Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has left for the United States to participate in the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), state-run Radio Pakistan reported on Saturday.
The visit comes after a IMF mission concluded talks with Pakistani authorities on reviews of two lending programmes totalling $8.4 billion without announcing a staff-level agreement (SLA).
A day earlier, the finance minister had expressed optimism that the SLA with the IMF would be finalised next week during his visit to Washington.
According to the Radio Pakistan report, the minister will participate in more than 65 events, forums, ceremonies, and meetings during his six-day visit to the US.
“During his visit, the finance minister will represent Pakistan at the plenary meetings of the IMF and the WB,” the report added.
It further said that Aurangzeb would meet with senior officials from the IMF, the WB, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).
The minister is set to meet WB president Ajay Banga and attend a dinner with the Finance Ministers of selected countries at his special invitation, as per the report.
“The finance Minister will also meet IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on the sidelines of the G24 and at Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan (MENAP) countries platform,” Radio Pakistan reported.
He will address MENAP forum as a keynote speaker, it added.
It said that he will also participate in a regional roundtable on the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) digital transformation organised by the WB, where tax authorities from other countries are set to discuss their tax reforms as well.
In addition, the minister is expected to attend two other events by the World Economic Forum as well as meet his counterparts from China, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, and Azerbaijan, the report said.
Auragnzeb will also hold meetings with top White House officials, and senior officials from the US Departments of State and Treasury and the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), it said, adding that he was also expected to have a meeting with the chairman of the Financial Services Committee of Congress.
“During the visit, the finance minister will also meet with officials from global credit ratings agencies, commercial banks, especially the investment banks from the Middle East,” according to Radio Pakistan.
“The finance minister will visit leading US think tanks, including the Atlantic Council and the Peterson Institute of International Economics (PIIE),” it added.