G20 Investment and Infrastructure Working Group Meeting
29 -30 January 2015, Ankara
On January 29-30, 2015, representatives of G20 Finance Ministries and Central Banks as well as experts from international organizations attended the first Investment and Infrastructure Working Group (IIWG) meeting under the Turkish G20 Presidency in Ankara, Turkey.
G20 introduced a new narrative that addresses the investment strategies by building on the existing works of the IIWG and utilizing capabilities of international organizations, multinational development banks, and the Global Infrastructure Hub (GIH).
This narrative compliments reaching the 2% growth goal through concrete and ambitious country specific investment strategies in line with the Brisbane Action Plan. The ongoing IIWG work streams are the main building blocks in which case the facilitators are the main policies that help members achieve their investment targets. Safeguards, on the other hand, are the critical policies for the efficiency and success of the investment strategies.
The Working Group discussed the progress in the following priority areas constituting the facilitators and safeguards of the G20 investment and infrastructure agenda for 2015:
- Supporting improvements in investment climate
- Mobilizing MDB (Multilateral Development Banks) resources and roles
- Facilitating financial intermediation for infrastructure and SMEs
- Infrastructure and SME data gap dissemination
- Appropriate legal and institutional settings
- Improving project planning and prioritization process
Besides, the cross cutting issues of the Presidency (LICs and long term financing for SMEs) and the new modalities of asset based financing (e.g. Islamic Finance) were also underlined during the meeting.
The IIWG will continue to work on all aspects of its agenda at the next meeting in May in Singapore.
