- Engineers who representing Chinese IPPs had promised a ‘win-win situation for China and Pakistan’: Aurangzeb
- Meets advisory firm A&M to seek expertise and consultancy for making PSWF operational
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Tuesday revealed that Chinese engineers killed in the suicide attack in Karachi were part the team due to negotiate re-profiling and restructuring of the energy debt with Pakistani government.
“The Chinese engineers killed in the Karachi airport attack were part of the team, engaged in talks with the Pakistani government over re-profiling of the energy debt”, Senator Aurangzeb divulged in a pre-recorded statement.
“The ones killed were the Independent Power Producers engineers with whom Energy Minister Awais Leghari and I were negotiating in terms of our request to re-profile our debt and extend (payment) maturities, so that we can reduce power tariff and provide relief to the public,” Aurangzeb added.
According to the Chinese embassy, the terror attack resulted in killing of its two nationals while one sustained injuries.
The attack has served a major blow to Pakistan’s efforts to address Chinese security concerns amid parleys for a five years’ extension in repayment of its about $16 billion energy debt. It is trying to reduce the electricity price by about Rs4 per unit by delaying repayments but it may increase the debt obligation by another $1.3 billion due to extension in repayment period.
Beijing has already proposed to set up a joint security company for the protection of its citizens.
Pakistan had set up two special security divisions of the army having an annual maintenance cost of Rs24 billion for the protection of Chinese commercial interests.
Beijing has now urged its citizens to reconsider travel plans to Pakistan as South China Monitoring Post reported on Tuesday that the Chinese embassy in Islamabad advised Chinese citizens to avoid travelling to the provinces of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
“I offer my condolences to the people of China, the government of China,” said Aurangzeb.
In his address on Tuesday, Aurangzeb said the engineers represented those Chinese Independent Power Plants (IPPs) who told us that they would “create a win-win situation for China and Pakistan”.
In the statement, the finance minister claimed that the strikes and subsequent shutdown caused Rs190 billion per day loss to the economy.
He claimed that Pakistan’s economy incurred losses of Rs190 billion per day due to strike and unrest. “The business activities were disrupted for three to four days, causing that the economy sustained Rs570 billion to Rs760 billion losses during the past four days.
Alvarez & Marsel engaged to alleviate IMF concerns
Meanwhile, the finance ministry has engaged the advisory services of Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) to make its Sovereign Wealth Fund operational. The Financial Minister met a delegation led by former State Bank governor Reza Baqir, who heads the A&M as its Managing Director.
The ministry said that the advisory firm would provide its expertise and consultancy for make the Pakistan Sovereign Wealth Fund (PSWF) operational. The ministry, however, fell short of disclosing how much money the government would pay to the firm.
It is to be noted that the IMF has voiced it concerns about transparency in the PSWF that’s why it could be operationalised yet.
Sharing details about the preliminary meeting, the finance ministry said that Baqir and his team discussed their strategy for moving forward in line with the assigned responsibility.
Separately, FinMin Aurangzeb met Barclays-led delegation of foreign bankers and briefed the delegation on various policy interventions and initiatives implemented during the past 12 months to reform the economy. The minister gave the visitors an overview of the growth and macroeconomic stability in key economic indicators, including twin deficits, stable currency, foreign exchange reserves, and inflation that remained “a big story throughout the year”.
The finance minister said that Pakistan achieved macroeconomic stability and it also cleared the payments of profits and dividends close to $2 billion to foreign investors.
