Finance Minister Asad Umar and the Pakistani delegation he has been leading met with representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank (WB) and discussed the issues related to economy and the reforms measures taken by Pakistan.
They also held a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) spring meetings in Washington DC, said a press statement received here Friday.
The finance minister and his delegation met with the ADB President Takehiko Nakao and apprised him of the current macroeconomic situation in the country. The minister and the ADB president discussed continuation of Pakistan’s ongoing engagement with the bank, while Nakao appreciated the reforms process in the country and assured continued support of the bank.
Earlier, the finance minister reviewed the World Bank’s Pakistan portfolio in a meeting with the bank team led by Hartwig Schafer, vice president for South Asia. They discussed the pipeline projects as well as the sectors where World Bank can further scale up its interventions in Pakistan.
The finance minister also held a meeting with a team of World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) led by Chief Operating Officer Vijay Iyer, and shared views about the privatisation policy of the government and the expansion of public-private partnership framework in the country. The MIGA team apprised the finance minister of its current engagements in Pakistan. They informed that MIGA is now looking to expand its portfolio in the country. On the sidelines, the finance minister also met with the US Treasury and apprised them about the macroeconomic situation in the country, the reform efforts as well as measures being taken to strengthen the anti-money laundering legal and enforcement framework. The finance minister also held a meeting with his Saudi counterpart Mohammed Al-jadaan, who apprised him of increasing growth momentum of Saudi economy and potential employment opportunities for Pakistani construction workers in his country. news desk
