FM Sitharaman, Ajay Banga discuss deepening India-World Bank partnership

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and World Bank President Ajay Banga discussed ways to strengthen the India–World Bank Group partnership to deepen corporate, infrastructure and municipal bond markets through the systematic use of guarantees and greater mobilisation of private capital.

During their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) Meeting in Asheville on Tuesday, the two leaders also discussed a sector-based, programmatic approach to credit enhancement for infrastructure.

Sitharaman appreciated the World Bank Group’s continued engagement with India and acknowledged the speedy processing of the Development Policy Financing (DPF) of $1.5 billion.

She also hailed IFC’s support to MSMEs through SIDBI, which was processed in record time and has had a positive impact on the MSME sector.

“Banga appreciated the significant transformation in India’s infrastructure and noted the opportunities to further leverage the World Bank Group’s instruments to support India’s development ambitions, including through MIGA’s engagement and political risk insurance for Indian companies investing overseas,” said the statement from the Ministry of Finance.

The growing engagements between India and the World Bank

The two leaders also discussed India's engagement with the World Bank Group on establishing a Global Digital Public Infrastructure Knowledge Hub in India, including exploring opportunities to leverage technology in areas such as agriculture, and looked forward to early progress towards its launch.

The Union Finance Minister also discussed developing globally competitive tourism destinations under the new India–World Bank Group Country Partnership Framework through a coordinated approach combining IBRD policy and infrastructure support, IFC investment and MIGA guarantees.

The two leaders further discussed evolving the partnership from a traditional lender-borrower relationship towards a strategic platform for global knowledge, innovation and private capital mobilisation, combining India’s scale and implementation capacity with the World Bank Group’s global expertise and financing instruments.

During her ongoing visit to North Carolina, US, the Finance Minister met several world leaders, including Valdis Dombrovskis, Commissioner for Economy and Financial Affairs, European Commission; International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva; Koo Yun-cheol, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, Republic of Korea; and Anton Siluanov, Finance Minister of Russia, among others.