Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar on Monday expressed the hope that the country's foreign exchange reserves would improve after securing two tranches from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), sale of Sukuk and completion of OGDCL transaction. "We are expecting two tranches from the IMF in December and hoping to complete the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) transaction and sale of Sukuk bond very soon, which would help boost our reserves and improve the position of balance of payment (BoP)," the minister added.
Dar was talking to British High Commissioner, Philip Barton and Head of the Department for International Development (DFID), Richard Montgomery, who called on him here. The minister said "although the sit-ins negatively impacted many of our transactions which were of vital importance for Pakistan, we have taken up our work on revamping of the economy with even greater zeal".
During the meeting, the Finance Minister exchanged views with the visiting dignitaries on efforts of the present government to deal with the issues of poverty alleviation, rehabilitation of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and relief work for the flood victims. The Finance Minister said that he was deliberating upon establishing two separate funds for the rehabilitation of IDPs and flood-hit people with the contribution and active support of different countries and international organisations.
About his recent visit to the US, he told Barton that he had a number of high-level meetings and also attended all important Diamer-Bhasha Conference and expressed the hope that the project would receive positive response from different funding institutions.
The Finance Minister said that the income support program was close to his heart and he would ensure that it was managed and run in a fair and transparent manner. The minister remarked that Pakistan was also desirous of extending its economic ties with the neighbouring countries and hoped the new government in Afghanistan would be friendly to work with.
Speaking on the occasion, Richard Montgomery said that the UK was expecting Pakistan, as well as the rest of the world, to work on the projects of regional co-operation specially CASA 1000 Project. The project on the basis of its potential would receive financial support internationally, he added. Montgomery said that they would not only continue to support the income support programme in the future but also wanted its outreach to expand from the current 4.5 million people to 4.8 million people. Among others, the meeting was attended by Rana Assad Amin, Advisor Finance Division and Shahid Mahmood, Additional Secretary, Finance Division.
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