Pakistan eyes to replicate Indonesia’s nickel success with copper, says Aurangzeb

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Saturday highlighted the pivotal role of the Reko Diq copper and gold project, saying that the project would help Pakistan transition into an export-driven economy.

Addressing the Lahore Chamber of Commerce, the finance minister said that the Reko Diq project will be instrumental in driving economic development.

“Copper is going to play the most critical role in terms of energy transition”, he said, adding that due to global demand, there is a shortage of this metal.

“To this, deposits in Reko Diq are our answer”.

He said that the Reko Diq gold and copper mining project is expected to start production by 2028. “The mine is anticipated to generate $2.8 billion in annual exports. This is a 10% increase in terms of our exports today.”

“Copper is to us, what nickel has been to Indonesia,” Aurangzeb said, adding that Indonesia earned $22 billion in 2024 from nickel exports alone.

He reiterated that macroeconomic indicators have improved including a decline in inflation, lowering policy rate and KIBOR rate.

“Amid a decline in policy rate, the debt servicing cost of companies has gone down in a big way.”

Talking about the recent stock market performance, Aurangzeb said equities would remain volatile due to international and local issues. “I consider our stock market as a data point, because the market is still shallow and is not deep enough, where I say it truly represents the main street,” he said.

The finance minister said the Ethiopian ambassador, during the Made in Gujranwala Expo 2025, told him that “we would welcome exports from Pakistan”.

“Every single sector has to export,” he said.

Talking about the IMF programme, Aurangzeb said talks with the international lender are “moving in the right direction”.

He said that the government intends to broaden its tax base and aims to raise the tax-to-GDP ratio from 9-10% to 13% to achieve fiscal sustainability.

“If the tax base is broadened, the country will achieve self-sustainability only then this will be the last programme.”

Aurangzeb said the prime minister would announce further relief measures in the next few months.

He said that for the salaried class, the government intends to simplify the income tax form. Through these measures, the salaried class would be able to file their returns through their mobile phones.

On a personal note, the finance minister informed that he had not taken “any salary in the last 15 months”.

Talking about privatization, Aurangzeb informed that new expressions of interest (EOI) for the sale of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will be published this month.