According to the Ministry of External Affairs statement, the 1st G-20 infrastructure working group meeting (IWG) will be held on January 16-17 in Pune. The meeting will be attended by 65 delegates across the G-20 membership, invitee International organizations, and countries. The Department of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Finance, along with Brazil and Australia as the co-chairs will host the IWG meeting. In the meeting, the discussion will focus on the agenda for IWG under the Indian presidency.
The Primary theme of the meeting is “Financing Cities of Tomorrow: Inclusive, Resilient, and Sustainable”, which will help in accomplishing the long-term vision as well as deliberate on various aspects of financing urban infrastructure, facets of making cities economic centers of growth, making future-ready urban infrastructure, quality infrastructure investments, and making innovative instruments for mobilizing financial resources for infrastructure investment.
First G-20 infrastructure working group meeting (IWG) will be held on January 16-17 in Pune
The Pune meeting will also be followed by a High-level workshop on “Financing Cities for Tomorrow”, which will discuss relevant themes related to the technical and managerial capacity to build the Cities of Tomorrow, Investors’ considerations in raising private financing, and the city’s financial capacity.
The IWG meeting will be used as a forum to discuss the challenges faced by cities and opportunities that cities will bring soon & chart a course that makes the cities more livable.
The country needs to inject $4.5 trillion in infrastructure development by 2030 to realize its $5 trillion economy plan by 2025 and continue to grow at a rapid pace. Last week, while launching the World’s longest cruise Ganga Vilas in the country, PM Modi said, the 21st century’s decade is the ‘decade of infrastructure transformation in India’ and India is experiencing a level of infrastructure that was unimaginable a few years ago.
The IWG meeting will be used as a forum to discuss the challenges faced by cities and opportunities that cities will bring soon & chart a course that makes the cities more livable
From social infrastructure like hospitals, toilets, houses, water, electricity, cooking gas, and educational institutes, to digital to physical connectivity infrastructure like waterways, railways, roads, and airways, all these are strong indicators of the rapid growth of India.
During the Pune IWG meeting, the Ministry of Finance will steer the G-20 infrastructure motive to ensure that it acts as a global prime mover to envision new ideas & accelerate collective action.
Apart from the formal discussions, the delegates will also be able to witness the rich culture and beautiful landscapes of the city. The department has arranged for an optional expedition such as the Pune heritage walk, a trip to Mahabaleshwar, and a city tour.
Pune is the 2nd city of Maharastra to host this meeting. Last year in December, the first meeting of DWG (Development Working Group) was held in Mumbai. According to officials, Detailed preparations, including road & restorations and beautification works, were taken up for preparing Pune ahead of G-20 Meeting.
Next in line is a Sherpa Trek meeting, the 1st health working group meeting (HWG) in Thiruvananthapuram scheduled from 18 to 20 January.