You are here

  • Home
  • Pakistan plans to launch panda bonds, seeks cooperation of Chinese capital market investors

Pakistan plans to launch panda bonds, seeks cooperation of Chinese capital market investors

Pakistan plans to launch panda bonds, seeks cooperation of Chinese capital market investors
In this handout photograph, taken and released by Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance, Pakistan Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb (4L) along with a delegation meets Governor of People’s Bank of China Pan Gongsheng (3R) during his visit to Beijing on July 26, 2024. (Photo courtesy: X/@Financegovpk)
Short Url

https://arab.news/7m3r8

Updated 27 July 2024
Follow

Pakistan plans to launch panda bonds, seeks cooperation of Chinese capital market investors

Pakistan plans to launch panda bonds, seeks cooperation of Chinese capital market investors
  • The bonds are denominated in China’s currency and will provide Pakistan access to Chinese capital markets
  • The finance minister also discusses the next CPEC stage, expected to emphasize business-to-business ties
Updated 27 July 2024
Aamir Saeed
Follow

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Muhammad Aurangzeb briefed Governor of People’s Bank of China (PBoC) Pan Gongsheng on Pakistan’s plan to launch panda bonds during a meeting in Beijing on Friday in which they discussed a wide range of economic issues.
Panda bonds are sold in China’s domestic market and are denominated in its currency, though they are issued by non-Chinese entities. Pakistan plans to issue these bonds to diversify its funding sources and strengthen its foreign exchange reserves by attracting Chinese investors.
According to local media reports, the initial issuance is expected to raise between $250 million and $300 million, helping Pakistan improve its financial stability amid economic challenges like high inflation and declining forex reserves.
The minister spoke about the government’s economic policy during the meeting in which reprentatives of other financial institutions were also present.
“Underlining Pakistan’s plan to launch panda bonds, Minister for Finance briefed PBoC and other Financial Institutions about the steps taken so far and sought cooperation of the Chinese institutional investors in the capital market to seek benefit from the pro-business policies of the new [Pakistani] Government,” said a statement issued by the finance division after the meeting.
The Pakistani official also highlighted his country’s improving macroeconomic indicators, reforms in tax collection and energy sector and privatization of loss-making state-owned enterprises.
He applauded Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative while reviewing the progress of its flagship China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
The minister noted the next phase of CPEC would focus on strengthening business-to-business cooperation, with private sector playing the central role in the development and economic growth.
He arrived in China on Thursday to open talks on power sector structural reforms suggested by the International Monetary Fund, two government sources quoted by Reuters.
Aurangzeb is also accompanied by Pakistan’s Power Minster Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari.
According to Reuters, both officials are expected to take up several proposals with the Chinese side, including reprofiling of nearly $15 billion energy sector debt.

Topics: Pakistan China Ties Muhammad Aurangzeb Pakistan china Pakistan economy Panda bonds

Pakistan strongly condemns Israel’s attacks on Iran, says they undermine regional stability

Updated 16 sec ago
Follow

Pakistan strongly condemns Israel’s attacks on Iran, says they undermine regional stability

Pakistan strongly condemns Israel’s attacks on Iran, says they undermine regional stability
  • Israel attacked multiple sites in Iran early Friday targeting country’s nuclear program
  • Pakistan stands in solidarity with government, people of Iran, says FM Ishaq Dar
Updated 16 sec ago
SAIMA SHABBIR

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday condemned Israel’s “unjustified” attacks against Iran, warning that it undermines regional stability hours after Tel Aviv targeted the country’s nuclear program and raised the potential for an all-out war between the two Middle East adversaries.

Israel launched strikes on Tehran early Friday, with black smoke being seen rising from the nation’s main nuclear enrichment facility. Multiple sites around the country were hit, with the leader of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard confirmed dead, Iranian state television reported. The development would serve as a body blow to Tehran’s governing theocracy and an immediate escalation of the nations’ long-simmering conflict.

Israeli leaders cast the preemptive assault as a fight for the nation’s survival and necessary to head off what they described as an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs. It remains unclear how close the country is to achieving that.

“Strongly condemn unjustified Israeli attacks on Islamic Republic of Iran which is a brazen violation of Iran’s sovereignty,” Dar wrote on social media platform X.

Dar said the “abhorrent action” had violated international law and “gravely undermines” regional stability and international security.

