Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said the World Bank (WB) should not reduce its financial assistance to India even though the country has been recording impressive growth figures.
“Yes, you see 9 per cent growth but then you zoom in and look at parts of India that are growing at 4 per cent and 5 per cent or even less. They are very poor and need to be helped and that help should be given by the World Bank,” he said here.
Chidambaram, who was here to attend the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, termed as “completely misguided” the view in some quarters that the bank must reduce its portfolio with countries like India and China given their strong economic growth and availability of foreign exchange reserves.
“It is completely misguided and mis-directed. Please remember that while India is growing at 9 per cent and China may be growing at 10 per cent, there is a large number of people in India who are not growing at 9 per cent.
“India and China continue to house 750 million of the world’s poor, world’s very poor I may say,” Chidambaram said.
He said the millennium development goals will not be attained unless India and China are supported. “2015 will come and go. If you ignore India and China, the MDGs will not be achieved…I think the World Bank should and will continue to keep India in its focus and India will be among the biggest borrowers of World Bank Funds,” the Finance Minister said, adding that none of the delegates attending the meetings raised the issue.
