India has huge unmet demand for investment in infrastructure: Jaitley in Beijing

Addressing the Board of Governors’ Session of the Annual General Meeting, the Finance Minister stated that the new Bank has come-up amidst huge expectations in a difficult time for the global economy.  

 

He said that the overall recovery of the global economy remains very modest and global growth rate projections have been revised downwards, even though the Asia-Pacific region remains the growth engine for the world.  

 

"Notwithstanding the global headwinds, however, India continues to maintain a high growth rate at 7.6% in 2015-16 compared to 7.2% in the previous year," Jaitley said. 

 

Outlining India’s development paradigm, Jaitley said that "India has undertaken reforms in FDI and initiated large investments in rural infrastructure, national highway, inland waterways, shipping, power sector and smart cities etc."

 

Speaking on the role of AIIB, the Finance Minister said: “AIIB presents a much needed additional financing window dedicated to infrastructure projects and meeting the financing gap that may be beyond the capacity of the individual countries and the existing MDBs. India has a huge unmet demand for investment in infrastructure and is preparing basket of projects worth US$ 2-3 billion for AIIB funding in the areas of Urban Development (including Smart Cities), Energy, Urban Transport, Railways, Inland Waterways and Water Supply."

 

Jaitley offered India’s support in establishment of a Regional Office of AIIB in New Delhi to effectively cater to this potentially large portfolio and speed up the process of project development, monitoring and implementation.

                                

The Finance Minister Jaitley also met Lou Jiwei, Finance Minister of China on Saturday and had talks on bilateral economic cooperation, upcoming G20 Summit in Hangzhou and the BRICS Summit in India. 

 

Both sides shared views on the global macroeconomic situation and agreed on the need to further coordinate in order to enhance economic growth.

                                  

On the sidelines of AGM, Jaitley had a bilateral meeting with Jin Liqun, President AIIB. The Finance Minister also met with executives of  Alibaba  ANT enterprises.

                                        

Jaitley is currently on a five day official visit to China.