Saudi Arabia announced that it is considering increasing its investments in Pakistan to 10,000 million dollars and thus increase the volume of its aid in support of the economy of that country, Riyadh’s main non-Arab ally, and whose economy is going through difficult times.
As reported today by the official Saudi news agency, SPA, the Saudi crown prince and prime minister, Mohamed bin Salman (MBS), “has ordered to study the increase to 10,000 million dollars of Saudi investments in Pakistan”.
“He also (ordered) that the Saudi Development Fund consider increasing to $5 billion the amount of the deposit provided by the kingdom in favor of the Central Bank of Pakistan,” he added.
This latest move is similar to what the Saudis have already made in other allied countries such as Egypt, in order to shore up their currency and stop the flight of currency that the economy is experiencing.
SPA did not specify the current volume of Saudi investments in Pakistan, although the kingdom decided last December to extend the term of a deposit of 3,000 million dollars that Riyadh had deposited in the Central Bank of Pakistan in 2021.
The agency stressed that with his orders, MBS “affirms the kingdom’s position in support of the economy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its brotherly people.”
Governments, financial institutions and other actors in the international community pledged yesterday to finance Pakistan’s recovery with 9,000 million dollars after suffering in 2022 the worst floods in its recent history, which flooded a third of its national surface.
The figure was announced at the end of the conference organized by the United Nations to raise funds for the recovery and creation of a more resilient Pakistan to natural disasters, held in Geneva with the participation of world leaders.
At the meeting, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appealed for $8.15 billion from the international community to deal with the destruction caused by last summer’s floods.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading exporter of petroleum, considers Pakistan, a country that has a large army, as its closest non-Arab ally, as well as being considered the only Islamic nuclear power in the world.