ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday applauded his team members for only taking 48 hours to remove all obstacles to pending Saudi Development Fund (SDF) projects while saying that his country had suffered severe losses in the past due to such bureaucratic delays.
The SDF is a Saudi government agency which provides necessary assistance to developing nations by financing social and infrastructure projects. It is also focusing on a number of power generation and other projects in Pakistan.
An SDF delegation currently visiting Islamabad held a meeting with the prime minister on Monday to discuss ongoing projects as well as explore avenues of future cooperation. During the meeting, Sharif instructed all relevant authorities to “immediately remove the obstacles” in the way of any pending projects.
The PM also held another meeting on Thursday to gauge the performance of the pending SDF projects.
“Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has expressed his satisfaction over the progress made in [the] last two days on the projects under the Saudi Development Fund,” the PM Office said in a Twitter post. “He praised the efforts of the concerned cabinet members & officers in this regard.”
According to an official statement, Sharif told his team members to work with “the same will, enthusiasm and good intentions.”
“We made unnecessary delays while dealing with the Saudi Development Fund projects in the past which made us suffer a lot,” he said. “But now we have to move forward at the same pace with which the relevant members of the cabinet and this group of officers worked in the last two days.”
The meeting was briefed by relevant officials who said that all necessary SDF operations involving various hydropower projects in different parts of Pakistan had been completed and agreements concerning them would soon be signed between the two sides.
The prime minister encouraged the Saudi delegation present at the meeting to invest in the solar power sector of his country and fund Diamer-Bhasha Dam.
Sharif acknowledged that Pakistan had always received unconditional support and assistance from the Saudi leadership.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy cordial relations, with over 2.5 million Pakistanis living in the Kingdom, which is the largest contributor of remittances to the South Asian nation.
