At the conclusion of the 50th Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors, the Finance Minister, Senator Mohammed Ishaq Dar met with Finance Ministers of the different countries

(08-05-2017, Yokohama Japan): At the conclusion of the 50th Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors, the Finance Minister, Senator Mohammed Ishaq Dar met with the Philippines’ Finance Minister, Mr. Carlos Dominguez and congratulated him on his election as the next Chair of the ADB’s Board of Governors. The Philippines’ Finance Minister thanked Minister Dar. He also expressed his desire to send a delegation to Pakistan to study CPEC as a template for infrastructure development and learn from Pakistan’s experience. The Finance Minister also extended invitation to Mr. Dominguez to visit Pakistan on mutually convenient dates.

In another meeting with the Finance Minister of Azerbaijan, Mr. Samir Rauf Oglu Sharifov, matters of mutual interest were discussed. Mr. Sharifov was quite interested in Pakistan’s experience of structural reforms especially in the energy sector. The Finance Minister assured him of Pakistan’s complete readiness to share best practices with Azerbaijan. Both leaders agreed to further enhance the bilateral trade and economic co-operation between the two brotherly countries.

The Finance Minister also met with Ms. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the Finance Minister of Indonesia. During the meeting, it was agreed that both countries need to further explore new avenues of economic cooperation given the large size of their domestic markets and production capacities. The Finance Minister apprised his counterpart about the fundamentals and dynamics of Pakistan’s phenomenal economic turnaround and future policy approaches to reform various sectors of the economy.  

Minister Ishaq Dar met with the Sri Lankan finance Minister, Mr. Ravi Karunanayake. The Sri Lankan minister showed keen interest in fiscal reforms implemented in Pakistan. He also expressed desire to learn from measures taken by Pakistan in live stock sector and informed that a Sri Lankan delegation is expected to arrive in Pakistan to carry out study of live stock sector in Pakistan. Both agreed that Asian Development Bank has been an instrumental and reliable developmental partner with the developing member countries of Asia Pacific. Both leaders also discussed steps to further enhance bilateral trade and investment.

Before departure Secretary of ADB conveyed personal thank of President ADB to Finance Minister for his valuable contribution and active participation in the conference.

 

Finance Minister left Tokyo this morning after successful visit to Japan and is expected to arrive in Islamabad tonight.

 

Tokyo, PR # 33/2017

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