Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das will co-chair the G20 meetings of foreign finance ministers and governors of central banks, to be held on July 17 and 18 at Mahatma Mandir and GIFT City in Gandhinagar.
“The meetings have five thematic sessions spread over two days. The first two sessions to be held on July 17 will be on ‘Global Economy and Global Health’ and ‘Sustainable Finance and Infrastructure’. Sessions on ‘International Financial Architecture’, ‘International Taxation’ and ‘Financial sector issues and Financial Inclusion’ will be held on July 18,” Ajay Seth, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Union Ministry of Finance, told mediapersons in Gandhinagar.
“When the ministers and governors met for the first time under the Indian G20 presidency in Bengaluru in February, they had mandated certain important topics. Since February, a significant body of work has been done by various working groups. They have completed several deliverables. Those have been discussed in the working groups and the same will be presented to the ministers and governors for deliberation,” he added.
Asked about the deliberations held in the first meeting in Bengaluru, Seth said, “One particular issue where common ground was not found between finance ministers was the impact of Russia-Ukraine war on global economy. Two of the member countries had a different stance.”
The official said that the first volume of the report on “G20 independent expert group on strengthening multilateral development bank” will be deliberated upon and made public on July 18. More than 500 delegates, including finance ministers, central bank governors and their deputies from 66 countries are expected to attend the meetings.
“As a preparatory to the meeting of ministers and governors (next week), finance deputies and central bank deputies will discuss and finalise the outcome document on July 14-15… On July 16, an important side event, which will be held at GIFT City, is a session on ‘Infrastructure Investors Dialogue’. Participation of the private sector is expected in big numbers and the theme of the dialogue is on ‘Leveraging funding and financing mechanisms and approaches for cities of tomorrow’,” Seth said.
“As part of the dialogue, there will be a ministerial session where Nirmala Sitharaman will deliver an opening address, followed by a keynote address by the Indonesian finance minister and closing remarks by the president of World Bank,” he added.
The same day, a second event to be held at GIFT City will be a high-level tech-symposium – ministerial and governor-level – on combating tax evasion, corruption and money laundering.
On July 17, there will be a round-table on “crypto assets”. Also, two workshops are to be held at Mahatma Mandir. The first one is on ‘Interlinking Fast Payment Systems’ and the second one on ‘Achieving Growth Friendly Climate Actions and Financing for Emerging and Developing Economies’.
While cultural events for the delegates will be held in the evenings, on July 19, excursions have been planned for them to Ahmedabad city, Patan, Modhera and Kevadiya.