Govt’s vision to reform SOEs aimed at improving corporate governance: Miftah

ISLAMABAD: The government’s vision to reform State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) is to improve corporate governance and commercial performance in order to stop their hemorrhaging on fiscal resources.

This vision was shared by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail at a seminar organized by Finance Division to create awareness and improve understanding of major reform initiatives on SOEs taken by the Finance Division and the government of Pakistan.

The aim was to consult on major challenges to improve corporate governance and commercial performance, and share information and practical experiences on international best practices and lessons learned that could further inform the scope and design of the government’s SOEs reform program.

He said that the present government has focused on stabilizing the economy through fiscal and international trade measures. The Minister highlighted that the SOEs are being run by competent professionals but the overall governance framework was missing. The government of Pakistan has developed a draft SOE bill which has been approved by the National Assembly and is now placed before the Senate.

Dr Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue stressed the need to stop the hemorrhaging of fiscal resources by a few SOEs. She said that time has now reached to improve the governance and performance of SOEs.

Additional Secretary (Corporate Finance) Finance Division shared the progress on SOE Law, SOE Policy and central monitoring unit and stated that the purpose of these initiatives is to ensure value for money for the federal government and improving service delivery of SOEs.

Senior Economists of the Asian Development Bank and World Bank presented the vision and initiatives of their to support the government of Pakistan in designing and implementing SOE reforms in partnership with all stakeholders to improve the corporate governance of SOEs.

Finance Ministry said that the event generated new ideas and feedback that will further improve government’s efforts to implement the SOEs reforms agenda in an effective and collaborative manner.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022