Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar addressed to the Annual Meeting of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank through a video link at Ministry of Economic Affairs this afternoon.
The Minister appreciated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank for successfully arranging this event during COVID-19 pandemic.
"The pandemic has caused severe disruptions in the global economic system, stress on the health infrastructure and social distress. The impact is more pronounced in case of emerging markets and developing countries. I wish an early end to the Pandemic and recovery of the global economy. In this backdrop, the COVID-19 Crisis Response Facility of AIIB, which was announced to support economies of member countries is highly commendable", Federal Minister said while addressing to the meeting.
The Minister said that the AIIB should take lead in technological and IT related infrastructure in the short to medium term horizon particularly in sectors like education, health and ICT in post covid time.The Minister also expressed hoped that AIIB would enhance climate financing and provision of primary physical infrastructure for cities, water and sanitation, rural connectivity with cities for developing countries.
Federal Minister also mentioned that the development of basic infrastructure in countries within Asia and beyond had remained a priority for the Bank. Because of disruptions due to the Pandemic, fiscal space decline even further with rising domestic spending and exchange rate movements against the US dollar in the Asian countries.In this situation infrastructure financing couldonly be sustained by MDBs including AIIB; and by leveraging on PPP potential as we know that building a robust PPP regime remained a challenge for many countries. Similarly, South Asia is the least connected region in the world in terms of trade and tourism; this needs to remain a priority area as bank develops its corporate strategy.
In closing remarks, Minister expressed the hope that AIIB, being a relatively new MDB, should use this opportunity to provide innovative solutions to satisfy the clients’ needs and fulfill its mandate.
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