LAHORE: The Ministry of Finance, together with the Ministry of Commerce and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), is working to establish Export and Import (Exim) Bank in the country, which is set to start operation in 2020, according to media.
The bank will assist export and import of unconventional goods to many countries of the world with which Pakistan does not have regular trade relations. For the purpose, the Ministry of Finance has constituted a high-level committee, which is currently drawing up a legal and regulatory model.
The idea of setting up the bank was floated in 2015, and in 2017, the central bank conducted a survey to study the legal frameworks under which similar banks were running across the globe and see how the operations were conducted. These included banks in Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Turkey, Denmark, India and the United States.
Last year, a consultant of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and a local consultant were taken on board tasked with making recommendations for the services to be provided by the bank, claimed the report.
Vacancies for the chief executive officer of the bank, the federal bank officer and a permanent bank president have already been advertised by the central bank’s Lahore office. However, no suitable candidate has been appointed yet. The ADB has provided $500,000 for preparing the bank’s legal framework under which the business plan, overall setup and the bank’s working process will be decided.
Initially, the bank will facilitate small and medium enterprises (SMEs) before extending its operations to other business areas.
