Pakistan is currently working to meet the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) criteria and parameters to formally apply for accession to its Convention on Combating Bribery.
This was stated by Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar during his meeting with OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria in Paris. This was his second meeting with OECD secretary general in the last three months.
The Finance minister informed the secretary general that the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, which he signed on September14, 2016 in Paris has been ratified by the Pakistan’s federal cabinet.
He added that Pakistan Cabinet also authorised the Finance minister for processing Pakistan’s membership to Open Government Partnership (OGP). Accordingly, he handed over Pakistani’s Letter of Intent for joining OGP to French President François Hollande in the OGP Global Summit held in Paris.
The OECD secretary general welcomed Pakistan’s membership to OGP which coupled with Pakistan’s active engagement with OECD clearly demonstrated Pakistan’s commitment to join the international mainstream fora to adopt their best practices and to a transparent and accountable governing structure.
He invited Pakistan to join OECD Development Centre and offered OECD’s technical help for developing Pakistan’s National Action Plan for OGP. Earlier, the Finance minister met with Sir Eric Pickels, Head of UK Anti-Corruption on the sidelines of OGP Summit. Sir Eric congratulated the Finance Minister on joining OGP. The minister informed Sir Eric that Pakistan was the first country to issue a tax directory of parliamentarians and the fourth country to publish general tax directory of tax payers for the three consecutive years. They also discussed the matters relating to transparency and good governance.
Denis Simonneau, the Head of European and International Relations, ENGIE, a leading French energy company, also called on the Finance minister at the Embassy of Pakistan in Paris and expressed interest of his corporate group to cooperate in the field of energy in Pakistan.
All the meetings were also attended by Economic Affairs Division Secretary Tariq Bajwa, Ambassador of Pakistan to France Moin-ul-Haque and other embassy officials.