“Pakistan stands in solidarity with the Government & the people of Iran,” he added.

In a separate statement, Pakistan’s foreign office said Iran has the right to self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.

“The international community and the United Nations bear responsibility to uphold international law, stop this aggression immediately and hold the aggressor accountable for its actions,” the statement read.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry also condemned the attack, saying that it violated international laws.

“While the Kingdom condemns these heinous attacks, it affirms that the international community and the (UN) Security Council bear a great responsibility to immediately halt this aggression,” the Saudi foreign ministry said.

Iran’s retaliation appeared to be underway immediately, as Israel’s military said Tehran had launched more than 100 drones toward its territory. All of Israel’s aerial defenses had been activated, military spokesperson Effie Defrin said, adding, “we’re expecting difficult hours.”

Iran’s state TV offered few details about Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps who various international news websites reported had been killed, but said another top Guard official, as well as two nuclear scientists, were also feared dead.

In Washington, the Trump administration, which had cautioned Israel against an attack during continued negotiations over Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, said it had not been involved and warned against any retaliation targeting US interests or personnel.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel took “unilateral action against Iran” and that Israel advised the US that it believed the strikes were necessary for its self-defense.

“We are not involved in strikes against Iran, and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said in a statement released by the White House.

The potential for an attack had been apparent for weeks. President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he did not believe an attack was imminent but also acknowledged that it “could very well happen.” As tensions rose, the US pulled some diplomats from Iraq’s capital and offered voluntary evacuations for the families of US troops in the wider Middle East.

With additional input from Associated Press

Topics: Pakistan Iran Ties

Pakistan, other nuclear states together spent $100 billion on weapons in 2024 — report

Pakistan, other nuclear states together spent $100 billion on weapons in 2024 — report
Updated 8 min 33 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Pakistan, other nuclear states together spent $100 billion on weapons in 2024 — report

Pakistan, other nuclear states together spent $100 billion on weapons in 2024 — report
  • US spent $56.8 billion in 2024, followed by China at $12.5 billion, says International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
  • ICAN says level of nuclear weapons spending in 2024 by these nine nations could have paid UN budget almost 28 times over
Updated 8 min 33 sec ago
AFP

GENEVA: Nuclear-armed states spent more than $100 billion on their atomic arsenals last year, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said Friday, lamenting the lack of democratic oversight of such spending.

ICAN said Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States together spent nearly $10 billion more than in 2023.

The United States spent $56.8 billion in 2024, followed by China at $12.5 billion and Britain at $10.4 billion, ICAN said in its flagship annual report.

Geneva-based ICAN won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its key role in drafting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which took effect in 2021.

Some 69 countries have ratified it to date, four more have directly acceded to the treaty and another 25 have signed it, although none of the nuclear weapons states have come on board.

This year’s report looked at the costs incurred by the countries that host other states’ nuclear weapons.

It said such costs are largely unknown to citizens and legislators alike, thereby avoiding democratic scrutiny.

Although not officially confirmed, the report said Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkiye were hosting US nuclear weapons, citing experts.

Meanwhile Russia claims it has nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus, but some experts are unsure, it added.

The report said there was “little public information” about the costs associated with hosting US nuclear weapons in NATO European countries, citing the cost of facility security, nuclear-capable aircraft and preparation to use such weapons.

“Each NATO nuclear-sharing arrangement is governed by secret agreements,” the report said.

“It’s an affront to democracy that citizens and lawmakers are not allowed to know that nuclear weapons from other countries are based on their soil or how much of their taxes is being spent on them,” said the report’s co-author Alicia Sanders-Zakre.

Eight countries openly possess nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea.

Israel is widely assumed to have nuclear weapons, although it has never officially acknowledged this.

ICAN said the level of nuclear weapons spending in 2024 by these nine nations could have paid the UN budget almost 28 times over.

“The problem of nuclear weapons is one that can be solved, and doing so means understanding the vested interests fiercely defending the option for nine countries to indiscriminately murder civilians,” said ICAN’s program coordinator Susi Snyder.

The private sector earned at least $42.5 billion from their nuclear weapons contracts in 2024 alone, the report said.

There are at least $463 billion in ongoing nuclear weapons contracts, some of which do not expire for decades, and last year, at least $20 billion in new nuclear weapon contracts were awarded, it added.

