IN an interview with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Riyadh newspaper published on Sunday, Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed his strong desire to transform relations with the Saudi Kingdom into a deep, diverse and mutually beneficial strategic partnership.
Such are the bonds and friendship between Pakistan and the KSA which cannot be described in words.
This relationship is based on mutual trust and confidence and both the countries have always stood by each other in difficult times.
Most recently, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman extended a financial package of $ 4.2 billion dollars to Pakistan when our government was struggling to cope with pressure on rupee, falling foreign exchange reserves and high commodity prices.
Indeed this has provided much needed relief to our economy and its impact has been forthwith as the rupee has started gaining against the dollar.
However, as also stated by Prime Minister Imran Khan, there is a need to take this relationship to the next level of strong economic partnership by diversifying cooperation in areas of mutual interests including agriculture, Information Technology, climate change, energy and infrastructure development and so on.
We understand that the recent Pakistan-Saudi investment forum held in Riyadh is a step in the right direction to engage the private sectors of both the countries to realize the untapped potential in the fields of trade, business and investment.
In fact the very visit of the Saudi Crown Prince back in February 2019 wherein he announced investment of $ 20 billion dollars in Pakistan had laid the foundation of developing strong economic partnership between the two countries.
Now it is responsibility of authorities concerned on both sides to move forward quickly to realize that investment on the ground.
This investment in fact will open new vistas of opportunities to further promote and strengthen cooperation in diverse fields.
Pak-Saudi Supreme Coordination Council to be chaired by PM Imran Khan and the Saudi Crown Prince, should be activated and its meeting be held at the earliest in order to fast track work on the Saudi investment in Pakistan.
Strong economic ties will be a win-win for both the countries and bring them further close to each other.
