The Union Minister for Railways,Coal, Finance and Corporate Affairs,Shri Piyush Goyal said that India is looking forward to investments in 9 more projects from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank after having picked up almost 28% of the bank’s total lending so far of US$1.4 billion for 7 projects. The Finance Minister, Shri Goyal was addressing a Press Conference today on the sidelines of the Third Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) which began in Mumbai today.
Welcoming delegates from 86 countries, Shri Goyal pointed-out that in just three short years, India has hosted three major events for international multilateral banks; the New Development Bank (NDB), African Development Bank (ADB) and now the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in quick succession.
Lauding AIIB for its robust processes, Shri Goyal said that it is a matter of great pride that a concept that was floated in 2014 was able to mature in 6-7 months, and by 2015 we had a Multilateral Development Bank in place with India being the second largest stakeholder with over 8% stake.’
Shri Goyal said that AIIB has focused its investment in India on lending to rural infrastructure, energy and power, environmental protection, transportation and telecommunication, water supply and sanitation and urban development and logistics and it is a matter of great pride that India is the largest recipient of the $4.2 billion funds disbursed by it which constitutes 28% of its total investment so far.
Attributing robust framework and easy to navigate policies being the key reasons for the investment flow into infrastructure in the country, the Union Finance Minister said that India is a sweet spot where the rule of law prevails to attract investments.”Earlier participating in the Governors Seminar-I on the theme of ‘Mobilizing Finance for Infrastructure’, the Finance Minister pointed- out that integrity of people and process would decide the investment discourse.