New Delhi, May 12
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday positioned India’s strong recovery as a bright spot for global growth outlook to the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (G7FMCBG) and highlighted the role of investable project pipelines and resilient supply chains in accelerating financing for future cities. Sitharaman underlined the urgency of improving efficiency of the G20 Common Framework and strengthening and cooperation among all stakeholders for timely debt treatment for vulnerable nations at the meeting of the G7FMCBG in Japan.
The Finance Minister’s visit to New Delhi’s Quad partner comes amidst strong cooperation between G20India and Japan G7 presidencies in challenging times to facilitate complementarity of efforts and outcomes. Further, India’s foreign exchange reserves jumped by USD 7.2 billion to USD 595.98 billion in the week ended on 5 May, as per the latest Reserve Bank of India data on Friday.
Speaking during the deliberations on policy priorities of emerging market developing economies (EMDE)s and debt treatment for vulnerable countries, Sitharaman highlighted the resilience of EMDEs and their unique development challenges. These constraints need stronger multilateral development banks alongwith investing in technology and digital public infrastructure, the Finance Minister pointed out, suggesting the need to go beyond GDP indicators to measure empowerment.
On the bilateral level at the G7 programme, Sitharaman’s meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Singapore Lawrence Wong has set the ball rolling on strengthening India-Singapore cooperation on digital payment gateway, food security and collaboration between India and Singapore in artificial intelligence research and skilling programmes in the context of setting up of new AI centres, as brought to the fore by Sitharaman.
The Finance Minister made a forceful case for India as a destination for rising investment opportunities with the Government’s focus on building a pool of trained AI resources to encourage innovative solutions. She also drew attention of businesses to India’s greening of economy, achievement of 175GW of solar energy and plans for 300GW by 2030 as well as India’s key priority to incentivise and facilitate investments through the production linked incentive scheme which is being expanded to semi conductors and solar components. Japanese honchos like Kenichi Ayukawa, Executive VP, Suzuki Motor Corporation appreciated the consistent support of Indian Government to the manufacturing sector, including the PLI schemes while Kazuya Nakajo, Executive Vice-President of Japan External Trade Organisation noted India’s commitment towards building and expanding logistics and infrastructure.
