By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan needs to keep all its state-owned enterprises under the oversight of the finance ministry as part of the reform process agreed with the International Monetary Fund, the fund’s representative in the country said.
“Following through on the previously agreed 2021 triage reform process, and other governance and private sector reforms, is important to durably attract foreign investment,” Esther Perez Ruiz, the IMF’s resident representative in Pakistan, said in a statement to Reuters on Wednesday.
Pakistan has been exploring ways to outsource operations of some of its state assets to private companies, as it seeks to boost its foreign exchange reserves and revive its economy.
In March, it started the process of outsourcing operations and land assets at three major airports under a public-private partnership model.
The IMF reached a staff-level agreement with Pakistan in June on a $3 billion stand-by arrangement, a lifeline for the South Asian nation that had been facing a balance-of-payments crisis.
Perez Ruiz said it was “premature to consider what will follow the current SBA, which runs through early 2024.”
Pakistan has received about $11.5 billion from the IMF since 2008 under various programs, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves stood at 13.379bn as of Aug. 11, enough to cover about two months of imports.
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