Pakistan ‘Hopeful’ of Visit by Saudi Crown Prince: Foreign Minister

Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani Saturday said Pakistan is hopeful that Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman will visit Pakistan but added that no dates of a potential visit have been finalized as of now. In an interview with Aaj TV, the foreign minister said that the visit of the Saudi Crown Prince will be of utmost importance as there has been great interest from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations to invest in Pakistan since the establishment of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC). The foreign minister said that around 12 agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) have been finalized and will be signed whenever the high-level visit from Saudi Arabia takes place. Without giving specifics of the said agreements and MoUs, Jilani said that Saudi Arabia and GCC countries are invested in areas such as agriculture, information technology, mining, minerals, and energy. The minister said the purpose of setting up the SIFC was to speed up the process of attracting foreign investment in Pakistan. In a recent meeting with businessmen, Army Chief General Asim Munir said that the Saudi prince assured him of investing $25 billion in Pakistan under the SIFC. Reportedly the Army Chief also asked the Saudi prince to set aside $10 billion to overcome the country’s foreign exchange issues. The Crown Prince is currently leading Saudi Arabia’s delegation to the two-day G20 Leaders Summit in New Delhi, India