WASHINGTON, April 14 (APP) Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who concluded a series of meetings with top finance officials at the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring gathering, said international institutions have expressed solidarity with the new Pakistani government as it moves to improve the state of its economy.

“I had very useful meetings with the World Bank officials and other multilateral donors - they have expressed their confidence in the new governments resolve to improve the economy and appreciated our immediate attention to addressing negative trends,” he said.

Among the major targets the coalition government has set out to achieve are curbing inflation to below 7 per cent from the current 9 to 9.5 per cent and considerably reducing borrowing from the Central Bank, which swells to around 400 billion rupees this year due to excessive borrowing by the last government, new economic managers say.
Dar, leading the Pakistani delegation, met with World Bank President Robert Zoellick and senior International Monetary Fund and International Finance Corporation (IFC) officials and termed his interactions as very useful.

“The international financial institutions have shown solidarity with the new coalition government in line with the situation prevailing in Pakistan.” Likewise, Dar described his roundtable with members of the US-Pakistan Business Council as very positive.

“We have identified a number of areas where overseas Pakistanis, multilaterals and foreign investors can invest.”
On Sunday, the finance minister attended the World Bank Development Committee meeting and met with IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Lennart Bage.

Speaking at the Pakistan Muslim League-N meeting in Brooklyn later that day, he stressed the need for the restoration of a superior and independent judiciary to drive the country towards the right path. At the meeting, also attended by Pakistan Peoples Party  and Awami National Party representatives, he highlighted the financial mismanagement of the previous government.

He announced the formation of safety nets and tax programmes that would aid the poor instead of the wealthy. He expressed his hope that the new government will be able to reverse the negative trends and have a year of consolidation in 2009.