WASHINGTON / AMN
India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said his government has created a favourable investment climate in all sectors which has resulted in a hefty increase in FDI in the last two years.
Addressing the meeting of the development committee of the World Bank in Washington, Mr Jaitley said, India has liberalised foreign investment policies and created a very favourable climate for investments across all segments of economy under major initiatives of ‘Make in India’, ‘Start Up India’ and ‘Digital India’. He said, FDI inflow in India has witnessed hefty increase of over 30-40 per cent in last two years, catapulting India into 7th largest FDI destination in the world.
India also asked the World Bank to increase its developmental fund to 100 billion US dollars a year from the existing 50-60 billion. It called for enhancing the share and voice of developing nations in the management of institutions providing assistance under it.
The Finance Minister also addressed the International Monetary and Financial Committee. He called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to examine the adequacy of its resources and whether they are sufficient for future proofing the global economy against recurrence of financial crisis.
Noting that global growth has weakened further and financial market conditions have worsened, Mr Jaitley said global recovery is affected by subdued growth and low productivity in Advanced Economies and elevated risks faced by Emerging Market Economies. He said, increasing potential growth and productivity, while remaining vigilant about risks to macro-financial stability are needed to secure a sustainable global recovery.
Mr Jaitley is on a week-long visit to Washington to attend the annual Spring Meeting of IMF and World Bank. As the meetings wound up, World Finance Ministers pledged to boost growth. Pounding home the message that each country needs to take action to ramp up growth, and following another week of relative calm in financial markets, the IMF leadership said they were positive about the outlook, even as they warned of high risks.
