Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with President of the World Bank Group Ajay Banga

The Voice of Canada :

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the President of the World Bank Group, Ajay Banga,on the margins of the G20 summit in New Delhi, India.

Prime Minister Trudeau congratulated Mr. Banga for assuming the presidency of the World Bank Group on June 2, 2023.

The Prime Minister and Mr. Banga discussed the importance of the World Bank Group’s Evolution Roadmap in strengthening its ability to respond to the scale of today’s global development challenges. The Prime Minister signaled his support for ambitious organizational reforms making the World Bank Group fit for purpose to address challenges facing the world’s most vulnerable countries and populations, such as youth, women, and Indigenous peoples. The two leaders also discussed the importance of multistakeholder support to Ukraine for recovery and reconstruction to mitigate the impacts of Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable war. 

Prime Minister Trudeau and Mr. Banga discussed the innovative work that the World Bank Group is undertaking to increase its lending capacity through new instruments, such as hybrid capital and portfolio guarantees, to stretch every dollar and ensure stable and predictable access to concessional finance towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Prime Minister expressed his support for the World Bank Group’s efforts to promote gender equality. He also highlighted the World Bank Group’s progress on greater mobilization of private capital through the Private Sector Investment Lab, as well as the use of climate-resilient debt clauses to respond to the borrowing needs of countries.

Prime Minister Trudeau and Mr. Banga expressed their interest in collaborating on multilateral development bank reform and looked forward to working together closely.