HYDERABAD, INDIA
HYDERABAD, INDIA - India is headed in the right direction following the Government's prudent and effective economic management and reforms to reduce poverty, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda told a seminar on "Advantage India" yesterday.
"The Government's efforts to increase infrastructure investment, improve the fiscal situation, and make the process of growth inclusive through a renewed focus on agriculture, rural development, and employment generation are strong steps in the right direction," Mr. Kuroda said.
"Another way growth can be made more inclusive is through strengthened regional cooperation and economic integration, which can reduce income disparities both within and among countries."
He was speaking at the opening of the India Day program at ADB's 39th Annual Meeting of its Board of Governors, which opened Wednesday at the Hyderabad International Convention Center.
Mr. Kuroda said India had taken several steps to address regional cooperation and integration by strengthening dialogue with other nations and signing framework agreements.
He added that ADB would continue to support the Government's efforts to promote sustainable, equitable growth and had shifted its focus to less developed states to reduce regional disparities.
ADB's operations in India will focus on meeting the demand for infrastructure in the three core areas of transportation, urban development, and energy, he said.
"India is very much an unfolding story of development success," the ADB President told the audience. "Its continued economic and social progress would give a tremendous boost to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in the Asia and Pacific region - and for the world as a whole."
Also speaking in the half day India Day program were central and local government officials including India's Minister of Finance, P. Chidambaram; Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia; Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy; and figures from industry and finance.
Mr. Chidambaram said growth has been achieved despite severe shocks, which could have crippled a less resilient economy. And he accepted that foreign direct investment could play an important role in not only stepping up the investment rate but in also enabling transfer of technologies and the globalization of Indian firms.
"Investor confidence in India is all time high today," he said. "We are all well aware that shortage of infrastructure has been our problem for a number of decades. But we've started to put our house in order. Reforms cut across various sub-sectors of infrastructure including, roads, airports, ports, power and urban utilities."
He said it has taken India 14 years to evolve from a poor and perhaps forgotten country to a thriving and increasingly noticed emerging economy. "I am confident that it would take us much shorter than 14 years to join the league of developed nations," he said.
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Source: Asian Development Bank