Finance global public goods via additional resource allocation: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has told the G20 expert group on strengthening multilateral development banks (MDBs) that global public goods should not be financed by substituting resources from other focus areas of MDBs, but through additional resource allocation.

- ASIT RANJAN MISHRA

Last month, India, under its G20 presidency, constituted the nine-member expert group with Lawrence Summers, president emeritus at Harvard University, and N K Singh, chairperson of the 15th Finance Commission, as co-convenors of the group. The expert group held its first in-person meeting in Washington DC on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund spring meeting.

Speaking with Business Standard, Singh said the members of the expert group agreed with Sitharaman's proposed approach that not to deflect resources from World Bank's first two priorities of eliminating extreme poverty, and promoting shared prosperity and focus on raising additional resources for the proposed third goal of creating global public goods. "Sitharaman called the expert group 'not only knowledgeable but also eclectic. The group appreciated the finance minister's visionary approach in transforming MDBS," Singh said.