Text of the Speech of Shri Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, representing the Constituency of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka, at the 94th Meeting of the Development Committee, in Washington, D.C. yesterday

Text of the Speech of Shri Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, representing the Constituency of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka, at the 94th Meeting of the Development Committee, in Washington, D.C. yesterday Following is the Text of the Speech of Shri Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, representing the Constituency of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka, at the 94th Meeting of the Development Committee in Washington, DC yesterday: The global economy faces depressed economic growth. Our constituency countries have displayed resilience and growth in this challenging environment where India is likely to grow at more than its last years growth of 7.6%, Bangladesh at 6.3%, Sri Lanka at about 5.3% and Bhutan at 6.8%. .Unfavourable global scenario has made the achievement of twin goals of the World Bank Group and the ambitious SDGs even more challenging. Achievement of these goals requires trillions of dollars of development financing. This makes the role of the World Bank group even more critical both as a provider of finance and knowledge. . I welcome the Forward Look Paper which explicitly recognises the development challenges the world faces and speaks for all its client segments, especially the LICs and LMICs. The LMICs should rightly remain the mainstay of World Bank Groups interventions, and therefore the proposal to significantly increase lending to LMICs, including IDA graduates, makes eminent sense. The Forward Look presents a credible policy and action plan for the World Bank Group for achieving the SDGs and its twin goals. . In view of the Bank being capital constrained today, there is a need to expand the role of not only IDA, but also IBRD and IFC to enlarge the lending programme of the Bank Group. For instance, in case of India, during the last fiscal year, fresh commitments delivered were only USD 3.8 billion as against the requirement of USD 5 to 7 billion. During the last spring meeting I had called for a $ 100 billion bank. The Forward Look Paper has proposed annual lending of $ 40 Billion per annum by the IBRD. It also proposes doubling of IFCs annual investment capacity. This is necessary in view of the increasing role which IFC needs to play in ramping up private sectors capacities in the developing countries. Increased financing measures need to be coupled with renewed efforts to find innovative solutions, active pursuance of knowledge sharing, coordinated responses with private sector, other development partners and international organisations. I share the assessment that the Bank should not only be bigger but it should also be better- more agile, efficient and less expensive to do business with. The Banks active promotion of South-South cooperation, increased use of Country Systems and a pragmatic implementation of Environmental and Social Standards would help considerably in making it a better Bank. . The final outcome of World Bank shareholding must not lose sight of the raison d'?tre of the realignment - to increase the voice and voting power of developing countries, which we had clearly stated in 2010 and reiterated in 2015 DC Communiqus. The draft report dilutes this laudable goal by merely stating that the voting power of the DTCs should not be reduced. Further, there should be at least 2% increase in voting power of DTCs at the conclusion of the process. . IDA is the single most important concessional platform to meet the needs of low-income countries. Therefore, we fully support the replenishment effort that aims at a base package of USD 75 Billion for IDA 18 replenishment. I am happy to note that unreasonable burden which Acceleration Clause imposed on the graduates has been recognised and it is proposed to suspend its operation for the present. This should in-fact be done away with entirely. The Global Concessional Financing Facility to tackle FCV crises resonates with my call made during the last spring meeting, and we welcome the same. . The World Bank stands at crossroads not only it has to reinvent itself as it embraces the challenges but it has to design and execute its projects efficiently, nimbly and innovatively, like never before. As shareholders, let us not shy away, from adequately resourcing the bank, and empowering the bank to enable us meet SDGs and our twin goals".

Text of the Speech of Shri Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, representing the Constituency of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka, at the 94th Meeting of the Development Committee, in Washington, D.C. yesterday

More From This Section

Cabinet approves MoU between India and Hungary on cooperation in the field of water management

42nd Edition of IHGF-Delhi Fair to open on October 14, 2016

Cabinet approves new link between Sahibganj bypass in Jharkhand to Manihari bypass in Bihar including four lane bridge on river Ganga

Cabinet approves revision of ethanol price for supply to Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies

Explore News