Asia Pacific region to be the ‘growth engine’ for the world economy: FM
In midst of the continuing global economic vicissitude, the Asia-Pacific region appears to be the functional ‘growth engine’ for the world economy. Asian Development Outlook 2015 estimates Asia to grow at 6.3% in 2015 and 2016, said Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley at the first business session of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at Baku, Azerbaijan on May 4, 2015. The Finance Minister said, “We are meeting at a time when the global economy is looking slightly better than 2014 but not by much. Global growth in 2014 was lower than initially expected – continuing the pattern of disappointing outturns as seen in earlier years. Beneath the headline numbers, increasingly divergent trends seem to be at work both in the developed and emerging market economies,” reported a PIB release. “According to various estimates, India is expected to grow at 7.5-8.0% in both 2015 and 2016. This only reaffirms India’s fascinating growth prospects. In a time span of less than a year, our Government has taken a number of steps to revive the economy. Our goal is to place the Indian economy on a high and sustained growth trajectory through focus on infrastructure development, skills development, improving ease of doing business and economic reforms including comprehensive social safety net and fiscal discipline,” Jaitley said. In a world that is becoming increasing more flat, regional cooperation is at the centre stage of growth strategy. ADB is a uniquely placed MDB (Multi-lateral Development Bank) with a very clear focus on supporting regional cooperation, Jaitley said and added, “We welcome setting aside of US$ 500 million for regional cooperation under OCR in response to our persistent demand. I urge ADB to continue with its thrust on regional cooperation not only within South Asia but also between South Asia and rest of Asia.” India and the ADB share a productive and beneficial relationship. India is now ADB’s largest client. With a bigger and better ADB, we would also like to see our partnership move to the next level. In addition to supporting conventional infrastructure projects, we would like a deeper engagement on development of Smart Cities, Industrial Corridors, Rail transport and manufacturing and job creation through flagship initiatives of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’, concluded Jaitley.
May 5, 2015 | 3:53 pm IST.
to success.