Dar, Italian minister discuss economic cooperation

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar has said  the government was fully committed to ensuring transparency and adoption of international standards of governance.

Ishaq Dar and visiting Italian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Benedetto Della Vedova' at a meeting here on Wednesday discussed various avenues for economic cooperation.

The finance minister said the government of Pakistan had submitted the letter of intent for joining the Open Government Partnership (OGP), after having become a signatory to the OECD Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. He said that the government was fully committed to ensuring transparency and adoption of international standards of governance.

The Italian deputy minister appreciated Pakistan’s commitment to join OGP and accession to the OECD Convention. He said that Pakistan’s partnership with the OECD, including accession to its conventions, was an important step as OECD maintained shared statistics which facilitated international trade and investments.

Earlier, the finance minister welcomed the Italian deputy minister and members of the accompanying delegation. He highlighted the historic and longstanding friendly ties between Pakistan and Italy.

He acknowledged the volume of bilateral trade between the two nations but emphasised that trade potential is much bigger than the current level. He appreciated the cooperation and support of the Italian government for various development projects in Pakistan. 

The deputy minister recalled the visit to Pakistan last year by Paolo Gentiloni, Italian foreign minister at the time and now the Prime Minister of Italy, as well as the visits by the Italian minister for Defence, and the Italian deputy minister for Economic Development along with a delegation of Italian businesspersons. He said that the recent increase in high-level interaction between the two countries bodes well for relations between the two nations. 

He said the Italian Ambassador to Pakistan, Stefano Pontecorvo, was making active efforts to promote foreign direct investment by Italian companies in Pakistan in various areas including energy, infrastructure and machinery.

The finance minister shared with the deputy minister that after having achieved macroeconomic stability in Pakistan, the government was now focused on attaining higher, sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

He said that, during the tenure of the present government, despite curtailing fiscal deficit by more than half, development spending has been more than doubled, and spending on social sector has been nearly tripled.

He also apprised the deputy minister of the merger of Pakistan’s domestic stock exchanges last year. He said in June last year, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was declared the best market in Asia, and in December, KSE-100 was declared the 5th best performing stock index globally in 2016.

Senior officials of the Ministry of Finance, members of the visiting delegation and officials of the Italian Embassy in Pakistan attended the meeting.