By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan secured a fresh endorsement from the Asian Development Bank for its macroeconomic stabilization efforts, with the lender signaling readiness to expand financing for small businesses and export-oriented industries as the South Asian nation pivots toward growth.
Yingming Yang, the ADB’s vice president for South, Central and West Asia, told Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb that Pakistan had made measurable headway in fiscal management and external-account stability, according to a Ministry of Finance statement Wednesday. Yang pointed to the country’s improving sovereign credit ratings as validation of reform efforts that have helped stabilize an economy still recovering from a balance-of-payments crisis.
The comments came during a meeting between the two officials in which Aurangzeb outlined a shift in government strategy — from crisis-era stabilization toward what he described as sustainable, investment-led expansion. The minister said Islamabad was prioritizing exports, job creation and private capital participation as the next phase of its economic agenda, and welcomed the ADB’s move beyond traditional sovereign lending into private-sector operations and public-private partnerships.
Access to financing for small and medium enterprises featured prominently in the discussion. Aurangzeb characterized SME lending as central to Pakistan’s export strategy, and both sides discussed ways to integrate smaller firms into global value chains while sharpening their competitiveness abroad.
Yang reaffirmed the ADB’s commitment to Pakistan’s development priorities, telling Aurangzeb there was strong alignment between the bank’s strategic objectives and the government’s reform program. He said the ADB stood ready to widen support for SME value-chain financing and other targeted areas, while cautioning that fiscal discipline would remain essential as Pakistan navigates the transition to durable growth.
For his part, Aurangzeb pressed the case for institutionalizing reforms across domestic resource mobilization, public finance, energy, insurance and pensions — steps he said were necessary to lock in a sustainable growth path. The two officials also reviewed Pakistan’s insurance-sector overhaul, public-private partnership pipeline, and efforts to strengthen project readiness and implementation capacity across state institutions.
Aurangzeb called for greater mobilization of both domestic and private capital, pointing to co-financing arrangements and innovative financing structures as tools to draw in international development institutions. He flagged infrastructure, transport, clean energy, water management and climate resilience as sectors ripe for expanded cooperation, alongside continued work on pension reform and institutional capacity building.
The minister said he wanted future ADB engagement to track closely with government priorities: private-sector-led growth, export competitiveness, financial access, infrastructure development, climate resilience and social protection.
Wednesday’s meeting followed a pair of agreements last week aimed at bolstering Pakistan’s export-finance infrastructure. On Aug. 31, the Export-Import Bank of Pakistan and the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit signed a reinsurance partnership. Separately, the Export Development Fund and Pak EXIM launched an SME Risk Pool worth roughly 3 billion rupees, designed to expand credit insurance coverage for smaller exporters against non-payment risk.
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