ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar met United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York and discussed the challenge of economic recovery and a new Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) set up in June to attract funding from foreign countries, the PM Office said on Thursday.

Kakar arrived in the United States on September 19 to participate in the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session. He will address the session on Friday, September 22.

In his meeting with Guterres on Wednesday, Kakar discussed Pakistan’s economic recovery and initiatives to attract both domestic and international investments.

“The Prime Minister updated the UNSG on the newly established Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), which has the objective of promoting investments into Pakistan for the robust economic recovery of the country,” the statement said.

Pakistan set up the SIFC — a civil-military hybrid forum — to attract foreign funding, particularly from GCC nations, in agriculture, mining, information technology, defense production and energy.

Expressing gratitude to Guterres for his support during last year’s devastating floods and for his co-hosting of the Geneva Conference on Pakistan’s Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Framework (4RF), the prime minister emphasized the need for developed nations to fulfill their climate finance commitments.

Kakar also participated in a high-level dialogue on “Financing for Development,” convened by the General Assembly, on Wednesday in which he called upon the UN to formulate a strategy for global equitable development and to give debt relief and financial support to developing nations.

“We must fulfill the commitments made at the SDGs Summit, and to achieve the SDGs, we must engage the private sector,” Kakar was quoted as saying by the state-owned Associated Press of Pakistan.

He expressed concern about the disproportionate concentration of private-sector investment in developed economies over developing nations.

“An institution focused on public-private partnerships could be established under the auspices of the United Nations,” he said.