FM Nirmala Sitharaman asks ADB to support India with more concessional climate finance

New Delhi: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday impressed upon Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support India with more concessional climate finance, stating that the country's economic and developmental progress can have a huge positive impact regionally and globally.

In a bilateral meeting with ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa in Incheon in South Korea, Sitharaman also asked the regional lending agency "to introspect and assess how the bank can effectively support developing member countries", according to tweets by the finance ministry.

The minister is in South Korea to take part in the annual meeting of ADB.


India continues to be the most significant country for ADB's sovereign and non-sovereign operations, Sitharaman said. She extended support to ADB for its innovative financing mechanisms to boost its own lending capacity.

For his part, Asakawa reiterated ADB's commitment of providing $100 billion in climate finance to its member-countries.

Meet with Indian diaspora
Addressing the Indian diaspora in Seoul, Sitharaman said India is being noticed worldwide not just because it remains the fastest-growing major economy this year and the next but also "because of the way in which it has handled the pandemic and economic revival".

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast India's growth at 5.9% for FY24 and 6.3% for FY25.

Emerging economies need to become growth engines and help resolve global challenges, Sitharaman said. The G20 presidency has come to the emerging economies at a critical stage, she said.

aid 'only on paper'

Sitharaman lamented the developed world's failure to keep its promise of extending $100-billion aid for climate change. The pledged assistance is "just on paper", she said, while India is responding to climate change "with our money and efforts".