Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Feb 22: Asian Development Bank President Masatsugu Asakawa met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and announced ADB’s intention to provide USD 20–25 billion in resources over five years to support India’s ambitions for rapid, inclusive, and environmentally friendly growth.
The Manila-based multilateral lending organisation said in a release that during a discussion with the Prime Minister, its president covered a wide variety of topics, including ADB support for India’s infrastructure, social development, and environmental initiatives.
The new five-year country partnership plan (CPS) for India is now being finalised by ADB after extensive stakeholder input.
“ADB will provide multifaceted support for India’s key priorities, including the important infrastructure push under the PM’s Gati Shakti (National Master Plan for multimodal connectivity) initiative, building future cities, mobilizing domestic resources, and strengthening basic services in disadvantaged districts,” Asakawa said.
Furthermore, he reiterated ADB’s support for the G20 agenda while congratulating PM Modi on India’s assumption of the G20 leadership.
According to a press release, the ADB is supporting the goals of India’s presidency across the finance and sherpa tracks as an invited foreign organisation at the G20 meetings and Leaders’ Summit.
In 1986, ADB began conducting business in India. By the end of December 2022, it had committed USD 6.75 billion in nonsovereign lending and investment commitments in addition to USD 52.28 billion in sovereign lending to the nation.
64 projects totaling around $16 billion are currently included in ADB’s India portfolio. These projects are spread across the transport, urban, energy, human development, agriculture and natural resource, and finance sectors.
Also, Asakawa met with Nirmala Sitharaman, the minister of finance, and discussed ADB initiatives to reach annual regular loan of USD 4 billion from its sovereign operations in the coming years.
