NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday told the expert group on strengthening multilateral development banks (MDBs) the time for incremental changes was over and it was time to undertake a transformational development agenda. This, she added, should balance needs of development finance with transboundary challenges, such as climate change.
The FM’s comments came during her first meeting with the expert group that has Larry Summers, professor emeritus at Harvard University, and N K Singh, chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, as co-chairs. The minister stated that the need of the hour was to adopt a holistic approach, instead of a fragmented strategy, where sustainable development goals and climate challenges are not pitted against each other and the donors are not at loggerheads with the beneficiary nations.
The FM underlined these are not mutually exclusive goals, and in their current state the MDBs will be unable to meet the larger demand, sources familiar with the deliberations told TOI. She had made a similar pitch before the development committee of the World Bank earlier in the week, when the “evolution road map” for the multilateral agency was discussed.
When contacted, Singh told TOI, “There was general support in the expert group on the broad philosophy that MDBs need transformational, not incremental, changes. The daunting challenge was the assessment of the financial needs to fulfil twin objectives of poverty and shared prosperity and, now, the new emphasis on global public goods, exploring innovative ways of financing, apart from recommendations of the capital adequacy framework, and other complex issues like private and hybrid financing, which all need to be considered in holistic manner.”
He added technology and improved processes & procedures within MDB system could contribute towards a more integrated approach to optimise financing possibilities. Sitharaman’s repeated calls clearly underline India’s emphasis on the reform of MDBs during its presidency of the G20, something that has also been articulated by the PM.
The FM’s comments came during her first meeting with the expert group that has Larry Summers, professor emeritus at Harvard University, and N K Singh, chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, as co-chairs. The minister stated that the need of the hour was to adopt a holistic approach, instead of a fragmented strategy, where sustainable development goals and climate challenges are not pitted against each other and the donors are not at loggerheads with the beneficiary nations.
The FM underlined these are not mutually exclusive goals, and in their current state the MDBs will be unable to meet the larger demand, sources familiar with the deliberations told TOI. She had made a similar pitch before the development committee of the World Bank earlier in the week, when the “evolution road map” for the multilateral agency was discussed.
When contacted, Singh told TOI, “There was general support in the expert group on the broad philosophy that MDBs need transformational, not incremental, changes. The daunting challenge was the assessment of the financial needs to fulfil twin objectives of poverty and shared prosperity and, now, the new emphasis on global public goods, exploring innovative ways of financing, apart from recommendations of the capital adequacy framework, and other complex issues like private and hybrid financing, which all need to be considered in holistic manner.”
He added technology and improved processes & procedures within MDB system could contribute towards a more integrated approach to optimise financing possibilities. Sitharaman’s repeated calls clearly underline India’s emphasis on the reform of MDBs during its presidency of the G20, something that has also been articulated by the PM.
For all the latest business News Click Here
Denial of responsibility! TechAI is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
