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.
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.
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