Govt gets funding to mitigate the impact of COVID-19
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is providing US$750 million “COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Programme” to assist India to strengthen its response to the adverse impacts of the pandemic on poor and vulnerable households.
This is the first-ever budgetary support programme from the AIIB to India.
The AIIB support is part of the US$2.25 billion, of which US$1.5 billion will be provided by the Asian Development Bank. The project will be executed by the Department of Economic Affairs through various line ministries.
Signing the agreement on 19 June 2020, Sameer Kumar Khare, Department of Economic Affairs’ Additional Secretary, said, “We thank AIIB’s assistance for the government’s immediate response to the coronavirus pandemic to provide social assistance for compensating economic loss to vulnerable sections including women and social security measures enhanced for affected workers in both organised and informal sectors.
“AIIB’s timely financial support will contribute to the effective implementation of the government’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Programme.”
The Programme will provide the Government with budget support to mitigate the severe adverse social and economic impact of COVID-19. The current loan will be the second to India from AIIB under its COVID-19 crisis recovery facility apart from the earlier approved US$500 million loans for the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project.
The Primary Programme beneficiaries would be families below the poverty line, farmers, healthcare workers, women, women’s self-help groups, widows, people with disabilities, senior citizens, low wage earners, construction workers and other vulnerable groups.
D.J. Pandian, AIIB vice-president (Investment Operations), added that AIIB’s support to India aims to ensure economic resilience to prevent long-term damage to the productive capacity, including human capital, of India’s economy.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia, began operations in January 2016. AIIB has now grown to 102 approved members worldwide. fiinews.com
