Press Release: Visit of Hon'ble Finance Minister to China from 23-26 June 2016 06/25/2016

1. Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, participated in the First Annual General Meeting of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank held at Beijing, China, on 25th June, 2016. Addressing the Board of Governors Session of the Annual General Meeting, the Finance Minister stated that the new Bank has come up amidst huge expectations in a difficult time for the global economy. The overall recovery of the global economy remains very modest and global growth rate projections have been revised downwards, even though the Asia-Pacific region remains the growth engine for the world. Notwithstanding the global headwinds, however, India continues to maintain a high growth rate at 7.6% in 2015-16 compared to 7.2% in the previous year. Outlining India’s development paradigm, the Finance Minister stated that India has undertaken reforms in FDI and initiated large investments in rural infrastructure, national highway, inland waterways, shipping, power sector and smart cities etc.

2. Speaking on the role of AIIB, the Finance Minister said “AIIB presents a much needed additional financing window dedicated to infrastructure projects and meeting the financing gap that may be beyond the capacity of the individual countries and the existing MDBs. India has a huge unmet demand for investment in infrastructure and is preparing basket of projects worth US$ 2-3 billion for AIIB funding in the areas of Urban Development (including Smart Cities), Energy, Urban Transport, Railways, Inland Waterways and Water Supply. Finance Minister offered India’s support in establishment of a Regional Office of AIIB in New Delhi to effectively cater to this potentially large portfolio and speed up the process of project development, monitoring and implementation.

3. Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley also met Mr. Lou Jiwei, Finance Minister of China on 25th June 2016 and had talks on bilateral economic cooperation, upcoming G20 Summit in Hangzhou and the BRICS Summit in India. Both sides shared views on the global macroeconomic situation and agreed on the need to further coordinate in order to enhance economic growth.

4. On the sidelines of AGM, the Finance Minister had a bilateral meeting with Mr. Jin Liqun, President AIIB. The Finance Minister also met with executives of Alibaba ANT enterprises.

5. The Finance Minister is on an official visit to China and is accompanied by a delegation comprising of Mr. Raj Kumar and Mr. Praveen Garg, Joint Secretaries, Department of Economic Affairs, Government of India.