Not trading with neighbours makes no sense: Aurangzeb

WASHINGTON: “Not trading with your neighbours does not make sense,” the Federal Finance Minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, asserted here while responding to a question by The News.

Without naming any neighboring country in that context, the finance minister argued that any “political connotations” or “geopolitical discussions” involved were beyond his domain. However, he said, all intergovernmental organisations are essentially “regional corridors”, whether they’re Southeast Asia or Saarc, etc. “We recently had an SCO conference, we are very keen to join BRICS organization, that is because we want to join trade organisations or corridors and I think that's the right thing to do.”

The finance minister held a press briefing at the conclusion of his week-long visit, attending the annual IMF-WB Fall meetings. He recounted all his meetings during this time and maintained that all concerned acknowledged Pakistan’s efforts to implement the reform agenda but had also been told to now “stay the course”.

He said that Pakistan has opened up discussions with the IMF and World Bank on climate resilience financing as well but if its “quantum is less than a billion dollar, it would not be meaningful”. He announced that the World Bank has agreed to provide special grants for capacity building projects. He reiterated that the National Fiscal Pact signed by all the provinces recently was a “structural benchmark” which Pakistan had agreed to the IMF. The minister added that Pakistan was gearing up to privatise SOEs, even some that are profitable, including PIA, Islamabad airport after technical evaluations, while 3 Discos were already in phase one of the process.

Earlier, the finance minister met with China’s Vice Minister of Finance, Liao Min. They reaffirmed the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries. The minister thanked the government of China for its unwavering support to Pakistan’s socio-economic development and growth, including in securing the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF). He apprised Liao Min that the Pakistani government wanted to launch an inaugural Panda bond in the Chinese market to diversify the financing base. He requested the Chinese side to increase the limits under the Currency Swap Agreement to CNY 40 billion. According to a media brief by the Ministry of Finance, both sides emphasized the need for online settlement of payments and integration of the payment systems of two countries.