The government has made positive progress in compliance with the recommendations of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) after April 2019 and would submit a report to its Working Group in September 2019. This was stated by Minister for Economic Affairs Division (EAD) Hammad Azhar while talking to media persons after addressing the concluding session of a two-day "First Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) - Capital Market Regulators Forum" here on Friday. "We are expecting improvement in Pakistan's position on FATF list," he said and added that in his opinion there is not even a remote chance of Pakistan being placed on blacklist.
The minister said that US delegation during its recent visit expressed satisfaction over progress made by Pakistan on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes and British political counsellor has also been briefed on anti-money laundering measures. The minister said that Pakistan has initiated lobbying with the help of friendly countries to block the influence of India at the forum of FATF. The minister said as current account deficit has been reduced, fiscal side would now be the priority of the government. Azhar said the reduction in current account deficit is a major success; however, he acknowledged that some members of the economic team have voiced concerns on the interest rate.
He said that it was important to make State Bank of Pakistan fully autonomous, adding that policy decisions about interest rate and exchange rate are being exercised by the SBP. Unlike past, the SBP does not take direction from Finance Ministry, he claimed. Earlier, addressing the concluding session, he said that the government is working on reforms agenda, institutions building and improving the governance in the country to serve the people in a more effective way.
He said that cooperation among the CAREC region, which is blessed with immense natural resources, can help reduce the poverty in these countries. The Central Asia would be the hub of economic activity and all it is required to exploit the hidden wealth of natural resources, added the minister. There are millions of people living below the poverty line in the CAREC region and economic cooperation and use of natural resources can alleviate their sufferings, he said and urged the CAREC Secretariat to play its role in getting memorandum of understanding among these countries signed to increase economic cooperation.
He said the ideal scenario for cooperation among the CAREC region is to formalise a memorandum of understanding among the regional countries as well as capital markets, and urged the CAREC Secretariat to play its role to help the member countries formulate such arrangements.
Pakistan is committed to developing the capital markets of this region in line with international best practices, he said. The minister added that vibrant and efficient capital market is important for resource mobilisation. He said that integration of capital markets can result in deeper financial system and make possible a wider range of services and investments. The CAREC programme is a partnership of 11 countries (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) to promote economic growth and development through regional cooperation.