Pak PM Sharif meets IMF chief Georgieva in Riyadh, discusses new loan program

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Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva on Sunday and discussed a new loan program for the cash-strapped country, Sharif’s office said. At a meeting on the sidelines of the special meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, the Prime Minister thanked Georgieva for supporting Pakistan in securing a US$3 billion standby arrangement (SBA) from the IMF last year, which Now it was about to be completed. Dawn newspaper reported. This was the first meeting between the Prime Minister and Georgieva after her re-election, according to the state-run PTV news post on X, news agency PTI reported.

They last met in June 2023 on the sidelines of the New Global Financial Pact summit in Paris. The IMF Executive Board is expected to meet on Monday to decide on the final tranche of US$1.1 billion under the SBA, the post said. The pair discussed further programs to ensure that the gains made in the last year are consolidated and the economic growth trajectory remains positive. Georgieva shared her institute’s perspective on the ongoing program with Pakistan, including the review process. Pakistan secured a US$3 billion IMF program in June last year, which helped it avert a sovereign default. Separately, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif highlighted “global inequality” in healthcare while speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Redefining the global health agenda’ during the WEF special meeting. The Prime Minister said that when he visited Saudi Arabia in 2003, he was “suffering from a very terrible cancer”. He said he was then flown to New York and had to undergo surgery costing “thousands of dollars”, PTI reported.

He said, “And I wonder how many people in my country can afford such expensive treatment, not very many.” Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that when he returned to Pakistan, he would be appointed Chief Minister of Punjab. was elected and his government built hospitals specializing in kidney and liver diseases as well as cancer, he said. “Today, I think the first and most important problem is global inequality,” he said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic has These imbalances and gaps have been “exposed”.

“Imagine the global North and the global South; the distribution of vaccines and so on and so forth,” he said. He further said that climate change has “completely changed the landscape”. “Pakistan does not contribute even a fraction of emissions. Yet we are on the climate change red list and in 2022, we experienced the worst floods in Pakistan (“) and we have to invest hundreds of billions of rupees for rehabilitation. “Lady people.”

Talking about polio, he said that Pakistan was a “great beneficiary” of the Bill Gates Foundation. “It would not be fair to me and him if I did not acknowledge the generosity of Bill Gates here. This is the Prime Minister’s second visit to Saudi Arabia in less than a month. He last visited on a three-day The visit to the state, which was his first foreign trip after being re-elected as Prime Minister, was reported by PTI.

The Foreign Office (FO) said the invitation was extended by Saudi Arabia’s Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and WEF Executive Chairman Professor Klaus Schwab. In a post on Twitter on Sunday, Prime Minister Shehbaz said he was looking forward to “important discussions on the grave challenges of our times” during the special meeting.

Separately, Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday held a meeting with Islamic Development Bank (IDB) President Muhammad Suleiman Al Jasser, where they both agreed to complete various ongoing projects of the IDB in Pakistan at the earliest. A statement on PML-N’s X account said that during the meeting held on the sidelines of the WEF meeting, the Prime Minister asked the IDB to invest $1 billion in various projects during the previous PML-N-led tenure. Gave thanks. Meanwhile, in a consultative meeting with Saudi federal ministers and other Riyadh officials, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appreciated the role of SIFC in driving Saudi investments in Pakistan, Radio Pakistan said. The Prime Minister stressed the need to work tirelessly day and night for the progress and prosperity of the country and warned that there is no room for laziness. The report said that during the session, the Prime Minister received detailed information from various relevant ministries regarding the progress in investment with the Saudi government.

(With inputs from PTI)