The Chief Executive Officer of Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank, Keiko Honda led a delegation for a meeting with Finance Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar here Tuesday.
The Minister welcomed the visiting delegation and thanked Ms Keiko for accepting the invitation to visit Pakistan. He gave a brief overview of Pakistan’s current economic profile and said that Pakistan had made visible strides in terms of improvement in the economy over the last three years. He said that the forex reserves were at the highest ever level of US $ 23 billion while revenue collection of Rs.3112 billion showing 60% increase compared to three years ago is also unprecedented. Economic growth of 4.71% is highest in the last 8 years. International rating institutions has recognized these achievements and improved country’s credit rating. He said the government has complete focus on growth and the policies are geared towards that objective. A number of measures have been included in the budget 2016-17 to encourage exports, agriculture and industry, which are likely to facilitate government’s endeavour to achieve higher inclusive growth. He also mentioned projects in the energy sector including Dassu and Diamer Bhasha that would help generate electricity and store water for irrigation. He said government has taken series of reforms in different sectors which have helped attain macro-economic stability. The reform process he said would continue in the next two years.
Ms Keiko Honda said that MIGA is supporting a number of projects in Pakistan and is deeply interested to expand the portfolio. She said that it was the first ever visit of MIGA CEO to Pakistan, which is an indication of the increasing interest the Agency in Pakistan. She said She said the agency could consider expanding scale of its coverage for Pakistan and actively play its role in accordance with the country partnership framework that the World Bank Group has committed with the Government of Pakistan. Ms Honda said that MIGA is keen to meet and engage with private sector also to raise its profile, increase awareness of MIGA products and look for opportunities to facilitate foreign direct investment in Pakistan.
He said Pakistan considered World Bank group as its longtime economic partner and cooperation between the two would further grow with this visit by CEO, MIGA.
MIGA, as key institution of the World Bank Group, offers Political Risk insurance products. The agency works with investors across manufacturing, services, transportation/logistics, infrastructures as well as power sector.
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