India and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are launching a pilot programme on tax and financial crime investigation for South Asia from July 18, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sunday.
“Under the G20 Presidency, India has taken the lead for building capacity in tax and financial crime investigation in the South Asian region in collaboration with OECD. We look forward to the institutionalisation of this collaboration and contribution of this initiative in addressing the specific needs of countries in the South Asia region,” Sitharaman said at a tax symposium side event at the G20 meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG).
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The finance minister also spoke at another event on the financing of climate-resilient urban infrastructure, which was also attended by the new World Bank President Ajay Banga. Banga was quite frank in his assessment of climate financing.
“The World Bank should amend its vision to go from just being poverty-focused to saying ‘yes, we want to create a world that is free of poverty but we have to be on a liveable planet’. Building resilient and inclusive cities is completely core to that vision,” Banga said.
Banga said that it is essential for nations and multilateral banks to find sources for large capital outlays that are needed to provide new infrastructure and services for cities.
“We have all been talking about private capital flows that should somehow flow miraculously into all these places. We haven’t done a very good job. So we have to get past that conversation to get to understand what are the barriers holding back private investment in sustainable, quality infrastructure,” Banga said.