Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan to undertake 13-day trip to Europe from May 8

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan would undertake a 13-day trip to Europe from May 8 and participate in various programmes, including the United Nations (UN) world reconstruction conference in Geneva, Switzerland. The conference is a global forum providing a platform to collect, assess, and share experiences in disaster recovery and reconstruction and take forward the policy dialogue.

The chief minister would share at the conference the devastation caused by the floods in August last and explain in detail the reconstruction plan, an official press release said here Sunday. Vijayan and his team would visit 'Room for River' project of the Netherlands which is a model to rebuild a flood-hit state. The release said Chief Minister would also meet French economist Thomas Picketty in Paris on May 16. Vijayan would attend a meeting with Swiss investors to attract investment to Kerala.

During his visit to Switzerland, Vijayan would hold a meeting with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) crisis bureau directorAsako Okai. He would attend on May 17 the listing on the London Stock Exchange a masala bond from Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), the only state-government body from India to issue the rupee-denominated offshore bond. KIIFB plans to raise Rs 5,000 crore through masala bonds to fund large and critical infrastructure projects in Kerala.

With a view to establishing its credit profile and market standing, KIIFB had undertaken a detailed rating exercise through two international credit rating agencies - Standard and Poor's and Fitch Ratings, the state agency had said in a statement. The 2018 Kerala flood, which ravaged the state and claimed 483 lives, was among the major disasters reported globally in the last year, including the California wildfire and the floods in Japan. The Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) report prepared by a UN team said Kerala would need Rs 31,000 crore for rebuilding.