Sitharaman regrets lack of GRQ progress
India remains concern about the effectiveness of Project Preparation Facility (PPF) of the New Development Bank, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has told BRICS’ Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meetings in Washington.
The Minister stressed that sustainable recovery mechanisms need to be inbuilt into the PPF guidelines so that the assistance extended is recovered once the project loan is sanctioned.
Sitharaman also expressed India’s deep regret on the lack of progress of the 15th General Review of Quotas (15th GRQ) at the IMF meeting, said the Finance Ministry on 18 Oct 2019.
With reference to the alternative proposal emerging at the current juncture with reference to strengthening borrowed resources of IMF, Finance Minister cautioned that borrowed resources cannot provide full confidence in extreme crisis situations as creditor nations themselves may be in stress.
Prior to the G20 FMCBG, the G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies also met to discuss the way forward on priority G20 agenda items such as Quality Infrastructure Investment, building effective country platforms, attaining debt sustainability as well as strengthening universal health care financing.
Secretary, Economic Affairs Atanu Chakraborty urged the G20 to explore innovative sources of financing for boosting infrastructure development ensuring that quality considerations are in-built into these financing sources.
He cautioned that the agenda of debt sustainability and transparency in Low Income Countries should not undermine the internationally agreed commitment on official development assistance.
He also expressed India’s keen interest in the work IMF is pursuing on collateralized debt and looked forward to the research from IMF on the area.
On strengthening Universal Health Coverage (UHC) financing, he called for adopting a holistic approach encompassing preventive, curative and palliative care as well as plurality of pathways for achieving UHC including through traditional and complementary systems of medicine.
Chakraborty emphasized that the G20 should reflect further about who will build the platform, how the private sector will be engaged in the process and the contours and scope of the platform as to whether it will involve project preparation, knowledge sharing, technical assistance among others. fiinews.com
