ISLAMABAD, Sep 10 (APP):Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, held a meeting on Thursday with Ms. Lucia Real-Martin, Global Executive Director of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), to discuss strategic collaboration on human resource development, IT services expansion, and small-and-medium enterprise (SME) growth. The high-level meeting, which was also attended by senior ACCA Pakistan leadership, focused on aligning institutional capacity building with Pakistan’s ongoing economic …
Finance Minister, ACCA Global Director discuss IT services expansion, SME financing
ISLAMABAD, Sep 10 (APP):Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, held a meeting on Thursday with Ms. Lucia Real-Martin, Global Executive Director of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), to discuss strategic collaboration on human resource development, IT services expansion, and small-and-medium enterprise (SME) growth.
The high-level meeting, which was also attended by senior ACCA Pakistan leadership, focused on aligning institutional capacity building with Pakistan’s ongoing economic reform agenda to foster private-sector-led growth and macroeconomic stability.
During the session, the Finance Minister highlighted the immense potential within Pakistan’s information technology and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sector, emphasizing the urgent need to upgrade digital infrastructure through high-speed 5G connectivity.
He stressed the importance of targeted upskilling and reskilling in emerging fields like artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain to enable the country’s shared service centres to transition from basic transactional tasks into knowledge-intensive, high-value global operations.
Senator Aurangzeb noted that talent export and domestic talent retention must be treated as complementary strategies to build a robust pipeline of highly skilled professionals capable of serving both local and international markets.
The visiting delegation briefed the government on ACCA’s global initiatives and its active engagement with public sector institutions in Pakistan to modernize public financial management.
Ms. Real-Martin reaffirmed ACCA’s commitment to supporting the digitalization of fiscal frameworks, particularly helping state departments transition from traditional cash-based accounting over to accrual-based accounting models to enhance transparency and improve tax administration systems.
The discussion also centred on strengthening the domestic SME market by enhancing the bankability of smaller enterprises and improving their access to affordable commercial credit.
To help smaller businesses overcome the high overhead costs of hiring elite financial experts, ACCA proposed the deployment of fractional CFO services, which allow SMEs shared, cost-effective access to top-tier financial management to streamline their documentation and cash-flow visibility.
The meeting concluded with both sides reaffirming their long-term cooperation to drive economic transformation, support professional capacity building, and advance the financial readiness of Pakistani enterprises.
