Pakistan and the United Kingdom have reaffirmed to further strengthening bilateral cooperation, focusing economic reforms, climate action, private sector-led growth, and sustainable development.

This resolve was expressed at a meeting between Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and British High Commissioner Jane Marriott in Islamabad today.

The Minister expressed government's commitment of ensuring macroeconomic stability while simultaneously pursuing a medium-term shift towards investment- and export-led growth to break the historical boom-bust cycles.

He underscored the need to generate bankable projects and strengthen private sector-led investment pipelines.

The Finance Minister apprised the High Commissioner of ongoing tax reforms focused on documentation, digitalization, broadening of the tax base and minimizing leakages. He informed that AI-based monitoring systems had been deployed to curb tax evasion and improve compliance.

The Finance Minister also discussed key areas requiring calibrated policy interventions, including incentivizing skilled talent retention in the country, addressing sector-specific tax challenges in the IT sector, and strengthening the ease of doing business to facilitate foreign expertise and investors.

In her remarks, the High Commissioner acknowledged the Government's commitment to sustaining reform momentum and appreciated the clear direction set for long-term economic growth.

She reiterated the need for continuing reforms to sustain investor trust, including strengthening the social contract with taxpayers, improving talent availability, and enabling smoother processes for foreign executives working in Pakistan.