“Many of the companies that benefited from this largesse invested heavily in lobbying governments, spending $128 million on those efforts in the United States and France, the two countries for which data is available,” ICAN said.

Standard nuclear doctrine — developed during the Cold War between superpowers the United States and the Soviet Union — is based on the assumption that such weapons will never have to be used because their impact is so devastating, and because nuclear retaliation would probably bring similar destruction on the original attacker.

Pakistan’s Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces to present budgets 2025-26 today

Pakistan’s Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces to present budgets 2025-26 today
Updated 40 min 3 sec ago
Follow

Pakistan’s Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces to present budgets 2025-26 today

Pakistan’s Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces to present budgets 2025-26 today
  • Pakistan’s federal government announced its budget 2025-26, with total outlay of $62 billion, on Tuesday
  • Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah, who also holds finance portfolio, will present budget at 3:00 pm, says state media
Updated 40 min 3 sec ago
NAIMAT KHAN

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces will present their annual budgets for the fiscal year 2025-26 today, Friday, in their respective assemblies, state-run media reported.

The development will take place a few days after Pakistan’s central government announced the federal budget for the fiscal year 2025-26 with a total outlay of Rs7.57 trillion ($62 billion). Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb presented the budget in parliament on Tuesday, which allocates Rs2.55 trillion ($9 billion) for defense spending in FY26, compared to Rs2.12 trillion in the fiscal year ending this month.

Pakistan’s provincial governments announce their annual budgets typically a few days after the federal government. KP Minister for Finance Aftab Alam Afridi will present the budget in the KP Assembly at 3:00 pm, state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.

“In Sindh, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who also holds the portfolio of finance will present the budget in Sindh assembly in Karachi at three in the afternoon,” the report said.

The state media said Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province will announce its budget on Monday.

The federal government announced a significant income tax relief for the salaried class in its budget earlier this week, aiming to ease the burden on people amid high inflation and economic uncertainty. The income tax rate for individuals earning between Rs600,000 and Rs1.2 million ($2,128–$4,255) annually would be cut from 5 percent to 2.5 percent.

“For those earning up to Rs22,000,000 [$7,788], the tax rate has been proposed at 11 percent instead of 15 percent. Similarly, those who earn a higher salary, there is a proposition of tax reduction,” Aurangzeb said.

“For those who are earning between Rs22,000,000 [$7,788] up to Rs32,000,000 [$11,328], the tax rate has been proposed to be reduced from 25 percent to 23 percent,” he added.

For high-income earners making over Rs10 million ($35,460) annually, a 1 percent reduction in the additional surcharge has been recommended to help curb the ongoing brain drain, the minister said.

BUDGET 2025-26 HIGHLIGHTS:

GDP/DEFICIT

* GDP growth projected to be 4.2 percent

* Nominal GDP seen at 129.57 trillion rupees

* Fiscal deficit expected to be 3.9 percent of GDP

* Targets primary surplus of 2.4 percent of GDP

INFLATION

* Targets inflation at 7.5 percent

EXPENDITURE

* Total spending seen at 17.57 trillion rupees

* Defense expenditure of 2.55 trillion rupees targeted

* Interest payments projected at 8.21 trillion rupees

REVENUE

* Total gross revenue of 19.28 trillion rupees targeted

* Targets total tax revenue of 14.1 trillion rupees

* Aiming for net external receipts of 106 billion rupees

($1 = 282.0000 Pakistani rupees)

Topics: Pakistan Budget 2025-26

In a Pakistan valley, a small revolution among women

In a Pakistan valley, a small revolution among women
Updated 13 June 2025
AFP
Follow

In a Pakistan valley, a small revolution among women

In a Pakistan valley, a small revolution among women
  • Woman-led carpentry shop in Hunza Valley has trained around 100 women since 2008, employs 22 people
  • Experts say high literacy rate driving socio-economic progress of women in Hunza compared to rest of Pakistan
Updated 13 June 2025
AFP

KARIMABAD, Pakistan: In a sawdust-filled workshop nestled in the Karakoram Mountains, a team of women carpenters chisel away at cabinets — and forge an unlikely career for themselves in Pakistan.

Women make up just a fraction of Pakistan’s formal workforce. But in a collection of villages sprinkled along the old Silk Road between China and Afghanistan, a group of women-led businesses is defying expectations.

