WB keen to increase lending to India
The World Bank on Saturday expressed its keenness to increase lending to India in sectors like infrastructure, environment, agriculture and poverty alleviation.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: The World Bank on Saturday expressed its keenness to increase lending to India in sectors like infrastructure, environment, agriculture and poverty alleviation.
"If government wants our support, I believe, we can scale up lending across various arms IBRD, International Development Assistance (IDA) and International Finance Corporation (IFC)," World Bank president Robert B Zoellick said after winding up his first visit to India as bank's chief.
Last year, the World Bank gave 3.7-billion-dollar assistance, while IFC extended one billion dollars as debt and equity to private sector companies in the country.
The assistance from International Bank for Reconstruction Development (IBRD) would depend upon the government, he said, adding that "we will definitely scale up IFC lending".
As far as concessional assistance from IDA is concerned, he said "it would depend upon overall amount we get in IDA 15". Zoellick said he was going to persuade donors to be more generous in expanding the IDA corpus.
In the days ahead, the World Bank would focus on states, agriculture and clean energy in addition to infrastructure sector projects, he said.
Currently, the states account for about 60 per cent of the World Bank's portfolio in India, he said, adding that "increasingly more of our efforts will be devoted to the state level."
"If government wants our support, I believe, we can scale up lending across various arms IBRD, International Development Assistance (IDA) and International Finance Corporation (IFC)," World Bank president Robert B Zoellick said after winding up his first visit to India as bank's chief.
Last year, the World Bank gave 3.7-billion-dollar assistance, while IFC extended one billion dollars as debt and equity to private sector companies in the country.
The assistance from International Bank for Reconstruction Development (IBRD) would depend upon the government, he said, adding that "we will definitely scale up IFC lending".
As far as concessional assistance from IDA is concerned, he said "it would depend upon overall amount we get in IDA 15". Zoellick said he was going to persuade donors to be more generous in expanding the IDA corpus.
In the days ahead, the World Bank would focus on states, agriculture and clean energy in addition to infrastructure sector projects, he said.
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Currently, the states account for about 60 per cent of the World Bank's portfolio in India, he said, adding that "increasingly more of our efforts will be devoted to the state level."
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