for key consultancies and IT infrastructure are in motion. At the same time, the report stresses that establishing a national data exchange layer and a digital identification ecosystem are priorities for federal leadership. These technical building blocks will only deliver full value if provincial and local services are brought into a common framework — an outcome the Bank says requires stronger coordination among project implementation entities and service providers at both federal and provincial levels. The MoUs between MoITT and provincial governments, as set out in the financing agreement, remain outstanding and are cited as a necessary next step to enable integrated service onboarding.
DEEP promotes a whole-of-government approach intended to move Pakistan beyond siloed departmental systems toward a coherent Pakistan Digital Government Enterprise Architecture. That architecture is designed to map roles and responsibilities and set principles across technology, business processes, information flows, and service design so that agencies can interoperate securely and efficiently. According to project documents, successful implementation should reduce the cost of processing, improve transparency in service delivery, and support enhanced tax collection capabilities for federal and provincial administrations — outcomes that align with the broader fiscal and governance priorities of government. The project will also be used to pilot and scale common components, enabling services to plug into a shared ecosystem rather than rebuilding separate stacks for each department.
The World Bank’s latest review underlines that while foundational work is well under way, sustaining momentum depends on timely completion of the policy and institutional steps that bind federal and provincial partners together. Project teams have begun technical rollouts, but without agreed MoUs and clearer coordination mechanisms, the onboarding of provincial and local government services risks being delayed or uneven. For DEEP to move from platform build to everyday citizen impact, stakeholders will need to close outstanding administrative gaps and align timelines so the technical investments translate into more accessible, affordable and transparent digital services nationwide.
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