WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Sunday arrived in the United States on a six-day visit to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB).
The Finance Minister’s visit comes at a time when Islamabad seeks to secure a new staff-level agreement under its ongoing loan programme.
Upon arrival in Washington, senior officials of the Embassy of Pakistan warmly received the finance minister and other members of his delegation, according to an official statement.
During his six-day visit, Aurangzeb will represent Pakistan at the plenary sessions of both the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He is also set to hold a series of high-level meetings with senior officials from the IMF, World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).
The finance minister is scheduled to meet one-on-one with World Bank President Ajay Banga and attend a special dinner hosted by Banga for finance ministers from selected countries.
In addition, Aurangzeb will meet IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva during the sessions of the G24 and MENAP (Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan) groups, where he will deliver a keynote address on regional economic priorities.
He will also take part in a regional roundtable organised by the World Bank on the digital transformation of tax systems. The event will bring together officials from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and tax authorities from other countries to share their experiences and insights on tax reforms.
He would also attend two major events organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
During the visit, Aurangzeb would hold bilateral talks with his counterparts from China, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Azerbaijan.
His schedule also includes meetings with senior officials at the White House, the US Congress Financial Services Committee, the US State and Treasury Departments, and the International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC).
He would engage with members of the US-Pakistan Business Council to discuss tax proposals and investment opportunities in Pakistan, besides holding meetings with representatives of global credit rating agencies, commercial banks, particularly from the Middle East, and international investors.
Aurangzeb would address various investment forums and seminars to highlight Pakistan’s economic outlook and reform agenda.
He is also set to visit prominent US think tanks, including the Atlantic Council and the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE).
The visit follows the conclusion of two weeks of review talks between an IMF mission, led by Iva Petrova, and Pakistani officials in Karachi and Islamabad from September 24 to October 8.
The talks focused on the second review under the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the first review under the $1.4 billion Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
