Visakhapatnam: Two-day G20 Infrastructure Working Group summit concludes

The G20 Infrastructure Working Group (IWG), on its second day of the summit held in Visakhapatnam, deliberated on various aspects of infrastructure investments, including developing infrastructure as an asset class, promoting quality infrastructure investment, and identifying innovative instruments for mobilising financial resources for infrastructure investment.

The agenda for the meeting involved discussions on the ways to augment financing in cities of tomorrow, along with other priorities outlined in the 2023 Infrastructure Agenda. During the discussion, members discussed and agreed on the way forward for important deliverables for the year, including the flagship theme of “Financing Cities of Tomorrow- Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable”.

On this agenda, members discussed various facets of making cities economic centres of growth, financing urban infrastructure, building future-ready urban infrastructure etc. Members also discussed other important themes, such as innovative financing models to scale up private sector investment to address the infrastructure financing gap for creating future cities and exploring the potential applications of the Quality Infrastructure Investment (QII) indicators across the infrastructure projects.

The meeting also discussed ways to collate the data on Infrastructure spending and make the data useful for the private sector. On the sidelines of the IWG meeting, a Roundtable of International Organisations to discuss infrastructure taxonomies was also organised. The roundtable discussion was organised in partnership with the Global Infrastructure Hub.

Over 13 international experts discussed the role of infrastructure definitions and taxonomies in making better data-driven decisions. The side event witnessed the participation of experts from key International Organizations such as UNDP, OECD, IMF, ADB and EBRD. Representatives from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), Mexico and the Office for National Statistics, United Kingdom, presented case studies on improving national infrastructure spending.

The two-day meeting was co-chaired by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, along with Australia and Brazil. As many as 57 delegates from 14 G20 member countries, eight invitees, and 10 international organisations attended the summit in Visakhapatnam.

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