$2 billion agreements to be signed with Saudi, says Pakistan PM

Islamabad: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that agreements worth $2 billion would be signed with a Saudi Arabia delegation, which is set to visit Pakistan next week.

The delegation, led by Saudi Arabia's Minister for Investment Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, will visit Pakistan from October 9 to 11 and expected to comprise representatives from both government and the private sector.

The Sharif government has been struggling to fix the economy.

Addressing the federal cabinet meeting here, the prime minister talked on economic recovery, the upcoming SCO meet and other issues.

“A Saudi delegation is visiting Pakistan and agreements and MoUs worth USD two billion are expected during the visit,” he said adding that the IMF programme has been secured with the support of friendly countries such as China, UAE and Saudi Arabia while inflation has come down to 6.9 per cent from 32 per cent.

He mentioned that exports and remittances are witnessing an increase and the stock market is skyrocketing and efforts are on to widen the tax base.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on September 26 finally gave a nod to the assistance package and also released over $1 billion as the first tranche after Pakistan committed to cut expenditures, increase tax-to GDP ratio, tax non-traditional sectors like agriculture and real estate, limit subsidies and transfer some fiscal responsibilities to provinces.

This $1 billion tranche came under an agreement to receive $billion over a period of 39 months.