Pakistan finance minister meets World Bank president in Bangkok
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb met World Bank President Ajay Banga at a dinner hosted by Thailand's prime minister on the sidelines of the World Bank-IMF annual meetings in Bangkok, Pakistan's finance ministry said on Friday. The ministry said the occasion allowed for informal interaction alongside the high-level engagements already under way at the meetings.
The meeting followed a commitment by Pakistan and the World Bank on Thursday to accelerate implementation of their Country Partnership Framework for 2026-2035. According to the ministry, the focus will be on project preparedness, concessional financing and investment in human development and climate resilience.
That commitment came in a meeting between Ahad Khan Cheema, the federal minister for economic affairs and Pakistan's governor to the World Bank Group, and Anna Bjerde, the bank's managing director of operations. Cheema said the government was determined to translate the framework's objectives into tangible development outcomes, and called for enhanced technical and financial support, integrated multisectoral programmes and digital monitoring systems to track progress and measure impact.
Separately, Banga told a plenary session that the development lender aims to quintuple its critical minerals business within five years and has identified 20 countries it can partner with on critical minerals development projects. He said the bank had this week launched its first country compacts with multilateral development bank partners, intended to build local industries and keep more jobs and value at home. The World Bank's new Metals and Minerals implementation plan targets $19 billion in critical minerals financing over the fiscal 2026-2030 period, against $3.6 billion in fiscal 2021-2025, Banga said.
