Ajay Banga, the US nominee for the position of World Bank President, is currently in India on a two-day visit. He is expected to meet with several officials, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman.
Banga will be in New Delhi on March 23 and 24, the last stop in his three-week global tour, which started in Africa and then travelled to Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
“While in India, Mr Banga will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as the minister of finance Nirmala Sitharaman and the minister of external affairs S Jaishankar. These discussions will focus on India’s development priorities, the World Bank, and global economic development challenges,” US Treasury Department said in a statement.
Banga will also visit the Learnet Institute of Skills, a network of vocational schools created in partnership with the National Skills Development Corporation and partially supported by the World Bank.
In order to explore how the programme is enhancing the lives and economic opportunities of participants, particularly young people, Banga will learn about the Institute’s programme and meet with programme participants, staff, alumni, and commercial sector partners, it added.
India endorsed Banga’s candidature shortly after his nomination was made public, the statement said, adding that a wide range of governments, including Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom, have since done the same.
If elected, Banga will use his experience working and living in emerging economies as well as his knowledge of creating public-private partnerships to mobilise funds and take action to address long-standing issues, it was noted.
That includes his work at Mastercard, where he was successful in bringing 50 million small companies online and bringing 500 million previously unbanked people into the digital economy.
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