The Senate began its session at the parliament house in Islamabad on Friday with Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani in the chair.

The Senate was informed that the country’s foreign exchange reserves had increased to about 20 billion dollars.

Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar told the house during question hour that the State Bank of Pakistan had foreign exchange reserves of 12 to 13 billion dollars. He said the reserves have increased due to improvement in exports and remittances.

The Minister for Industries said there has also been a record debt servicing during the tenure of the present government. He said we are paying back ten billion dollars annually.

Hammad Azhar said the current account has shown a surplus of 1.6 billion dollars during the first five months of current financial year against a deficit of 1.7 billion dollars in the corresponding period last year.

The Minister for Industries said that special economic zones will be constructed under the mega China Pakistan Economic Corridor project. He said construction work on three SEZs has been expedited.  He said projects worth 1.7 billion dollars are in the phase of implementation in Gwadar under the CPEC. He said two projects have already been completed while seven projects worth 1.2 billion dollars projects are in the execution phase.