Pakistan is one of twelve countries selected by the World Bank for a detailed evaluation of debt management practices and institutional arrangements at no cost to government of Pakistan.
Tomas I. Maprusan and Tadashi Endo made presentations in Sovereign Debt Management and Government Debt Market Development in Pakistan.
Issues related to sovereign debt management like guidelines for Public Debt Management (2001), Development Government Bond Markets (2001), Need for capacity building, need to set up debt office as a separate agency, and the role and functions of independent debt office, need for increased emphasis on risk assessment and risk management, need for a comprehensive strategy debt management, mode of co-ordination between relevant agencies in debt management, the decision-making process, role of Parliament in debt management, check and balances, reporting and evaluation system came under discussion.
The World Bank team appreciated the steps taken by the government to improve the economy, particularly market based pricing of government securities; increased transparency of government securities issuance and open market operations; market-friendly policies of Ministry of Finance, SBP & SECP; recognition of the importance of non-bank intermediaries and continued initiatives for market innovations by MOF, SBP, SECP and the private sector.
The World Bank team also presented a few ideas about next steps to be taken by Pakistan.
Salman Shah held very extensive discussion with the World Bank team on various issues. The Finance ministry will provide feedback to the World Bank team after internal discussions and next round of talks will be held with a World Bank team on its next visit.
Minister of State for Finance Omer Ayub Khan and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar also attended the meeting.