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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan expects its remittance inflows to rise to $43 billion this fiscal year as it plans to launch the first Panda bond, the country’s finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Thursday, amid improving macroeconomic indicators.

The development comes as Pakistan navigates a tricky path to economic stability under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program since averting a default in 2023.

Last year, the country’s remittance inflows increased to $38 billion in 2024, compared to $27 billion in 2023, amid efforts to formalize over $400 billion economy by curbing currency smuggling and widening tax base.

“We expect in this fiscal year the remittances to go up to about anywhere between $41-43 billion and that’s a direct function of this macroeconomic stability and a stable currency rate,” Aurangzeb said at a business summit in Peshawar.

The minister shared that Islamabad made a $500 million repayment for Euro bond, while the country is “well positioned” for its next payment of $1.3 billion in April.

“So now we have to go back into the international capital markets, and so God willing, before the year [2025] is out, we expect we’ll have the inaugural Panda bond issued,” he said.

A panda bond is a Chinese yuan-denominated debt instrument issued in China’s onshore bond market by foreign governments, multilateral institutions or companies. It allows overseas borrowers to access China’s vast pool of investors while diversifying funding sources.

“All these positive outcomes of economic stability, this is how it translates into getting the economy moving forward,” Aurangzeb said.

FLOOD RISKS

While he described the country’s economy to be “very resilient,” he mentioned climate change and population growth as threats to the $411 billion economy, which the World Bank says can be around $3 trillion by 2047 given its true potential is realized.

“If [we] are to realize that potential, then we have two existential issues: one [is] dealing with climate change and the other is population,” he said. “Unless we negotiate these challenges, we are not going to get there.”

Aurangzeb’s comments follow deadly floods in Pakistan that have killed 1,006 people since late June and affected millions of others, with the government assessing damages. The latest disaster struck only three years after deluges killed over 1,700 Pakistanis, affected another 33 million and caused around 30 billion in economic losses.

“Climate change is not something which is academic. It is not only adaptation. We are living it day in and day out,” he said.

“So right now, we do not have this room for an economic recovery first that we fix our economic woes and then we start addressing these issues. These have real implications for our people, for livelihoods, for our economy as we go forward.”

Sensing this urgency, the minister said, the government plans to kick in a 300-day plan to mitigate the climate crisis.

“That’s where we are working as whole of the government. We are going to help support assessments to climate change any way we can,” he said.

Similarly, Aurangzeb said, Pakistan’s annual population growth of 2.5 percent leads to issues such as poverty, malnutrition and out-of-school children.

“We are very focused on what we have to do in short to medium terms... we have to get, in terms of a direction for the country, to also negotiate these two existential issues as we go forward,” he added.

ISLAMABAD: Qatar Charity has distributed emergency relief aid, including food baskets, hygiene kits and medical camps, in flood-affected communities in Pakistan, it said on Wednesday, after deluges killed more than 1,000 people.

The floods, triggered by heavy monsoon rains and India’s release of excess water, have killed 1,006 people in Pakistan since Jun. 26 and submerged vast tracts of land, mainly in Punjab province where over 4 million people have been affected.

The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is still assessing the damages from the latest deluges, which come just three years after the 2022 floods that inundated a third of the country, affected 33 million people, and caused an estimates loss of $30 billion.

Qatar Charity, which aims to provide support for vulnerable communities through robust social welfare systems, has organized free medical camps, distributed 500 hygiene kits and delivered 2,500 dry food baskets to the flood-affected Pakistanis as part of its aim to support vulnerable communities internationally.

“Since late June, Qatar Charity has been actively engaged in addressing the devastating impacts of the ongoing monsoon floods in Swat, Shangla, in KP and Jhang, Muzaffargarh in Punjab,” it said.

“Qatar Charity rapidly activated its emergency response across affected and at-risk areas, working with provincial governments, disaster management authorities, UNICEF and communities to deliver life-saving assistance in food security, health, nutrition, and WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene).”

It said the response prioritized life-saving community needs while strengthening coordination and information management for effective multi-sectoral action.

The floods have damaged 12,569 homes, 1,981 kilometers of roads and washed away 6,509 livestock, besides inundating standing crops on hundreds of thousands of acres of land.

“With floodwater everywhere, we had no access to roads or food. My children were crying in hunger,” Shahnaz Bibi, 38, whose home and livestock were destroyed, was quoted as saying by the charity. “The Qatar Charity team delivered a food package to my doorstep. This is truly a blessing from Allah.”

Shakir Ullah, another 40-year-old beneficiary, shared that he lost four of his relatives to the recent floods.

“My home was destroyed, and I am now staying at a relative’s house with no income and no access to roads,” he said. “Qatar Charity reached out to me and provided a food pack that will sustain me for more than a month.”

The charity’s Rapid Needs Assessment (RNA), in collaboration with United Nations agencies and other stakeholders, identified in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over 1.57 million people affected with critical gaps in nutrition, education, and WASH services, while in Punjab, it identified 4.2 million people affected and 2.8 million displaced in the 18 targeted districts, according to the charity.

It said it had managed to conduct free general medical screening camps in Punjab’s Jhang and Muzaffargarh and reached about 22,000 people, while it reached about 30,000 people through free eye medical screening camps in the two districts.

Additional, Qatar Charity, it will sign an agreement to End Child Wasting, Nutrition Prevention, Promotion and Management Intervention in four flood-affected districts of Punjab.