Road ready for multilateral banks to meet funding needs: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman #IndiaFinance

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said a “pathway has been successfully built” to enable multilateral development banks (MDBs) to better address global challenges and financing requirements.

Participating in the fourth meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Washington, DC on Thursday, Sitharaman indicated that the momentum towards MDB reforms, generated during India’s G20 presidency last year, has continued through Brazil’s presidency this year. “India looks forward to engaging with the South African presidency in taking forward the work on this agenda,” she said, according to a finance ministry post on X (formerly Twitter). India’s G20 presidency had encouraged MDBs to “evolve their vision, incentive structures, operational approaches and financing capacities”, she said.

Disaster resilience

Sitharaman highlighted the danger of development gains of countries “being undercut by increasing climate-induced risks” to infrastructure and other critical services.

Chairing a roundtable on disaster resilient infrastructure, the minister said India has ensured resilient economic growth over the years by not only investing in hard infrastructure but also building institutional capacity through central and state-level disaster management agencies. She reaffirmed India’s commitment to sharing best practices, especially with the Global South, to boost infrastructure resilience.

Debt vulnerabilityAt the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC, the minister called for a deeper dialogue to help countries meet debt obligations without compromising critical investments.She pitched for joint efforts to ensure low-cost, long-term financing and targeted technical assistance to vulnerable countries to bolster their fiscal capacity and build resilience, according to a finance ministry post on X.

She also cautioned against contingency financing instruments, as they can result in deferred obligations, exacerbating future debt challenges.

Separately, at a session on a longer view of the global economy on Thursday, the minister underscored the importance of the G20 group to use its political weight and push for comprehensive reforms to achieve Agenda 2030. The Agenda 2030 covers sustainable development initiatives, including climate change, health, education, infrastructure and gender equality.