US to back India’s bid to upgrade its infrastructure

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 15

The United States on Friday assured further backing to New Delhi’s bid to transform India’s infrastructure. This will be in addition to the backbone support being provided to India’s ambitious India’s National Infrastructure and Investment Fund (NIIF).

The eighth meeting of the Economic and Financial Partnership meeting co-chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and US Treasury Secretary Janet Allen resolved to work together to prepare more Indian cities to issue municipal bonds for critical urban infrastructure improvements.

“`We are continuing our successful collaboration on attracting more private sector capital to finance India’s infrastructure needs, which will support growth in both countries. The US continues to provide technical support to NIIF including the scaling of debt and equity platforms while catalysing private institutional investment in Indian infrastructure,” said a joint statement issued after the meeting.

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das also attended the meeting which touched on banking and insurance sector reform, and capital markets development.

The statement said both sides continued to strengthen cooperation in tackling money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism through increased information sharing and coordination. Both sides also agreed on the importance of fighting financial crimes and on the effective implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards to protect financial systems from abuse.

Sitharaman also attended the Plenary Meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) centered on “vaccinate, calibrate and accelerate”. Sitharaman pointed out the “stark differences” in vaccination coverage of low-income countries and advanced countries and felt it was critical to address vaccine inequity.

She also flagged the principle of common, but differentiated, responsibilities and capabilities to combat climate change. The joint statement after the Sitharaman-Janet Allen had in this respect, “reaffirmed the collective developed country goal to mobilise $100 billion annually for developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions.”