Pak economy on right path to stabilisation

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh Sunday said Pakistan’s economy was on the right path to stabilisation and urged the US businesspersons to benefit from the investment opportunities available in the country.

He made this statement while attending a luncheon roundtable with senior executives of the US-Pakistan Business Council (USPBC) hosted in the honour of Pakistani delegation at the US Chamber of Commerce.

The Pakistani delegation, led by Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, is visiting the United States to attend the International Monetary Fund/World Bank annual meetings — 2019, according to a statement issued by the Finance Ministry Sunday morning.

Talking to the members of USPBC, Dr Shaikh highlighted the government’s focus on improving the ease-of-doing-business and encouraged the US companies to expand their footprint in Pakistan.

Senior executives of the USPBC member companies, including S and P Global, PepsiCo, Motorola Solutions Inc, Citi, Google, ExxonMobil and others, attended the event.

Later, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh along with members of his delegation met with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) President Jin Liqun.

They discussed the AIIB portfolio in Pakistan and potential areas of project financing by the bank, the statement added.

The AIIB president reiterated support for Pakistan’s development agenda and stated that the AIIB was ready to increase funding for Pakistan’s priority development sectors.

He said investment in infrastructure projects had a long-term positive impact on growth. According to the statement, the adviser invited the AIIB president to visit Pakistan which the latter accepted.

Dr. Shaikh and his team also met with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) President Dr Bandar M H Hajjar and briefed him on the current economic situation in the country.

The adviser thanked Dr Hajjar for the IDB’s technical and financial support to Pakistan. Dr Hajjar informed him that Pakistan had been identified as one of the first countries which would be supported by the Bank for strengthening market competitiveness in its core sectors and an IDB mission would soon visit the country for this purpose.

Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh also met with Ms Nena Stoiljkovic, Vice President of the IFC, a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group as well as the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries.

Ms. Stoiljkovic and her team briefed Dr. Shaikh about the IFC’s pipeline of projects in Pakistan, particularly in the wind and solar sectors and also expressed interest in providing advisory services for structuring public-private partnership transactions.