World Bank Group chief meets Prime Minister

New Delhi, Dec 4 (PTI) World Bank President Robert
Zoellick Friday called on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and discussed funding for the changing needs of the country.

"I had the opportunity this morning to speak to the Prime
Minister (about) how fully committed I am in trying to get
India more financial resources from the World Bank Group," he
told reporters here Friday.
At present, the multilateral lending agency is working on
more than USD 22 billion of projects in the country, including
USD 3.6 billion loan from its private sector arm IFC.
Zoellick said his four-day visit was to understand the
priorities of the country and to "how we (World Bank) will
adapt our support to try to meet India's changing needs".
"We have already expanded our efforts to India but there
is a tremendous amount more we could do here with both the
public and the private sector and the money will be very well
invested," he said, adding that even their expanded efforts is
modest in front of the challenges facing the country.
"So, what I have discussed with various ministers and
also with the Prime Minister is how we would like to work with
India to try to figure out how we can leverage some of these
funding more effectively with other sources," he said.
During his visit, Zoellick announced a support of USD one
billion for helping clean the Ganges river. Earlier, the
Finance Ministry of India said the World Bank is likely to
triple its lending to the country to USD 7 billion this year.
PTI MG
MYR


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