Pakistan initiates discussions with IMF over new loan agreement: Finance Minister

WASHINGTON, (NNI): Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb says the United States is the largest trading partner of Pakistan and it has always supported us in terms of investment.

In an interview with a foreign news agency, he said it is always a very critical relationship for Pakistan.

The Minister said Pakistan has initiated discussions with the International Monetary Fund over a new multi-billion-dollar loan agreement to support its economic reform program.

He said the market confidence and the market sentiment in Pakistan is in much better shape during the current fiscal year.

Muhammad Aurangzeb said we have initiated the discussion with the Fund to get into a larger and an extended program.

Turning to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, he said a lot of investment, especially in infrastructure, came through CPEC.

The Minister said there is a very good opportunity for Pakistan to enhance trade with countries like Vietnam.

He said we have already a few examples of that already working. But what we need to do is to really scale the trade up.

Turning to privatization programme of State-Owned Enterprises, the Minister said we will get to know in the next month with respect to interest from prospective bidders particularly about the national airline.

He said our desire is to go through with that privatization and take it through the finishing line by the end of June.

The Minister expressed the confidence that if the PIA privatization goes well for the government, other companies could soon follow it.