Urban infrastructure principles on the cards in July G20 meeting

The Group of Twenty (G20) nations, led by India, is working to finalise the priority principles of financing sustainable urban infrastructure, which is expected to be endorsed by the bloc’s finance ministers and central bank governors when they meet in Gandhinagar in early July.

If approved, the priority principles of “Financing Cities of Tomorrow” could be the first policy statement to be endorsed by G20 leaders under India’s presidency. Like all G20 prescriptions, they will be non-binding.

“In the G20 infrastructure working group (IWG) meetings, our priority principles are shaping up well. The next meeting is in Vizag later this month. The draft will be discussed there and we expect it to be finalised by June,” said a senior government official.

Financing sustainable and climate-resilient urban infrastructure is one of the main agenda items India has set as G20 president. The principles will focus on sustainability and energy transition and speak of the need to deepen global infrastructure-financing markets.

“It will speak on disaster-risk identification, disaster mitigation, and a management framework, and the need to overhaul public utilities and infrastructure of even well-developed cities,” the official said.

Urban infrastructure has become one of the key issues facing G20 nations. The developing members need to plan for continuing economic migration from rural areas while the developed nations need to prioritise reimagining decaying inner cities. As G20 president, India plans to help find solutions to both these problems.

“One of the key challenges is to find financing for such transitions, and that will come with deepening global infra financing,” the person said.

The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting in Gandhinagar will be the third such meeting under India’s stewardship. The first was held in Bengaluru in late February and the second will be held in Washington DC in April on the sidelines of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund Spring Meeting.

The dates for the Gandhinagar meeting have not been finalised.

In the Bengaluru FMCBG meeting, as well as in the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in New Delhi a week later, the nations could not reach an agreement on the official Communiqué. While India wanted to concentrate on its agenda items, the G7 nations in one voice wanted to keep the narrative focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and further sanctions, and Russia and China were opposed to the language of condemnation of the war.

There were still positives for the host nation in Bengaluru, and there was real progress on global debt reduction. Many countries were interested in seeking India’s help to build or improve their own digital payment systems, and that most nations came around to India’s rather bearish views on cryptocurrencies.

‘Financing Cities of Tomorrow’
 

• G20 Infra Working Group will finalise document by June

• Principles will focus on elements of sustainability, energy transition

• Issues include disaster risk identification and mitigation

• Principles will touch upon need to overhaul urban public infra

• Financing urban transition remains a challenge