The first G-20 infrastructure working group (IWG) meeting under India’s G20 presidency begins in Pune on Monday. The meeting will focus on building cities of the future that are sustainable, resilient and inclusive. It will deliberate on challenges, financing options, standardisation and indicators over the next two days. Australia and Brazil are the co-chairs of the G-20 IWG.
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The forum will bring together 65 delegates from the IWG member countries, 13 guest countries and international organisations, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Finance Corporation and Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries. The meeting will be hosted by the Department of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Finance.
The G20 IWG deliberates 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.
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On the sidelines of the Pune meeting, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is holding a workshop on financing of ‘cities of tomorrow’. There experts will discuss problems and options and share success stories of funding urban expansion.
Currently, the government is the major source of urban funding and there is a need to attract private sector finance, multilateral lending institutions, public-private partnerships, transfer of development rights, land value capture and other models, officials said.
The G20 IWG meeting in Pune will be followed by another meeting in Chandigarh and a ministerial-level meeting in Bengaluru in the second half of the year.