G20 underlines contribution of multilateral banks to infrastructure development

The final report of the third meeting among G20 finance ministers and presidents of central banks, held this weekend in Buenos Aires, emphasized the relevance of the world’s main economies to help multilateral banks promote investments in infrastructure and foster growth.

In the document agreed upon by all member countries, the 57 delegates – among ministers, chairmen of monetary authorities and officials from international agencies, such as CAF-development bank of Latin America, which was represented by its secretary-general, Victor Rico – stated their “welcome to the Multilateral Development Banks’ Infrastructure Coordination Platform, which will report to the Infrastructure working group and advise 2018 Leaders Summit on their activities to streamline project development and collateral standardization efforts, in addition to providing tools for improving credit conditions.”

Participants greenlighted a series of project pre-investment guidelines attractive for private investors and focused on efficiency and feasibility, along with discussions about data, risk mitigation, and capital markets. The Infrastructure work group will assess the feasibility of new mechanisms to create infrastructure assets portfolios, including for ongoing projects, which can be purchased by institutional investors. Organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Inter-American Development Bank, and CAF, which were present at the meeting, have a huge amount of experience to contribute with this topic.

The Buenos Aires meeting also underlined that the world’s main economies support international trade and investment as “an important driver of growth, productivity, innovation, job creation, and development.” Participants reinstated their commitment to “continue employing all available tools to support robust, sustainable, balanced, and inclusive growth.” Among these, the report cited fiscal and monetary policies, implementation of structural reforms, and international trade and investment. The member countries added “we are working to strengthen the contribution of trade among the economies.”

Download the final report here