ISLAMABAD: The virtual conference between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will commence today for the revival of the ninth review of the $7 billion loan programme. According to the details, the finance ministry officials will brief IMF about the progress on the implementation of conditions set for the completion of the ninth review.
Ahead of the virtual talks, the federal cabinet approved to end the subsidies and hiked the power tariff. The virtual talks between Pakistan and IMF will continue till Tuesday. The talks began after Pakistan received the Memorandum of Economic Talks & Financial Policies on February 9. The IMF chief of mission Nathan Porter also issued the official statement. He said that in order to regain macroeconomic stability and move forward in sustainable development, policy measures should be implemented timely.
Economic analysts and representatives of the incumbent government are continuously forecasting that Pakistan could default if the IMF loan is not secured.
Pak-USA defence relation talks
Meanwhile, the second round of defence talks between Pakistan and the USA will also begin today in Washington, DC. The second round of Pakistan-US defence talks will continue until February 16. The first round of talks was held in Pakistan last year in January.
Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Muhammad Saeed will head the delegation of Pakistan that includes senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, personnel from Joint Staff Headquarters and representatives of service headquarters. The US multi-agency team will be represented by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense. During the defence talks, the two sides will discuss bilateral defence and security cooperation issues.
It is to be noted that Pakistan and USA will commence negotiations on the trade and investment framework agreement in Washington during the last week of February. Other than that, the anti-terrorism talks will take place later next month.
