India's economic growth in current FY is estimated to be 8.9 percent: Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: Finance Minister and India’s Governor for the New Development Bank NDB Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday chaired the 7th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of NDB through video-conferencing in New Delhi.

Due to ongoing pandemic, this Annual Meeting of NDB which was hosted and chaired by India this year was organized in virtual mode. This year’s theme for the Annual Meeting was “NDB: Optimising Development Impact”, which is particularly important and relevant in the current global economic scenario.

Ms. Sitharaman, in her statement, underscored the importance of multilateralism and the spirit of global cooperation for economic recovery. In this regard, she acknowledged that NDB has successfully established itself as a reliable development partner for Emerging Market Economies.

Highlighting that India is celebrating 75 years of Independence this year, the Union Finance Minister mentioned that India’s economic growth in the current financial year has been robust and is estimated to be 8.9 percent which is the highest among all large economies. She said, this reflects India’s strong resilience and speedy recovery. Ms Sitharaman expressed confidence that India will continue to achieve a high growth rate in the current and next financial



year.

While acknowledging the NDB’s achievements and progress made over the last six years, She highlighted that the Bank has demonstrated strong results within its core mandate. The Finance Minister also appreciated the progress made towards setting up the India Regional Office in Gift City, Gujarat.

She stated that NDB will play a significant and meaningful role in the development journey of its member countries in the decades to come.

The meeting was also attended by Governors or Alternate Governors of Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa, and the newly joined members Bangladesh and United Arab Emirates UAE.

NDB is a multilateral development bank, set up by the BRICS countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa in 2014 with the objective of mobilizing resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the BRICS as well as other emerging markets and developing countries EMDCs of the world. The Bank was operationalized in 2015, with its Headquarters in Shanghai, China. 

Last year, NDB has expanded its membership to include four countries Bangladesh, UAE, Egypt, and Uruguay.  NDB has so far approved 21 projects of India for an amount of 7.1 billion dollars.