WASHINGTON    -    The United States has urged Paki­stan to ‘continue working’ with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), especially on reforms that will im­prove the country’s business envi­ronment, highlighting that it would help Pakistan attract high-quality in­vestment.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price made these remarks in re­sponse to a query at a weekly press briefing here yesterday.

“We encourage Pakistan to contin­ue working with the IMF, especial­ly on reforms that will improve Pa­kistan’s business environment. We believe that doing so — and the IMF believes this — will make Pakistani business more competitive and will also help Pakistan attract high-qual­ity investment,” he said.

Responding to a query during the briefing if the US was worried about Pakistan’s current situation as it faced major economic issues, politi­cal challenges and a rise in terror at­tacks, Price reiterated US support for Pakistan through “economic partner­ship that has existed with the US over the course of decades now”.

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He said that Pakistan was working with “international financial institu­tions — the IMF — to put itself on a sustainable growth path”.

“The US is ready and able to con­tinue to be a partner to the people of Pakistan and to our Pakistani coun­terparts as well,” he added.

In response to a question about if the US was not using its “friendly in­fluence” that it had at the IMF to help Pakistan secure the deal, the spokes­person said: “Ultimately, it’s going to have to be decisions on the part of our Pakistani counterparts to unlock this IMF funding.”

Encouraging Pakistan to contin­ue working with the money lender, Price highlighted that the technolo­gies, market connections and man­agement systems that accompany the deal were of more value than the “potential investment dollars”.

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“They improve the competitive­ness of partnering Pakistani firms, fuelling economic growth that in­creases employment and household incomes,” he added.

The state department official as­serted that it believed Pakistan could put itself on a path to sustain­able growth by “continuing to make the necessary economic decisions”.