Sitharaman meets Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank president

Sitharaman suggested that Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank should scale up investment and mobilise private finance in India's key priority areas including renewable energy.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday met Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank President Jin Liqun to discuss the ongoing and proposed issues of relevance to the Bank and to India. "Mr. Jin Liqun, President, @AIIB_Official met Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman, in New Delhi, today, in her capacity as the Governor of the 2nd largest shareholder of the Bank. They discussed the ongoing and proposed issues of relevance to the Bank and to India," Ministry of Finance said in a tweet.

Sitharaman suggested that Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank should scale up investment and mobilise private finance in India's key priority areas including renewable energy. "While appreciating AIIB's growing portfolio in India, FM Smt. @nsitharaman suggested that @AIIB_Official should scale-up #investments and mobilise private finance in India's key priority areas including #RenewableEnergy, #EnergyEfficiency and climate #SmartTechnologies," the ministry said in a tweet.

"As India is the largest client of @AIIB_Official, FM Smt. @nsitharaman reiterated that AIIB should plan to set up a regional presence in India to facilitate dialogue and outreach to the project authorities," it added. The Finance Minister had said last month that in order to ensure meaningful impact and that resources are not dispersed across multiple areas, the AIIB should increase investments in key priority areas such as clean energy and energy efficiency, disaster resilient infrastructure, social infrastructure with a special focus on education and health, and digital infrastructure. The Minister was attending the 7th annual meeting of the board of governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) via video conference from New Delhi. (ANI)