World Bank chief to meet Modi, review key development priorities

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week to understand his development priorities.

Mr. Kim, who arrives in New Delhi on Monday on a three-day visit, will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during his stay here.

“The historic mandate from the people of India represents a tremendous opportunity to unlock India’s growth potential and take advantage of its immense demographic dividend,” said Mr. Kim in a statement by the World Bank.

“I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Jaitley to understand their development priorities, and determine how the financial and knowledge resources of the World Bank Group can be best allocated to support them,” he added.

Mr. Kim will visit World Bank-supported project sites in Tamil Nadu to see the challenges of India’s rural-urban transformation, and how, empowered with the right skills, rural women in the state are taking advantage of emerging urban employment opportunities.

World Bank Group’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has successfully mobilised its $1 billion offshore rupee bond program, aimed at strengthening India’s capital markets and attracting foreign investments, the statement said.

India is home to the largest operations of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

World Bank Group assistance to India between July 2013 and June 2014 amounted to $6.4 billion. This included $2 billion from IBRD, $3.1 billion from IDA, and $100 million from the Clean Technology Fund that the World Bank Group administers. During that period, the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, IFC, committed $1.2 billion in India.