Pakistan's finance chief heads to Bangkok for IMF and World Bank talks

On Saturday, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb departed for Bangkok to head the country’s delegation at the IMF-World Bank annual meetings set for Oct 12-18. The conferences will host over 15,000 participants from 191 nations, and Aurangzeb is slated for more than 60 high-level engagements with international financial institutions, sovereign credit rating agencies and global investors. His discussions will focus on Pakistan’s macro-economic stability, reform progress, private-sector development and future cooperation with bodies such as the International Finance Corporation, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and others.

He will also attend the IMF managing director’s meeting with finance ministers and central bank governors from the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan region. Bilateral meetings are planned with officials from Saudi Arabia, China, Turkiye, Iran, the United Kingdom and Thailand, as well as a dialogue with the US Department of the Treasury on reform and investment. Additional engagements include a session with Alibaba International Digital Commerce on the digital economy and briefings with Fitch Ratings, Moody’s and S&P Global to present Pakistan’s economic trajectory.