Aurangzeb outlines Agri-Financing Reforms, Climate Intarking to Drive Growth in the Private Sector, Export
In Washington, under the sidelines of the IMF World Bank’s annual meetings, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb treated a high -level world bank panel entitled “Agriconnect: Farms, Companies and Financing for Jobs”, which highlights Pakistan’s push to modernize his agricultural sector while confronting climate.
Aurangzeb began by emphasizing the central role of agriculture in Pakistan’s economy and contributed almost a quarter of GDP and supports millions of small farmers who own less than five hectares. He emphasized that politics would switch from direct control to relief, which allowed the private sector to create growth in areas where it can be more effective.
His detailed pilot programs that are now underway, supplied seeds and fertilizers, offer agronomic services and use satellite -based crop monitoring to help farmers increase yield while reducing the dependence of intermediaries.
To scale these endeavors, the minister called on the financial sector to step in and offer first-loss guarantees, subsidized loans and uncollateralized credit for small and tenants.
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In climate conditions, Aurangzeb emphasized it urgently to adapt to extreme weather events, such as the recent floods that severely affected the rice crop. He noted that one -third of Pakistan’s ten -year national partnership framework with the World Bank is devoted to climate measures and decarbonization. There are financial resources, he said, but the implementation must accelerate to meet developing challenges.
Investment in capacity building has the government sent about 1,000 Pakistani students to China for advanced education in agricultural research, mechanization and modern agricultural methods. In response to queries, Aurangzeb confirmed the obligation to deregulation and incentives private investments in infrastructure such as cold chains, warehouses and value -added treatment.
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He also marked the export potential for key crops and projected rice exports of approx. $ 3.5 billion in the current year. In his closing comments, the minister expanded the definition of agriculture’s influence and said that when the full value chain is included, the sector contributes almost 40 percent of GDP.
Earlier in Washington, Aurangzeb also attended the G-24-Minister Meeting, highlighting Pakistan’s macroeconomic stability, crediting structural reforms in taxation, energy and privatization, thanking the IMF and the World Bank to support customs forms and cross-cutting handling transactions initiatives.
