Islamabad:
The Minister of Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb has promised good news from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) soon, stressing that negotiations with the world lender were in the last stages and he saw no obstacle to a successful conclusion of talks.
Speaking to the media after having approached a ceremony on the occasion of the “World Glacier Day”, organized by the Ministry of Climate Change at the headquarters of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the Minister said significant progress in talks with the IMF on climate financing.
“Negotiations with the IMF are underway and there is no major obstacle in the success of these talks,” said Aurangzeb in an informal conversation with journalists. “The talks with the IMF will soon be completed. Pakistan will achieve the objectives of the economic discipline and we will soon get good news from the IMF,” he added.
He said the country needed the support of its development partners and the United Nations to combat climate change. In this regard, he described the talks with the IMF in the last two “positive” weeks and called them a promising step towards the vital funding guarantee.
Earlier, the minister told the ceremony that the country had suffered a lot due to the devastating super floods of 2022. He added that the government had received promises of $ 10 billion in rehabilitation of damage caused by floods but that aid could not be used due to a lack of viable projects.
“Climate change is an important problem for Pakistan, but climate change control is the real challenge for us. We could not prepare viable projects, so we could not use aid. We will have to find viable projects for climate funding,” he told the public.
Speaking of the environment, he stressed that Pakistan housed more than 3,000 glacial lakes, 33 of which were “extremely dangerous”. He warned that more than 7 million people were in danger due to the possible floods in the ice lake (GLOF).
“There is an urgent need for a complete strategy to combat climate risks,” he said, adding that there was a national climate strategy framework but that his implementation had been a great challenge. “A” protection and resilience strategy of glaciers “is presented for a public exam.”
He said that “climate change” and the “growing population” were the two main threats to the country. “Low precipitation in winter is an indication of a major threat,” he said, adding that good progress has been made on discussions on the country partnership with the World Bank, but “we have to provide useful climate projects”.
Currently, he said, environmental degradation and significant population were significant existential threats to the country’s economy. “The government will provide all financial and technical resources so that the economy can move forward,” he said.
“The 10-year economic reform program is being prepared by the government with the support of the World Bank, where environmental challenges will obtain a larger place. The World Bank will provide us with total support in this regard,” he added.
(With application input)
