Baku/New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday sought "deeper engagement" of the ADB for development of smart cities, industrial corridors and railways as part of flagship initiatives like 'Make In India' and 'Skill India'.
"India is expected to grow at 7.5-8 percent in both 2015 and 2016. This only reaffirms India's fascinating growth prospects. In a time span of less than a year, our government has taken a number of steps to revive the economy.
"Our goal is to place the Indian economy on a high and sustained growth trajectory through focus on infrastructure development, skills development, improving ease of doing business and economic reforms including comprehensive social safety net and fiscal discipline," he said.
Jaitley was speaking at the First Business Session of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at Baku in Azerbaijan.
The ADB should aim at an annual business of USD 20 billion by 2020, he said, adding, "Twenty by Twenty should be (ADB's) corporate goal, the Mantra ... ADB not only needs to become bigger, it also needs to become better, as a model among the MDBs (multilateral development banks)".
Observing that India is ADB's largest client, Jaitley said the partnership should now move to the next level.
"In addition to supporting conventional infrastructure projects, we would like a deeper engagement on development of Smart Cities, Industrial Corridors, Rail transport and manufacturing and job creation through flagship initiatives of 'Make in India' and 'Skill India'," the Finance Minister said.
Referring to the world economy, Jaitley said the ADB meeting is taking place at a time when the global economy is looking slightly better than 2014 but not by much.
Beneath the headline numbers, he said, increasingly divergent trends seem to be at work both in the developed and emerging market economies.
"In midst of the continuing global economic vicissitude, the Asia-Pacific region appears to be the functional 'growth engine' for the world economy," Jaitley said.
Asian Development Outlook 2015 estimates Asia to grow at 6.3 percent in 2015 and 2016.
The Finance Minister also appreciated the plan of merger of ADF (Asian Development Fund) resources with OCR (ordinary capital resources) and reforming ADB, saying it would help in promoting growth in Asian region.
"This was critical to securing the unanimous consent of all ADF donors. To use the enhanced lending capacity, thus available, ADB has to build a strong project pipeline for implementation from 2017," Jaitley said.
The ADF was set up in 1973 to provide concessional loans.
In the Meeting of the Board of Governors last year, India had stressed the need of capital increase to enable the bank to support the member countries.
"President Takehiko Nakao also echoed this in his statement today. I urge my fellow members to respond favourably to enable ADB meet the aspirations of its clients in Asia and Pacific," Jaitley said.
Jaitley also talked about the recent devastating earthquake in Nepal which caused loss of precious lives and widespread damage.
"Nepal is our close friend and neighbour. We stand with them in coping with this tragedy," the Finance Minister said.
The Finance Minister further said the ADB should look beyond Strategy 2020, which was formulated in 2008.
"While Strategy 2020, formulated in 2008, continues to remain relevant, considering the new opportunities and challenges, we should start work on our Strategy to guide ADB Operations post 2020.
"Our vision should not be constrained by what we can do with existing resources but must be guided by what we need to do. We must do everything that is needed to support our member countries fight poverty and inequalities and to help them realise their growth potential," he said.
Referring to regional cooperation, Jaitley said in a world that is becoming increasing more flat, regional cooperation is at the centre stage of growth strategy.
"We welcome setting aside of USD 500 million for regional cooperation under OCR in response to our persistent demand. I urge ADB to continue with its thrust on regional cooperation not only within South Asia but also between South Asia and rest of Asia," he added.
In 2014, ADB's total loans and grants operations were USD 13.5 billion, slightly less than the previous year. The project co-financing was about USD 9 billion.
