On the final day of his visit to Washington DC to participate in the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and IMF, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Muhammad Aurangzeb, met with Andrew Torre, Regional President for VISA.

He appreciated Visa’s commitment to modernizing Pakistan’s payments ecosystem, including by supporting domestic payment players such as 1Link and lauded Visa’s work on financial inclusion and supporting entrepreneurs. He expressed satisfaction that Visa was launching the Financial Inclusion Card with Meezan Bank. Both sides agreed on the need for clients to have more routing choices and a level playing field for the processing of domestic transactions.

Finance Minister met with Liao Min, Vice Minister of Finance, China. He reaffirmed the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between Pakistan and China and thanked the Government of China for its unwavering support to Pakistan’s socio-economic development and growth, including in securing the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF). He added that Pakistan was eager to learn from the Chinese economic reforms experience.

He welcomed BYD’s decision to introduce electric vehicles in Pakistan. He signaled the intention to launch an inaugural Panda bond in the Chinese market to diversify the financing base. He reaffirmed the commitment of the government to ensuring fool-proof security to the Chinese workers. He informed the Vice Minister that the majority of Chinese companies wanted to expand their investments and increase employment opportunities in Pakistan. He requested the Chinese side to increase limits under the Currency Swap Agreement. Both sides emphasized the need for online settlement of payments and integration of the payment systems of the two countries.

Mohammad Kallala, Global Head of Corporate and Investment Banking Business of Natixis, called on the Finance Minister. He briefed the Minister on the operations of the Bank and its strong presence in the infrastructure, renewables, transportation/aviation & Telecom/Tech sectors. Kallala discussed the opportunities to partner with Gulf particularly Saudi investors to provide financing/advisory for investments into Pakistan. He informed that the Bank wanted to partner with a small group of leading Pakistani companies to facilitate such investments. Both sides agreed on the need to continue further engagement in the future.

Karan Bhatia, Vice President and Global Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy of Google called on the Finance Minister. He provided an overview of Google’s recent work and engagements in Pakistan and their plans for deepening investment and tangible economic contributions in Pakistan. He raised issues on the regulatory/ legislative, connectivity, and financial side. The Finance Minister assured full support in this regard.

Finance Minister interacted with Pakistani-American tech entrepreneurs. He identified IT as one of the burgeoning sectors of the economy and informed that Pakistan ranked among the top 5 countries in terms of freelancing. He highlighted the contribution of IT sector to the rising exports of the country. He further informed that the digital ecosystem was being enabled through a broad range of legislative, policy, regulatory, and operational initiatives.

He expressed satisfaction over the outcome of his engagements with different stakeholders on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings 2024 and underlined the importance of staying the course on reforms. The event concluded with a Q&A session.

Finance Minister met with the President of AIIB, Jin Liqun. He acknowledged the Bank’s support to Pakistan, particularly in dealing with the aftermath of the devastating floods of 2022. He recalled his previous visit to China where he interacted with the management of the People Bank of China (PBOC).

He indicated that the government wanted to diversify its financing base and explore the possibility of issuing a panda bond with a partial credit guarantee of AIIB. He added that engaging AIIB as an anchor to support the process would send out a strong signal to the market.

The option of a no-deal roadshow first followed by a deal roadshow was also discussed. He expressed satisfaction over the progress of the portfolio of AIIB projects in Pakistan and further efforts to improve the disbursement of ongoing projects.

On the infrastructure side, he invited AIIB to invest in the N-5 (GT Road) reconstruction project and also provide support in terms of program loans for dealing with the impacts of climate change and disaster preparedness. He also welcomed the upcoming visit of the Vice President (Operations) wherein issues of mutual interest would be discussed the portfolio of ongoing projects reviewed and the pipeline firmed up. He invited the President to visit Pakistan which he accepted at mutually convenient dates to be decided later.

Other activities of the Finance Minister included interaction with a select group of leaders of the Pakistani diaspora community where he appreciated their valuable contributions in bolstering economic, business, and investment ties between Pakistan and the United States and engagement with the correspondents of Pakistani media houses in the US where he briefed them on the socio-economic developments in Pakistan and shared details of his weeklong engagements in Washington DC.