India today stressed on capital increase and reforms in the World Bank to reflect the new world order and enhance the capacity of the global institution to fund poverty alleviation programmes.
During his meeting with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim here, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley emphasised on the two-way relationship between India and the World Bank. Jaitley “stressed on capital increase and the need for voice reforms in the Bank” so that not only does the Bank play its global role in poverty reduction and development, but “also reflects the emerging world order in its governance,” an official statement said.
He said that India actively seeks global good practices from the Bank, and also generates good development practices that are being shared by the Bank globally. Kim informed the Finance Minister about the World Bank Group’s agenda and strategy for achieving the twin goals of removal of global poverty and increasing shared prosperity.
He assured support of the World Bank Group to partner India’s development strategies and aspirations through delivery of a diversified programme of financing, knowledge exchange and capacity building. Later talking to reporters, Kim said India has been largest borrower historically and the Bank will not be able to meet its goals without India being extremely successful.
“We pledged our financial support but we also spoke a great length about our knowledge partnership that we are going to build … we will bring innovations from all the other countries in the world here, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government embarks on extremely ambitious mission to grow the economy” India is the highest cumulative borrower of World Bank, with a current portfolio of 85 projects having a commitment of USD 24.12 billion. India also constitutes the largest single portfolio exposure of IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, with commitments over USD 4.5 billion.
