Finance Minister of Sri Lanka, Mr Ravi Karunanayake, called on Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar in Islamabad Saturday. Karunanayake was in Islamabad as head of Sri Lankan delegation which attended the 8th meeting of the SAARC Finance Ministers. Mr Karunanayake congratulated the Finance Minister on successful hosting of the SAARC Finance Ministers' meeting and stated that decisions reached in the meeting would further strengthen the SAARC process.
He also appreciated the exceptional economic performance of Pakistan over the past three years and said that Pakistan's economy was now closely followed the world over and particularly in the South Asian region. The South Asian countries, he added, could learn a lot from the reform efforts in Pakistan which had not only stabilized the economy in a short span of time but put it on a firm growth path.
Finance Minister Dar appreciated the gesture of Mr Karunanayake to attend the SAARC Finance Ministers' meeting personally. His presence in Islamabad, he said, was a proof of the close bilateral relations between the two countries. Ishaq Dar added that there was tremendous scope in further strengthening the economic and trade relations between the two countries and assured full cooperation of the government of Pakistan in this endeavour.