Islamabad, Oct 27: VISA to Launch New Card in Pakistan
W /On the last day on the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and IMF in Washington DC Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Muhammad Aurangzeb received Andrew Torre, Regional President for VISA.
He thanked Visa for its efforts to fast pace the payments sector in Pakistan through the domestic payment players like 1Link and for its efforts for financial inclusion and supporting start-ups. He said that at least Visa was bringing the Financial Inclusion Card with Meezan Bank. Each of them concurred on calls for clients to have more routing choices and that the institution should provide a level playing field for processing of domestic transactions.
Finance Minister has officially interacted with Liao Min, Vice Minister of Finance of China. He once again endorsed the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between Pakistan and China and also expressed thanks to Chinese government for its constant support of Pakistan’s social and economic status and growth including in exercising efforts to obtain IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
He also said that Pakistan is interested in the Chinese economic reforms experience.
He applauded BYD’s move of bringing electric vehicles in Pakistan market. He hinted the plan of issuing the first panda bond in the Chinese market to broaden the financing source.
He repeated the assurance of the government to provide adequate and efficient security to the Chinese workers.
He told the Vice Minister that most of the Chinese firms had an interest in increasing their investment and job creation in Pakistan.
He asked the Chinese side to offer more ceilings under the Currency Swap Agreement. Each side stressed further developing payment processing over the internet and the interlinkage of payments systems of the two nations.
Visiting the finance minister recently was Mohammad Kallala, the Global Head of Corporate and Investment Banking Business of Natixis. He apprised the Minister about the functioning of the Bank and its dominance in infrastructure, renewable energy and transport/aviation – Telecom & Technology business
. In the debate Kallala also pointed out the possibilities to cooperate with Gulf especially Saudi counterparts for financing /advice on investments in Pakistan.
He stated that the Bank has proposed its strategy of investing in partnership with strong & catalist Pakistani companies to do such investment. Finally, they both accepted the idea of going further in the interaction in the future.
Google Vice President and Global Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy Karan Bhatia met the finance minister. He gave briefing of Google projects & activities in last 5 months and involvement in Pakistan and upcoming focussed investment & economic efforts in Pakistan.
He raised ideas and concerns on the regulatory / legislative aspect, the connectivity and the financial perspective. The finance minister ensured the Minister of Agriculture full support in this regard.
He said he was pleased with the results of his interactions with various stakeholders during the Annual Meetings 2024 and emphasised that the direction of reforms should not be changed. It was followed by the questions and answers session at the end of the event. When the finance minister sat down with the President of AIIB, Jin Liqun.
He thanked the Bank for help it has provided to Pakistan and especially for helping the country to cope with the cousquences of the floods in 2022 that hit the country. He said he had been to China before and during his visit he had a chance to meet the management of the People Bank of China (PBOC).
Other areas of his functioning included a meeting-cum-dinner with a limited number of Pakistanis in USA where he thanked them for their valuable efforts in enhancing economic, business & investment relation between Pakistan & USA and a usefullful interactive session with the correspondents of Pakistani media Maher in USA where he updates them about the socio-economic situation in Pakistan and about his one-week official visit in Washington DC.
