Pakistan, Saudi Arabia sign MoUs valuing $2.2bn in multiple sectors

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Thursday signed 27 memorandum of understandings (MoUs) valuing $2.2 billion in various sectors including industry, agriculture, information technology (IT), food, education, mine & minerals, health, petroleum, energy, and other areas of mutual cooperation, state-run APP reported.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif accompanied by Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz Al Falih and Chief of Army Staff Lt. General Syed Asim Munir witnessed the exchange of the signed copies of the MoUs.

Addressing on the occasion, the prime minister said the visit of Saudi business delegation was a “true manifestation of great sincerity and affection” for people of Pakistan from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

High-level Saudi business delegation arrives in Pakistan on three-day visit

He hoped that today’s ceremony would lead to many more such events in times to come.

PM Shehbaz expressed the government’s resolve to implement the MoUs and to transform them into agreements in future through “hard work and untiring efforts”.

“Our Saudi brothers lead by Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz Al Falih have done remarkable job to promote Saudi economy and with his presence here, we will have his full cooperation to promote bilateral investments and business opportunity,” he remarked.

He assured the Saudi delegation that the MoUs signed today would be fully materialised and there would be no delay or red tape-ism in the implementation process.

The prime minister lauded the Saudi leadership for their support in having the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

“Finally this [IMF] programme is through, but we hope that this will be the last programme as we have already through a wonderful team work, managed to improve our economic indicators, inflation came down from 32% to 6.9% this month, our policy rate has come down from 23% to 17.5%, exports are increasing, foreign remittances are also increasing”, he said.

PM Shehbaz apprised that the government was moving towards “deep rooted reforms” in the country’s economy through stringent measures.

The high-level delegation of Saudi investors, led by Minister of Investment Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday on its three-day visit.

Federal Ministers Musadik Malik, Jam Kamal Khan, and Abdul Aleem received the delegation at the Noor Khan Airbase.

The Foreign Office (FO) had earlier announced that Saudi Arabia’s Investment Minister Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih would visit Pakistan with a high-level delegation from October 9 till 11.