Multilateral Development Banks should work to increase private financing by USD 500 billion by 2030: Expert group report

Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) should work systematically with the private sector to increase private financing by an additional USD 500 billion by 2030, a G20 expert group has said in a report.

The independent expert group on multilateral development banks set up under India G20 Presidency, called for a better, bolder, and bigger MDB system to provide long-term finance to meet physical and social infrastructure needs globally.

The second volume of the report 'The Triple Agenda' said the MDBs should work together better as a system.

MDBs include the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The report also suggested that MDBs agree to be held accountable, individually and collectively, on a range of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to match the expanded mandate.

MDBs should share diagnostic tools, mutually recognise each other's standards and set up shared co-financing and project preparation and review platforms, the report said.

"MDBs should work systematically with the private sector to increase private financing by an additional USD 500 billion by 2030, including by increasing total private capital mobilisation from USD 60 billion to USD 240 billion, and making concerted efforts to catalyse a significant volume of additional private finance," the report said.

MDBs should be sized to achieve the transformational change required in client countries to meet national and global priorities, it added.

Former bureaucrat N K Singh and American economist Lawrence Summers were co-convenors of the independent expert group.