Pakistan, US agree to enhance economic cooperation

WASHINGTON: Pakistan and the United States expressed satisfaction over the bilateral relationship between the two countries and agreed to intensify the engagements in the coming months to further strengthen and deepen bilateral cooperation in all areas.
This was stated in the meeting between Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar and the US Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at the State Department here.
Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani and Secretary Finance Waqar Masood joined the Finance Minister.
Recalling the recent high-level exchanges from both sides, especially the visit of Commerce Secretary Pritzker to Islamabad in March to attend the US-Pakistan Business Opportunities Conference, the two sides expressed satisfaction over the relationship and agreed to intensify engagements in the coming months to further strengthen and deepen bilateral cooperation in all areas.
Finance Minister Dar shared with the Deputy Secretary of State the important achievements in the economic sector that led to the upgrading of Pakistan’s economic outlook in recent months.
The significant decrease in inflation, growing foreign exchange reserves, stable exchange rate and shrinking fiscal deficit, Dar underlined, were the result of sound economic policies pursued by the government of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.
Noting the significant improvement in the security situation in the country, Deputy Secretary Blinken stressed the need to continue building momentum on expanded trade investment and economic cooperation between Pakistan and the United States. The two sides also agreed that energy remains the vital area with immense potential for enhanced cooperation.
In this context it was emphasized that the forthcoming meeting of the Working Group on Energy should review the entire range of collaboration to assist Pakistan in overcoming its energy deficiency.
Federal Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar also met President of OPIC Ms Elizabeth Littlefield and her team and discussed OPIC’s programme portfolio and the projects in the pipeline in Pakistan.
Dar apprised Ms Littlefield of the excellent economic recovery that was attracting investors to make new investment or expand operations in Pakistan. He said indicators like foreign exchange reserves, inflation, the discount rate and stock market index had markedly improved in the last 22 months and international agencies had acknowledged the economic recovery. He said the IMF Board has recently cleared the 6th review without any waiver and Moody’s has also upgraded Pakistan’s outlook from stable. He observed that in view of the renewed interest of investors OPIC can increase its presence in Pakistan and finance more projects especially in the energy sector.
Ms Elizabeth Littlefield congratulated the finance minister over the successful review of EFF programme and improvement in rating by Moody’s. She stated that Pakistan had staged a remarkable recovery in a very short span of time and the investors’ interest had evidently increased.
Ms Littlefield informed Finance Minister Dar to look into some of the pending issues of its wind energy projects of 50 MW each. She said that though the size of these projects was not big yet it was clean renewable energy which will improve its energy mix.
The finance minister informed Ms Littlefield that the government of Pakistan was working on the generation of 7,000 MW of electricity from hydel, coal, wind and LNG. He assured the president OPIC of all possible help in removing glitches in its projects which are in the pipeline. Dar apprised her about the import of LNG that will be used to produce electricity and asked OPIC to provide financing to US companies interested in these projects.
Ms Littlefield appreciated the idea and invited the government of Pakistan to identify projects on which OPIC can help. She also flagged utilising Pakistani-American diaspora for investment in various projects in Pakistan.
Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani thanked Ms Littlefield on sending a representative who made a presentation before the Pakistani community during the first Convention of Pakistani-American community held at the embassy in October 2014.
Meanwhile, addressing reputed think tank the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Washington on the Revival of Pakistan Economy and its Future Prospects, Ishaq Dar said on Friday that Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has enunciated peace for development as the defining principle of Pakistan’s foreign policy.
Building a peaceful neighborhood and a rebalancing between geo-strategic and geo-economic priorities constitute the main pillars of this policy. Our government has embarked on resolute efforts to create a peaceful external and internal environment so that the core national objectives of economic development are achieved, Dar said.
Ishaq Dar who is currently visiting Washington to attend the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings said that on the economic front far-reaching initiatives have been taken by Pakistan with neighboring countries including enhancing bilateral trade, streamlining transit trade issues, increasing investment cooperation, strengthening connectivity through road and rail links and promoting energy collaboration.
He told the participants of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that the government is implementing a four point agenda as per its manifesto and focusing on energy, economy, education and elimination of extremism.
Dar added that due to the sound economic policies of the government a GDP growth rate of 4.14 percent was achieved in the financial year 2013-14 which was the highest level during last 6 years.
We have targeted our growth at 5.1 percent for 2014-15 and despite floods, and agriculture performance is satisfactory on account of better production of both the wheat and cotton crop. Large-scale manufacturing has started to show improved results, he said.