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“We are in touch with 40 local banks from the member states. Some of them like SIDBI have formalized MoUs with SDF,” Motiwal

According to a World Bank study, the South Asian region needs to invest between $1.7-2.5 trillion to close its energy, transportation, telecom and environmental infrastructure gaps.

New Delhi (Sputnik): The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), comprising eight nations including India and Pakistan, has unanimously approved a plan to convert the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) to a full-fledged regional bank in the near future. Presently, the SDF is the umbrella financial institution overseeing projects in SAARC member countries with an authorized capital of $1.5 billion and a total capital base of $500 million.

“Our strategy is to convert the SDF into a regional bank in the near future. Right now, the focus is to strengthen our credit portfolio; once we have a lender’s status then we can raise funds from the capital market through various instruments like bonds etc.”, Dr. Sunil Motiwal, CEO of SDF, said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The three-day SDF conclave that concluded in New Delhi on Tuesday saw deliberations among members on ways to rope in top institutions like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to invest in infrastructure projects in the South Asian region.

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About Me

Dr. Sunil Motiwal is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the SAARC Development Fund (SDF).

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Quote

“The SAARC region comprises 3% of the world’s area, about 23% of the world population and about 3.3% of the global economy and is considered as one of the fastest growing region in the world. The region is blessed with a considerable young population and abundance of natural resources”

“The Fund is working tirelessly to promote regional cooperation and integration and envisages acting as a catalyst for infrastructure funding in the region by forming consortium of funding agencies and co-financing of such projects”

“If you look at America and Europe, it (trade, travel and tourism) is intra-regional. But if you look at South Asia, it is least integrated region in the world. If you look at intra-regional trade, there is virtually no trade taking place in the SAARC region. There is no intra-regional travel and tourism as such multiplier impact of trade within the region has not benefited the SAARC countries”

“SDF may explore projects that facilitate intra SAARC investment. This will immensely help in economically integrating the South Asian Region will also facilitate development of supply chain in line with the competitive advantages of South Asian Nation, entail development of secondary and tertiary sector in key industries and also facilitate development of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME)”

“SDF to work closely with various Multilateral Development Banks, International Financial Institutions, Regional Financial Institutions, Scheduled Commercial Banks, Infrastructure Funding Agencies to form consortium of funding agencies in order to co-finance large infrastructure projects in SAARC Member States.

“SDF to continue focus on co-finance Regional connectivity projects in Transport and Energy sectors in the region along with other Multilateral Development Banks”

“Per the policy guidelines of SDF, loans can be extended to both the private and public sectors in SAARC Member States. SDF to extend more support to the private sector under the MSME sector in SMSs. Focus to be given to innovative and tech based MSME private clusters in SAARC Member States in due course of time”

“We plan to convert SDF into regional bank in the next 2 years”

“SDF focusing on Social, Economic and Infrastructure Areas”

“SDF Regional Cooperation unleasing opportunities”

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