India's G20 Presidency: Two-Day Infrastructure Working Group Meeting Begins In Pune

A two-day G20 Infrastructure Working Group (IWG) meeting will begin in Maharashtra's Pune city on Monday where participants will deliberate on various aspects of infrastructure investments.

The meeting will be joined by 65 delegates from IWG member countries, guest nations and international organisations invited by India to discuss the 2023 Infrastructure Agenda under India's G20 presidency, as per an official release.

The Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and Government of India will host the two-day IWG meetings, with Australia and Brazil as co-chairs, the release said.

"The G20 Infrastructure Working Group deliberates on various aspects of infrastructure investments, including developing infrastructure as an asset class; promoting quality infrastructure investment; and identifying innovative instruments for mobilizing financial resources for infrastructure investment," it said.

The outcomes of the Infrastructure Working Group feed into the G20 Finance Track priorities to promote a common objective of economic growth, it added.

Over the years, the Infrastructure Working Group has been stressing on key themes of infrastructure development such as Building Infrastructure as an Asset Class, Promoting Quality Infrastructure Investment (QII) indicators, InfraTech Agenda, among others.

The Indian G20 Presidency’s theme of ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’ sets the tone for the 2023 Infrastructure Agenda under the 2023 Indian G20 Presidency as it underlines the message of equitable growth and aptly ties up with the central agenda of the discussions which is building resilient, inclusive and sustainable urban infrastructure, the release said.

The theme also aligns with the work done under the previous presidencies on Infrastructure Agenda, it added.

"In the Pune meeting, discussions will focus on the agenda for the Infrastructure Working Group under the Indian Presidency. The flagship priority to be discussed in this meeting is “Financing Cities of Tomorrow: Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable”, the release said.

The theme will focus on various facets of making cities economic centres of growth, financing urban infrastructure, building future-ready urban infrastructure, directing fiscal investments for unlocking private financing for energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable infrastructure and mitigating social imbalances.

On the side-lines, the Pune meeting will also be complemented by a High-Level Workshop on “Financing of Cities of Tomorrow”.

The workshop will discuss relevant themes pertaining to technical and managerial capacity needs to build the Cities of Tomorrow, Investors' considerations in increasing private financing and the financial capacity needs of Cities of Tomorrow, the release said.