Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has emphasised the need for re-capitalising the World Bank to enable it to meet sustainable development goals (SDGs) and twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prospefinrity.
The minister was representing the Constituency of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka, at the 94th Meeting of the Development Committee (DC), Washington. It may be noted that it is the Ministerial-Level forum of the World Bank Group and IMF for inter-governmental consensus building on development issues.
The meeting focused on the ‘Forward Look’ exercise carried out by the World Bank and discussion on the Dynamic Formula of Shareholding of member countries in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), a member institution of the Bank.
“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,” Jaitley said.
“This makes the role of the World Bank group even more critical – both as a provider of finance and knowledge.”
“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,” he said.
For instance, in the case of India, during the last fiscal year, fresh commitments delivered were only USD 3.8 billion as against the requirement of $ 5-7 billion.
During the last spring meeting, Jaitley had called for a $100 billion bank.
Speaking on the growth, he said: “Our constituency countries have displayed resilience and growth in this challenging environment where India is likely to grow at more than its last year’s 7.6 per cent, Bangladesh at 6.3 per cent, Sri Lanka at about 5.3 per cent and Bhutan at 6.8 per cent.”
Keywords: Government, Government of India, Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, India, Indian Economy, World Bank group, IBRD, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Meeting of the Development Committee (DC), IMF, International Monetary Fund, Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs
