Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said the government is planning to launch Pakistan Infrastructure Bank and Pakistan Development Fund to meet the rising demand of infrastructure financing in the country.
Ishaq Dar said this while addressing media towards the end of his visit to Washington for attending the Spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.
Dar outlined the important financial initiatives to be undertaken by the government in the near future. He said, Pakistan Infrastructure Bank would be established with a paid up capital of $ 1 billion. It would finance private investors in development projects. Both IMF and the government of Pakistan would have 20 per cent shares each and the rest would be met by international organizations such as IFC.
The minister further said that the government would soon be launching Pakistan Development Fund (PDF). The shares worth Rs 100 billion of the PDF would be offered to Pakistani diaspora in order to channelize their valuable remittances effectively. Later on, the shares of the PDF would be enlisted on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. After the success of Sukuk bonds, PDF would be another attractive investment for overseas Pakistanis.
The minister also mentioned that the government has entered into consultations with the World Bank to introduce solar energy as a new electricity generation alternative at the lowest cost in Pakistan. Dar gave a detailed round up on the plenary sessions with the IMF and World Bank during the press briefing. He said that there is a positive sentiment about the tremendous economic rebound experienced by Pakistan over the last four years. Pakistan was at the verge of bankruptcy in 2014 and today Pakistan is likely to achieve approximately 5 per cent growth rate during the current financial year.
Both IMF and WB are on the same page with the government in these projections. The global credit rating agencies have upgraded the rating of Pakistan from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’ and from stable to ‘positive’ over the years to an extent that the country is likely to be included in G-20 Countries by 2030. Pakistan has successfully completed the IMF program first time ever and is now considered as a case study of economic turnaround due to the prudent fiscal and monetary policies and macro-structural reforms.
In response to a question related to the decision of the Supreme Court on Panama, Dar said that the PML(N) government has honored the decision of the apex court and would welcome the formation of a JIT within the next seven days as per the judgement of the court.
