Bolstering MDBs will enhance their impact on development: DEA Secy

The consensus built around bolstering multilateral development banks (MDBs) during India's G20 presidency would help ensure that such global institutions turn bigger and more effective so that their impact on development can be maximised, economic affairs secretary Ajay Seth said on Sunday.

The Delhi declaration will lead to more work on this front, he said, a day after G20 leaders affirmed that "the 21st century also requires an international development finance system that is fit for purpose".

"Consensus was built on how to strengthen MDBs and how to make them better, bigger and more effective so that their development impact can be maximised," Seth said.


"Stronger MDBs will be important to our efforts to mobilise financing from all sources for a quantum jump from billions to trillions of dollars for development," as per the declaration.

Once the second part of the report of a G20 expert group, headed by 15th Finance Commission chairman NK Singh and former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, firms up a road map for an updated ecosystem for MDBs, more deliberations are expected on this issue. As for the issue of the climate resilience debt clause, Seth indicated that it was not being discussed for a long time and that more technical work would be required on this front. The Delhi declaration has remained silent on such a debt clause.