Sitharaman calls for consensus-based solutions to global challenges

New Delhi, Oct 11: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday drew attention towards India’s G20 presidency’s focus on the importance of multilateralism and to move towards coordinated and consensus-based solutions to global challenges.

She made these observations during her intervention in a roundtable discussion on ‘IMF policy priorities and how the institution should support its membership’, hosted by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Marrakech, Morocco.

The event was held on the sidelines of the annual meetings of IMF and World Bank in Marrakech.

In her intervention, Sitharaman spoke about the IMF’s mandate and lending policies, a strong, quota-based, and adequately resourced IMF, poverty reduction and growth trust and IMF governance reforms.

She highlighted that in line with the evolving needs of the membership, the IMF’s primary focus needs to be macroeconomic surveillance and policy guidance.

Sitharaman also emphasised on the role of IMF in addressing debt restructuring process bottlenecks and fostering cooperation on debt issues, including through co-chairing the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable with India and the World Bank.

The finance minister also underlined the importance of the IMF to remain well-capitalised through quota-based resources to remain central to the global financial safety net.

Expressing India’s support for the gender and governance reforms in the IMF executive board, she mentioned that India has recently enacted the women’s reservation law, which reserves 33 per cent of seats in the Parliament and state legislatures for women.