G20 infra meet in Vizag concludes on successful note

Visakhapatnam: The two-day second G20 Infrastructure Working Group meeting under the Indian G20 Presidency concluded successfully in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. The members participated in the discussions with great enthusiasm, said joint secretary in the ministry of finance Solomon Arokiaraj.

Arokiaraj said, “It was a productive session. We will sum up the deliberation during the next two months and prepare for the coming June’s Rishikesh meet.’’ He noted that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy interacted with the delegates on the first day and explained about the state’s urban infrastructure push.

The two-day meeting was co-chaired by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, along with Australia and Brazil. Some 57 delegates from 14 G20 member countries, eight special invitees and 10 international organisations attended the meeting physically.

The G20 Infrastructure Working Group deliberated on various aspects of infrastructure investments, promoting quality infrastructure investment and identifying innovative instruments for mobilising financial resources for infrastructure investment.

The agenda for the meeting involved, among others, discussions on ways to augment financing the cities of tomorrow. Members also discussed themes such as innovative financing models to scale up private sector investment to address the infrastructure financing gap vis-à-vis creation of future cities, and exploring potential application of the Quality Infrastructure Investment (QII) indicators across the infrastructure projects.

A Capacity Building Workshop for the G20 delegates will follow the two-day meetings on Thursday.

During the workshop, international experts from South Korea and Singapore will discuss the international best practices of urban infrastructure financing. A Korean representative would speak on how Seoul, which houses half the population of South Korea, manages itself in giving a good quality of life.

On March 31, commissioners from 50 municipalities will interact with the Korean and Singapore experts in which students and the public would also be allowed to participate. “Four municipalities are presenting their cases and Vizag would be one,’’ the joint secretary said.