Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb on the sixth and final day of his visit to the US continued his engagements and witnessed the signing of a swap agreement between the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The signing took place during his meeting with IFC Managing Director Makhtar Diop on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Washington, DC.
The finance minister hailed the recent reorganization of the IFC, which has designated Pakistan as a regional hub, calling it a strong vote of confidence in the country’s growing economic potential.
He also reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening its partnership with the IFC across key development and finance sectors.
Highlighting progress on the Reko Diq project, Senator Aurangzeb expressed optimism over EXIM Bank’s participation in the near future.
He further appreciated the IFC’s continued support for subnational financing and digital payment rights (DPR) initiatives, as well as its advisory role in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, electric vehicles and commodity exchanges.
FinMin also welcomed Diop’s upcoming visit to Pakistan around the spring meetings and expressed confidence that it would further strengthen cooperation between Pakistan and the IFC.
Meanwhile, Aurangzeb also attended the 15th V20 Ministerial Dialogue on “Cost of Capital, Debt and Growth Paths.”
In his speech, he highlighted the increasing frequency and intensity of devastating floods in Pakistan and stressed that the government continues to fund rescue and relief operations from its own resources.
He appreciated the support of the CVF-V20 Secretariat to assist Pakistan in the preparation of its Climate Plan for Prosperity (CPP), and informed that funding is being made available under the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) to operationalize the plan.
Senator Aurangzeb also emphasized the need to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund and called for speedy decision-making processes at the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to ensure timely and effective climate action for vulnerable countries.
The finance czar also called on JP Morgan’s top management on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Washington, DC.
Hd briefed the JP Morgan team on Pakistan’s upcoming initial public offering of the Panda bond in the Chinese market, noting that it would be launched as a green bond to support sustainable financing goals. He also gave a detailed overview of the government’s privatization program and highlighted the government-approved sale of First Women Bank (G2G).
Senator Aurangzeb informed the team that several US companies had expressed interest in the Reko Diq project and that the government was looking forward to EXIM Bank’s participation in the syndication process. He also highlighted the ongoing digital collaboration between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan through the GO AI Hub initiative, which aims to promote innovation and technology-driven development.
The Finance Minister encouraged JP Morgan to explore further opportunities for cooperation with Pakistan in areas of mutual interest, including sustainable finance, investment facilitation and digital transformation.
