With the Government keen on developing smart cities and enhancing transportation infrastructure as part of its ‘Make In India’ and ‘Skill India’ initiatives, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday sought greater involvement from Asian Development Bank (ADB) for these programmes.
Speaking at the First Business Session of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at Baku in Azerbaijan, Jaitley said, “in addition to supporting conventional infrastructure projects, we would like a deeper engagement on development of Smart Cities, Industrial Corridors, Rail transport and manufacturing and job creation through flagship initiatives of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’.”
Observing that India is ADB’s largest client, Jaitley said the partnership should now move to the next level. “India is expected to grow at 7.5-8 per cent in both 2015 and 2016. This only reaffirms India’s fascinating growth prospects. 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.
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)”. Referring to the world economy, the Finance Minister said the ADB meeting is taking place at a time when the global economy is looking slightly better than 2014 but not by much.
Beneath the headline numbers, he said, increasingly divergent trends seem to be at work both in the developed and emerging market economies. “In midst of the continuing global economic vicissitude, the Asia-Pacific region appears to be the functional ‘growth engine’ for the world economy,” Jaitley observed.
Asian Development Outlook 2015 estimates Asia to grow at 6.3 per cent in 2015 and 2016. The Finance Minister also appreciated the plan of merger of ADF (Asian Development Fund) resources with OCR (ordinary capital resources) and reforming ADB, saying it would help in promoting growth in Asian region.
“This was critical to securing the unanimous consent of all ADF donors. To use the enhanced lending capacity, thus available, ADB has to build a strong project pipeline for implementation from 2017,” Jaitley said. The Finance Minister further said the ADB should lookbeyond Strategy 2020, which was formulated in 2008.
“While Strategy 2020, formulated in 2008, continues to remain relevant, considering the new opportunities and challenges, we should start work on our Strategy to guide ADB Operations post 2020. “Our vision should not be constrained by what we can do with existing resources but must be guided by what we need to do. We must do everything that is needed to support our member countries fight poverty and inequalities and to help them realise their growth potential,” he said.
Referring to regional cooperation, Jaitley said in a world that is becoming increasing more flat, regional cooperation is at the centre stage of growth strategy.
“We welcome setting aside of USD 500 million for regional cooperation under OCR in response to our persistent demand. I urge ADB to continue with its thrust on regional cooperation not only within South Asia but also between South Asia and rest of Asia,” he added. In 2014, ADB’s total loans and grants operations were $13.5 billion, slightly less than the previous year. The project co-financing was about $9 billion.