Make Delhi a regional hub for South Asia: Arun Jaitley to ADB

Jaitley is on a three-day visit to Japan to participate in the bank's annual meeting

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has urged the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to set up a regional hub in New Delhi for the South Asia region in order to keep pace with the growing aspirations of the people and expedite the process of project preparation and delivery for India and other countries in the region.

Addressing the 50th Annual meeting of the ADB at Yokohama in Japan, he said that the bank should adopt a country system for procurement, social and environmental safeguards expeditiously.

Lauding the efforts of the ADB in eliminating poverty in the region through development of physical and social infrastructure, Jaitley called for a greater focus on the renewable energy, keeping in view the need to tackle climate change.

In urban development, especially in the sectors of drinking water and sanitation, Jaitley underlined the major challenges faced by many developing countries in making the system work without having to depend much on budgetary support from the national governments.

The bank must promote sustainable models that will address these challenges, he said. He also called upon the ADB to focus on climate resilient agriculture, better farm production technologies, improved value chain management and creation of better marketing infrastructure for farm produce.

Accompanying Jaitley on his three-day official visit to Japan to participate in the Annual Meeting of ADB's Board of Governors is Shaktikanta Das, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and other senior officials of the Ministry of Finance.