World Bank Chief Banga calls for change in the vision on poverty
the Newly appointed World Bank President Ajay Banga He called for a change in the vision of poverty. He also called for more concrete steps to raise financing for infrastructure.
“The World Bank has to adjust its vision to move from just focusing on poverty to saying ‘yes, we want to create a world without poverty but we have to be on a livable planet’… This is very important,” he said while addressing the Investors Dialogue on the sidelines. Finance Minister of the Group of Twenty, Governor of the Central Bank Meet here on Sunday.
“Cities that are inclusive but are cities that are safe for women and girls, where young people can get jobs so they can enjoy the dignity of the future, and cities that are climate resilient,” he said.
Speaking about the resource needs for infrastructure – both for new as well as for improving old infrastructures, he said that these needs are seen as efforts by governments and international financial institutions. We need to boost these sluggish private sector inflows. We’ve all talked about the flows of private capital that must somehow miraculously flow into all of these places. We didn’t do a very good job. So, we have to go beyond that conversation to understand what’s holding back, what are the barriers to private investment in sustainable and quality infrastructure.
He informed the crowd that last week, the World Bank announced the 15 chief executives and CEOs who will form the Private Sector Investment Lab. The founding members comprise a core group tasked with developing solutions to address barriers to private sector investment in emerging markets. The quality of their individual and joint experience, leadership, and success in business and finance underscores the growing momentum and level of commitment for public and private collaboration to address global challenges and urgently scale development solutions.
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