New Delhi [India], March 2 (ANI): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met Zou Jiayi, the new President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), here in the national capital, where they discussed strengthening the India-AIIB partnership.

Representing the second largest shareholder in AIIB, Sitharaman emphasised the need to scale up investments in AIIB member countries, particularly low-income countries, through various innovative financing and non-financing instruments.

The Union 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, the Union minister stressed on AIIB's role in developing the capital markets, expediting the approvals of projects in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, and setting up a regional office in India, given the scale of AIIB's operations here.

According to AIIB website, it began operations in 2016 with 57 founding Members (37 regional and 20 non-regional). By the end of 2020, it had 103 approved Members representing approximately 79 per cent of the global population and 65 per cent of global GDP.

Union Minister for Finance earlier met Francois-Philippe Champagne, the Minister of Finance of Canada, in New Delhi, and had constructive discussions on enhancing collaboration in investment, fintech, and the broader financial sector.

Both Ministers further expressed their shared interest in early convening of the inaugural India-Canada Economic and Financial Dialogue EFD to further strengthen economic and financial cooperation between the two countries. (ANI)