“We have 22 employees and have trained around 100 women,” said Bibi Amina, who launched her carpentry workshop in 2008 at the age of 30.

Hunza Valley’s population of around 50,000, spread across mountains abounding with apricot, cherry, walnut and mulberry orchards, follow the Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam.

Ismailis are led by the Aga Khan, a hereditary position held by a family with Pakistani roots now living in Europe.

The family opened a girls’ school in Hunza in 1946, kickstarting an educational investment that pushed the valley’s literacy rate to 97 percent for both men and women. That rate far outstrips the country average of around 68 percent for men and 52.8 percent for women.

As a result, attitudes have shifted, and women like Amina are taking expanded roles.

“People thought women were there to wash dishes and do laundry,” Amina said of the generation before her.

Trained by the Aga Khan Foundation to help renovate the ancient Altit Fort, Amina later used her skills to start her own business. Her carpenters are currently at work on a commission from a luxury hotel.

Only 23 percent of the women in Pakistan were officially part of the labor force as of 2024, according to data from the World Bank.

In rural areas, women rarely take on formal employment but often toil in the fields to support the family’s farming income.

In a Gallup poll published last year, a third of women respondents said their father or husband forbade them from taking a job, while 43.5 percent said they had given up work to devote themselves to domestic tasks.

Cafe owner Lal Shehzadi spearheaded women’s restaurant entrepreneurship in Hunza.

She opened her cafe at the top of a winding high street to supplement her husband’s small army pension.

Sixteen years later, her simple set-up overlooking the valley has become a popular night-time tourist attraction. She serves visitors traditional cuisine, including yak meat, apricot oil and rich mountain cheese.

“At the start, I used to work alone,” she said. “Now, 11 people work here and most of them are women. And my children are also working here.”

Following in Shehzadi’s footsteps, Safina quit her job to start her own restaurant around a decade ago.

“No one wanted to help me,” she said. Eventually, she convinced family members to sell two cows and a few goats for the money she needed to launch her business.

Now, she earns the equivalent of around $170 a month, more than 15 times her previous income.

The socio-economic progress of women in Hunza compared to other rural areas of Pakistan has been driven by three factors, according to Sultan Madan, the head of the Karakoram Area Development Organization and a local historian.

“The main reason is the very high literacy rate,” he told AFP, largely crediting the Aga Khan Foundation for funding training programs for women.

“Secondly, agriculture was the backbone of the economy in the region, but in Hunza the landholding was meager and that was why women had to work in other sectors.”

Women’s increased economic participation has spilled into other areas of life, like sports fields.

“Every village in the valley has a women’s soccer team: Gojal, Gulmit, Passu, Khyber, Shimsal,” said Nadia Shams, 17.

On a synthetic pitch, she trains with her teammates in jogging pants or shorts, forbidden elsewhere by Pakistan’s dress code.

Here, one name is on everyone’s lips: Malika-e-Noor, the former vice-captain of the national team who scored the winning penalty against the Maldives in the 2010 South Asian Women’s Football Championship.

Fahima Qayyum was six years old when she witnessed the killer kick.

Today, after several international matches, she is recruiting the next generation.

“As a girl, I stress to others the importance of playing, as sport is very good for health,” she told AFP.

“If they play well, they can also get scholarships.”

Pakistan eyes over $6 billion in Saudi support as top foreign financier in FY26

Pakistan eyes over $6 billion in Saudi support as top foreign financier in FY26
Updated 13 June 2025
Follow

Pakistan eyes over $6 billion in Saudi support as top foreign financier in FY26

Pakistan eyes over $6 billion in Saudi support as top foreign financier in FY26
  • China, Pakistan’s largest trading partner, projected to be second-biggest lender with $4.37 billion
  • Budget documents also list smaller expected inflows from Kuwait ($21.4 million) and Oman ($5.14 million)
Updated 13 June 2025
Ismail Dilawar

KARACHI: Saudi Arabia is expected to be Pakistan’s largest source of external financing in the upcoming fiscal year with over $6 billion in support as the South Asian country seeks to raise more than $20 billion from international lenders to uplift its fragile economy, official budget documents released this week showed.

In the 2025–26 fiscal year starting July 1, Pakistan aims to secure $6.46 billion from Riyadh, including $5 billion in time deposits, $1 billion in oil on deferred payments, and $46.4 million in economic assistance, according to the budget documents.

