Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), said that countries in India’s constituency in the World Bank – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka – now are the highest growing block in South Asia and the World at large. Garg said that it will cross 3 trillion GDP this year. It attracts close to 100 billion dollars of FDI and Portfolio Investment and will grow around 7.5% this year. However, it has widespread poverty and faces enormous developmental challenges.
Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) was addressing the 97th Meeting of the Development Committee Plenary in Washington D.C. The items on the Agenda included Sustaining Financing for Sustainable Development; A Report to Governors on Shareholding at the Spring Meetings 2018; Progress Report on Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management in the World Bank Group Operations; Forward Look Implementation Update; and Update to Governors on Gender Diversity in the Executive Board of the World Bank Group.
Subhash Chandra Garg further said that while the World Bank Group – IBRD, IFC, IDA, MIGA – has supported the growth and development of this constituency, it will need to continue in the foreseeable future. This is the reason capital increase has been a matter of critical interest for India.
He expressed happiness that there is now an Agreement on the capital increase package and that it is reasonably large – a 13 billion capital increase in IBRD and IFC together, which from the historical context, is a truly unprecedented expansion of capital. Garg expressed India’s support for the shareholding review, including development of dynamic formula and the capital package.
