Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb engaged with global financial institutions, including Standard Chartered Bank and Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), exploring climate financing and trade opportunities.
As per a statement released by the Finance Division on Thursday, in a meeting with the team of Standard Chartered Bank, Aurangzeb appreciated the bank’s longstanding partnership with Pakistan.
The former banker said the Pakistani government was constantly engaged with rating agencies.
“The two sides discussed various proposals including trade financing facility, syndicated facility and explored further partnership in climate financing including carbon credits, green bonds, and debt swaps,” read the statement.
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The Pakistani minister is currently in Washington, DC, attending the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where other global finance leaders have also gathered.
The finance minister also held a meeting with the delegation of the Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), led by its CEO Hani Salem Sonbol.
“Aurangzeb appreciated the support from ITFC for commodity financing of $3 billion through a Framework Agreement over the next three years and immediate provision of $269 million through a mix of direct financing and syndication.”
Meanwhile, ITFC expressed its resolve to diversify its portfolio in Pakistan.
In a meeting with the team of Deutsche Bank, Finance Minister Aurangzeb gave a detailed briefing on the state of Pakistan’s economy and expressed satisfaction that the country’s credit ratings had been upgraded by Fitch and Moody’s.
“He informed that a Sustainable Finance Framework (SFF) was being developed which will enable the country to access the green international capital market,” the Finance Division said.
Pakistan to explore international capital markets in due course, says Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb also met with the team of Fitch Ratings. He appreciated that Pakistan’s credit ratings had been upgraded by Fitch from CCC to CCC+.
During the meeting, the finance minister highlighted the measures being undertaken for revenue mobilization, expenditure rationalization, tariff reduction in the energy sector, and an accelerated privatization programme.
Aurangzeb expressed satisfaction over the fact that his government “had sufficient reserves to repay the external debt liabilities for the current year”.
Meanwhile, in his meeting with Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, Minister of State for Financial Affairs of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Aurangzeb appreciated the UAE’s continued support to the external account especially the role played by the UAE banks.
He highlighted the investment potential in agriculture, IT, mines & minerals sectors and invited UAE companies to invest in these sectors.