The financial support is intended to help stabilize the country’s external account and meet its balance of payments needs.

Islamabad has long relied on financial support from its Gulf and Chinese partners to shore up its foreign reserves and avoid default. In 2023, these inflows played a key role in helping Pakistan avert a sovereign debt crisis.

“The support from Saudi Arabia in the form of deposits and oil facility is undoubtedly the major source of the external stability,” said Shankar Talreja, head of research at Karachi-based Topline Securities.

Pakistan’s government unveiled a Rs17.6 trillion ($62 billion) federal budget on June 10, aiming to consolidate what it describes as fragile macroeconomic stability achieved under a $7 billion bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Notably, Pakistan has not earmarked a specific amount under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its external financing estimates for 2025-26. The country is currently operating under a 37-month IMF Extended Fund Facility approved last year.

In total, Pakistan has budgeted for Rs5.78 trillion ($20.4 billion) in foreign assistance in FY26, including both loans and grants from bilateral and multilateral partners, to help shore up reserves and finance its current account. The country’s total external receipts for the year are budgeted at Rs20.3 trillion ($71.9 billion).

China, Pakistan’s largest trading partner and longtime ally, is projected to be the second-biggest lender after Riyadh with $4.37 billion, including $4 billion in “safe deposits,” a form of central bank support, and $37 million in economic assistance.

“China is a major bilateral partner… supporting Pakistan with both commercial loans and time deposits,” said Talreja. “Both types are refinanced and renewed annually.”

Pakistan’s multilateral lenders include the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank, Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and others such as the United Nations, OPEC Fund, and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

SMALLER LENDERS AND REMITTANCES

Besides Saudi Arabia and China, Pakistan will also seek smaller amounts of aid and financing from countries including the United States, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Japan, and South Korea, according to the budget documents, which also list smaller expected inflows from Kuwait ($21.4 million) and Oman ($5.14 million).

However, a long-delayed Saudi oil facility, initially expected last year, has yet to materialize. Media reports have suggested Riyadh has linked its final approval to progress on Saudi investment in Pakistan’s Reko Diq copper and gold mining project.

State media reported in September that Saudi Arabia had offered a 15 percent equity stake in the multibillion-dollar Reko Diq mine in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province. The project, one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold reserves, is operated by Canada’s Barrick Gold.

Islamabad also plans to raise $1.3 billion in commercial loans and $400 million through international bond issuances, though the finance ministry has not specified the sovereign guarantees or instruments.

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has separately said the government aims to issue Panda bonds, yuan-denominated debt instruments issued in China, to raise around $200 million from Chinese investors to boost foreign exchange reserves.

In addition to official financing, Pakistan continues to benefit significantly from worker remittances, particularly from the Gulf region.

According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024–25, released this week, Saudi Arabia accounted for $7.4 billion in remittances in the last fiscal year, about 25 percent of the national total.

Remittances from all six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain — totaled $16.1 billion, or more than half of Pakistan’s total remittance inflows in 2024.

“In the GCC region, expanding Saudi mega-projects led to higher migrant employment, further contributing to inflows,” the economic survey said.

“It’s not just deposits and oil facilities helping Pakistan,” added Talreja. “Remittances from Saudi Arabia alone are a quarter of Pakistan’s total remittances.”

“Saudi Arabia is a key nation for Pakistan in terms of foreign inflows, whether in the form of remittances or economic assistance,” Sana Tawfik, head of research at Arif Habib Ltd. said.

Topics: Pakistan Budget 2025-26

Latest updates

Philippines’ former leader Duterte seeks interim release from ICC
Philippines’ former leader Duterte seeks interim release from ICC
Jordan closes airspace, says it won’t be battleground for any conflict
Jordan closes airspace, says it won’t be battleground for any conflict
Streaming successes: What’s coming to your screens later this year 
Streaming successes: What’s coming to your screens later this year 
Club World Cup marks ‘new era’ for football: Infantino
Club World Cup marks ‘new era’ for football: Infantino
REVIEW: ‘Stick’ — Apple’s golf-based comedy unlikely to rival ‘Ted Lasso’ success
REVIEW: ‘Stick’ — Apple’s golf-based comedy unlikely to rival ‘Ted Lasso’ success

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.