Pakistan Starts IMF Talks, Plans Privatization of All State-Owned Enterprises Except Strategic Sectors...

The Pakistani government, which has begun new bailout support negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), announced plans to privatize all state-owned enterprises except for some strategic sectors.

According to local media on the 14th (local time), Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif discussed the privatization roadmap for state-owned enterprises to be implemented from this year until 2029 and issued a statement with these details.

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

In the statement, Prime Minister Sharif emphasized, "All state-owned enterprises will be privatized whether they make a profit or incur losses," adding, "Shedding state-owned enterprises that operate at a deficit will be the way to protect taxpayers' money."

However, he did not specifically mention the strategic state-owned enterprises excluded from privatization.

This decision by the Pakistani government goes a step further than the initial plan to privatize only loss-making state-owned enterprises.

The announcement came just one day after the IMF negotiation team arrived in the capital Islamabad to begin talks on a new financial support program, the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

Pakistan faced a sovereign debt default crisis last year but averted the crisis with help from the IMF and some allies. Since then, the IMF has recommended improvements such as privatizing loss-making state-owned enterprises to the Pakistani government.

The asset size of Pakistan's loss-making state-owned enterprises was reported to account for 44% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as of 2019.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.