Development Forum To Meet From May 23 In Paris

The India Development Forum (IDF) is meeting in Paris on May 23-24, after a gap of three years. The last scheduled meeting in June 1998, was suspeneded in the wake of sanctions following India's nuclear tests.

This year the IDF, which is essentially a high table for countries donating aid to India, will focus on macroeconomic policies and structural reforms to reduce poverty in India and will also include discussions on the state dimensions of poverty in India.

The Indian side, which will include state government officials from Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka for the first time, will be led by E A S Sarma, secretary economic affairs, finance ministry.

 

The meeting is likely to be attended by 21 bilateral donors and international organisations. The India Development Forum will be chaired by Mieko Nishimizu, vice-president ,World Bank, South Asia region. The World Bank will be represented by its country director Edwin Lim.

In 1998, in the wake of the Pokhran nuclear tests and subsequent global economic sanctions, the first ever meeting to be held in Tokyo was called off at the last minute after the Japanese refused to host it.

The resumption of the annual aid summit is being viewed in government as yet another substantial step forward in gradual withdrawal of sanctions. The first relaxation came in February 1999, when the government managed to obtain the World Bank approval for the first -- the initial tranche of the $1 billion Andhra Pradesh power restructuring loan -- of the non-humanitarian loans. At the crucial board meeting, United States, Japan and other G-8 members abstained from voting.