WASHINGTON: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb revealed on Saturday that an IMF team is anticipated to visit Pakistan by mid-May to negotiate a new long-term process, aiming to secure a staff-level agreement by mid-July.
Speaking to US-Pakistani media at the conclusion of his week-long visit, the minister mentioned the Fund’s intention to expedite the process. “The contours of the new programme will shape up later. We will start getting into granularity of the programme by mid-May,” he added.
Addressing journalists at the Pakistan Embassy, Mr Aurangzeb expressed the hope that the IMF’s board of governors would convene to consider the last tranche of the current programme by the end of this month, with the final installment released shortly thereafter.
Pakistan is seeking a $6-8 billion new loan package from the end. In earlier statements, he said Pakistan would prefer a long-term, preferably a three-year programme.
But when asked at Saturday’s briefing, Mr Aurangzeb said he would not speculate the size or the duration of the programme yet.
Earlier, Mr Aurangzeb informed a Chinese television audience that Pakistan can repay its debt to China only after completing the second phase of CPEC.The minister’s candid remarks followed discussions with key financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank, alongside senior US officials in Washington this week.
Explaining his stance on this sensitive issue, Mr Aurangzeb said: “CPEC was a champion project for Pakistan, and a lot of infrastructure was created during its first phase. Now, what’s supposed to happen was for us to go into CPEC Phase 2, which was and remains the way we monetise that infrastructure because that’s where the special economic zones come in.”
The minister elaborated that through these special economic zones, Pakistan was to attract further Chinese investment.Emphasising the necessity of completing this process, the minister stated: “There’s a lot of discussion about how you are going to repay the debt, that’s how it was supposed to happen.”
