Dar meets Chinese President Xi Jinping
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has signed the Articles of Agreement (AoA) amongst 57 other founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) here Monday.
Finance Minister, Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar represented Pakistan at the signing ceremony held at Beijing, China where delegates from all the founding member countries of AIIB had converged for the event. He also met President Xi Jinping of China following signing of the document.
Earlier in May this year, the prospective members of the bank after deliberations had finalized the articles of agreement for the AIIB as a result of a three-day policy meeting. It is believed that the bank would be operational by the end of this year.
Pakistan has been actively involved throughout in the consultations at all levels and after intensive consultations amongst the members the AoA signing was made possible in a short span of nearly eight months since the MOU on establishment of the AIIB was signed in October 2014.
“We believe that the Bank will be an important platform to convert the abundant savings available in the region into investment to help regional economies achieve sustainable and rapid development and thereby contribute to the world economy,” said the Finance Minister following the ceremony adding that Pakistan hoped to draw financing support for communications and energy infrastructure projects including projects for construction of roads, dams, power generation.
“Energy and communications infrastructure development is much needed in the region and we believe that AIIB would cater to the needs of the region and compliment the availability of resources in the region,” said the Minister.
The Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that in Asia, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) mega project which involves a cluster of communications infrastructure and power generation projects would provide an integrating platform for over three billion people in Central, West and South Asia, the Middle East and Africa Regions.
The increase in financial flows, investment, trade, digitalization etc would bring peace and prosperity to the region, enhance the competitiveness of the economies of these countries, contribute to reducing regional disparities and social inequality, and improve life expectancy and quality of life in the country and in the region, he added.
The Minister during his meeting with President Xi Jinping extended warm wishes and regards of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and President Mamnoon Hussain and congratulated him on the wonderful idea of AIIB.
Later, the Minister led Pakistan’s delegation at the Ministerial Meeting. The delegation included Ambassador of Pakistan to China, Masood Khalid and also the Economic Minister at the Embassy.
