Finance Division organized a Seminar to raise awareness and improve understanding of major reform initiatives on SOEs taken by the Finance Division and the Government of Pakistan. The aim was to consult on major challenges to improve corporate governance and commercial performance, and share information and practical experiences on international best practices and lessons learned that could further inform the scope and design of the government’s SOEs reform program. Senior officials of line ministries, SOEs, Asian Development Bank and World Bank participated in the seminar.
In his concluding address to the Seminar, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Mr Miftah Ismail shared how the present government has focused on stabilizing the economy through fiscal and international trade measures. He highlighted that the SOEs are being run by competent professionals but the overall governance framework was missing. The government of Pakistan has developed a draft SOE bill which has been approved by the National Assembly and is now placed before the Senate.
In her opening remarks, Dr Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue, emphasized to stop the hemorrhaging of fiscal resources by a few SOEs. She said that time has now reached to improve the governance and performance of SOEs.
Mr. Anwar Sheikh, Additional Secretary (Corporate Finance) Finance Division shared the progress on SOE Law, SOE Policy and central monitoring unit. He said that the purpose of these initiatives is to ensure value for money for the federal government and improving service delivery of SOEs.
Mr Laisiasa Tora, Senior Economist of the Asian Development Bank presented the vision and initiatives of ADB to support the Government of Pakistan in designing and implementing SOE reforms in partnership with all stakeholders.
Ms. Qurtualain Hadi, Senior Economist World Bank presented the case to improve the corporate governance of SOEs.
The seminar provided a good opportunity to all stakeholders to exchange ideas on the progress so far made on various SOE reform initiatives undertaken by the GoP. The seminar generated new ideas and feedback that will further improve government’s efforts to implement the SOEs reforms agenda in an effective and collaborative manner.
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