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At AIIB Annual Meeting, Sir Suma Chakrabarti says more integration will boost growth
Sir Suma Chakrabarti, the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), has called for steps to remove trade barriers and promote economic integration across regions where the Bank invests.
Speaking at the Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Mumbai, the EBRD President said greater economic integration was needed to deliver more trade, more growth and a greater exchange of ideas and know-how that would create opportunities and a better quality of life for all the people of Asia.
Efforts were needed to promote both hard connectivity, such as roads and transport systems, as well as soft connectivity, such as the facilitation of trade and the development of regional financial hubs.
The EBRD was working on many projects with partners from across the region, he said, adding: “However, we need to build more trust among partners to dismantle barriers to trade.”
That could be a challenge but streamlining customs clearance and freight handling would be an important start, Sir Suma said.
In his speech, the President referred to the EBRD’s support for the Astana International Financial Centre, which was helping Kazakhstan become a regional hub for investment in the China-led Belt and Road Initiative, while also focusing on green finance to ensure that projects were sustainable.
The EBRD was also building stronger links between smaller regional stock exchanges to provide investors with better access to integrated capital markets, he said.
Sir Suma said connectivity and integration were crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals that the international community had committed to deliver by 2030.
New opportunities were arising, he noted. “The opening up of Uzbekistan should allow the whole of Central Asia, a region once at the heart of trade between Europe and China, to create new connectivity routes or revitalise old ones,” he said.