Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday urged the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to set up a regional hub for South Asia in New Delhi so that the majority of proposals could be processed speedily. Addressing the ADB Board of Governors here, Jaitley said there was need to look at processes and procedures for which more could be done to keep pace with the aspirations of the people.
“For instance, time required to approve a proposal as well as the time lag between approval and disbursement of loans can be further reduced. I am sure you all would agree that speed is what will keep ADB ahead of others. In this context, I would strongly urge the bank to set up a regional hub in New Delhi for South Asia region so that a majority of the proposals could be processed there speedily,” Jaitley said. The Finance Minister, who is India’s Governor on the ADB Board, is here to attend the annual meeting of the Board of Governors on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. “Many countries in the region have very good systems for social and environmental safeguards with a robust legal and regulatory framework.” For quite some time, he said, India has been requesting ADB to adopt Country Systems in this regard and noted that the bank has recently adopted this in the case of Power Grid Corporation of India.
“While I wholeheartedly welcome this move, let me stress that we need to adopt Country Systems quickly rather than being contented with adoption of Agency System. This will help reduce delays in the run-up to project approvals to a great extent,” he said. He said that with the merger of Asian Development Fund and Ordinary Capital Resources with effect from January 1, 2017, ADB’s envelope of available resources has grown bigger and more resources could be made available for Regional Cooperation and Integration initiative of the bank.