Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb says Pakistan is open to Foreign Direct Investments from US firms and is preparing to debut its first-ever Panda bond in the range of 200 million dollars to 250 million dollars this year.

He was talking to the Bloomberg News during his week-long trip in the US to participate in the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The Minister said Pakistan is looking to buy more goods from the US, including cotton and soybean, and remove non-tariff barriers to escape President Donald Trump's high tariffs. He said Pakistan is also in talks to tear down non-trade barriers to open its markets to more US products.

Muhammad Aurangzeb said a trade delegation will also visit Washington in the coming months to bridge the trade gap.

He said that authorities in Pakistan are trying the rebuild the country's tattered economy after it came close to a default in 2023 and has won an initial nod for a 2.3 billion dollars IMF loan that will give it funding visibility until 2027.

The Minister said that Fitch also upgraded Pakistan's credit rating last week, citing confidence that Pakistan will be able to sustain reforms under the IMF loan program.