Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, Minister of Finance, continued his engagements on the sixth and final day of his visit to the United States and witnessed the signing of an exchange agreement between the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The signing took place during his meeting with IFC Managing Director Makhtar Diop on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, DC.
The Finance Minister welcomed the recent reorganization of IFC, which designated Pakistan as a regional hub, calling it a strong vote of confidence in the country’s growing economic potential.
He also reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening its partnership with the IFC in key sectors of development and finance.
Highlighting the progress made in the Reko Diq project, Senator Aurangzeb expressed optimism about the participation of EXIM Bank in the near future.
He further appreciated IFC’s continued support for subnational financing and digital payment rights (DPR) initiatives, as well as its advisory role in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, electric vehicles and commodity exchanges.
FinMin also welcomed Diop’s upcoming visit to Pakistan for the spring meetings, expressing confidence that it would further strengthen Pakistan-IFC collaboration.
Meanwhile, Aurangzeb also participated in the 15th V20 Ministerial Dialogue on “Cost of Capital, Debt and Growth Pathways”.
In his speech, he highlighted the increasing frequency and intensity of devastating floods in Pakistan, emphasizing that the government continues to fund rescue and relief operations from its own resources.
He appreciated the support provided by the CVF-V20 Secretariat to help Pakistan prepare its Climate Prosperity Plan (CPP), and informed that funding is being made available under the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) to operationalize the plan.
Senator Aurangzeb also highlighted the need to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund and called for accelerating decision-making processes within the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to ensure rapid and effective climate action for vulnerable countries.
The financial czar also called out JP Morgan’s senior management on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington.
Hd briefed the JP Morgan team on Pakistan’s upcoming inaugural issuance of the Panda Bond in the Chinese market, noting that it would be launched as a green bond to support sustainable financing goals. He also gave a detailed overview of the government’s privatization program, highlighting the Cabinet-approved government-to-government (G2G) sale of First Women Bank.
Senator Aurangzeb informed the team that several US companies had expressed interest in the Reko Diq project and the government was looking forward to EXIM Bank’s participation in the syndication process. He also highlighted the ongoing digital collaboration between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan through the GO AI Hub initiative, which aims to advance innovation and technology-driven development.
The Finance Minister encouraged JP Morgan to explore new avenues of cooperation with Pakistan in areas of mutual interest, including sustainable finance, investment facilitation and digital transformation.
