Nirmala Sitharaman who is the Finance Minister of India has recently suggested Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to raise its investments in order to guarantee that real impact is made and resources are not dispersed among several regions. Increasing investments, factors like energy efficiency, clean energy, social infrastructure with a focus on health and education, disaster durability, and several others including digital infrastructure should be given topmost priority.
Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the Governor’s Roundtable Discussion on the topic of ‘Financing Infrastructure in a Crisis-Prone World’ during the 7th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the AIIB via video conference. During her remarks, the finance minister praised the AIIB for its ongoing dedication to helping members and for offering top-notch development financing. According to the finance minister, India’s well-targeted policy mix, blended with significant structural changes and a healthy external balance sheet, has helped the country’s growth to stay resilient in the face of external risks and threats.
The finance minister praised the AIIB for its ongoing dedication to helping members and for offering top-notch development financing.
Sitharaman also noted that India has started along the path of becoming a self-sufficient economy and has thus been effective in limiting the pandemic’s detrimental consequences. Alongside, she also accentuated India’s exceptional growth and progress in its digitization mission, making the right use of technology to smooth down the increase in financial inclusions as well as social protection. Highlighting ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ (LiFE), she mentioned how the Prime Minister of the Nation, Narendra Modi is actively taking the charge in the climate change response efforts of the country through LiFE and many such programs.
While noting that public resources and funds on their own are not sufficient for the fulfillment of the requirements of the huge infrastructure, the Finance Minister of India advised the Bank to explore ways to increase its own resources in addition to acting as a catalyst in the mobilization of various private sector resources, including by taking immediate action on the recommendations of the G20 Expert Panel’s Report on the MDB’s Capital Adequacy Framework (CAF).
Sitharaman emphasized that AIIB should put more effort to broaden the scope of its mid-stream and upstream engagement operations.
Adding more to this, Sitharaman emphasized that AIIB should put more effort to broaden the scope of its mid-stream and upstream engagement operations, such as by providing customers with more technical assistance to help them convert their strategies into investment plans. The finance minister added that the Bank ought to open full-fledged country offices in each of its member states.
Concluding her statement, the finance minister assured AIIB of India’s pursuit of cooperation toward achieving the goals of its assigned missions. The Board of Governors meets annually at the Annual Meeting to make significant decisions regarding the AIIB and its long-term goals. India is an AIIB founding member and the organization’s second-largest shareholder.
Within AIIB, India also has the largest project portfolio. This year’s Annual Meeting had the topic ‘Sustainable Infrastructure Toward a Connected World’ as its theme.
