India for deeper engagement of ADB for smart cities, railways

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday sought "deeper engagement" of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for development of smart cities, industrial corridors and railways as part of flagship initiatives such as 'Make In India' and 'Skill India'.

"India is expected to grow at 7.5-8 per cent in both 2015 and 2016. This only reaffirms India's fascinating growth prospects. In a time span of less than a year, our government has taken a number of steps to revive the economy. Our goal is to place the Indian economy on a high and sustained growth trajectory through focus on infrastructure development, skills development, improving ease of doing business and economic reforms, including comprehensive social safety net and fiscal discipline," he said.

Jaitley was speaking at the First Business Session of the 48th Annual Meeting of the ADB at Baku in Azerbaijan.

The ADB should aim at an annual business of $20 billion by 2020, he said, adding, "Twenty by Twenty should be (ADB's) corporate goal, the mantra ... ADB not only needs to become bigger, it also needs to become better, as a model among the MDBs (multilateral development banks)."

Observing that India is ADB's largest client, Jaitley said the partnership should now move to the next level.