New Delhi, March 2 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met with Zou Jiayi, the newly appointed President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), on Monday, and emphasized the need to increase investments in member countries.
Both leaders discussed strengthening the India-AIIB partnership, the finance ministry said in a post on X.
Representing the second-largest shareholder in AIIB, Sitharaman emphasized the need to increase investments in AIIB member countries, particularly low-income countries, through various innovative financing and non-financing instruments.
India is the second-largest shareholder in AIIB, holding 8.5 per cent, after China, which holds 30.5 per cent.
The Finance Minister also highlighted India's continued focus on infrastructure-led growth under the Union Budget, and both discussed the importance of enhanced collaboration with AIIB through early upstream services in the infrastructure sector in India.
Among other issues, she emphasized AIIB's role in developing capital markets, expediting project approvals in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, and establishing a regional office in India, given the scale of AIIB's operations here.