Pakistan required to keep SOEs under finance ministry oversight: IMF

KARACHI: The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) representative in Pakistan on Wednesday said that the reform process to which the government had agreed required the country to keep all state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under finance ministry oversight.

“Following through on the previously agreed 2021 triage reform process, and other governance and private sector reforms, is important to durably attract foreign investment,” the IMF’s Esther Perez Ruiz said in a statement to Reuters.

Pakistan has been discussing outsourcing operations of several of its state-owned assets to outside companies. In March, it kicked off outsourcing of operations and land assets at three major airports to be run under a public private partnership, a move to generate foreign exchange reserves for its ailing economy.

The IMF reached a staff-level pact with Pakistan in June on a $3 billion stand-by arrangement (SBA), a decision long awaited by the country which had been teetering on the brink of default.

Perez Ruiz said in the statement that it was “premature to consider what will follow the current SBA, which runs through early 2024.”