Odisha government joins hand with World Bank member for asset monetisation

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government and International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of World Bank, recently joined hands to attract private sector investment in the State’s infrastructure through asset monetisation and recycling programme.

The programme, a part of a wider World Bank Group technical assistance, will facilitate monetisation of existing public sector assets and enhance economic growth by unlocking the value from large scale public investment in the brownfield infrastructure assets.

IFC will support in screening and developing a prioritised list of monetisable brownfield State owned assets for select sectors that can further identify and define bankable pilot projects to be taken to market for attracting private sector investments.

Globally, developing countries have been adopting various forms of asset monetisation and asset recycling approaches to generate funds for their economic growth. While the Centre has rolled out the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) to address this issue and boost the economy, states are also looking at the opportunity and projects in power transmission, energy generation (including renewable energy and large hydro storage projects), highways and transport related land infrastructure assets and warehousing are on the list of pilot projects.

With the impact of economic shocks limiting fiscal space in many countries, IFC’s Country Head (India) Wendy Werner said, the need for innovation to fund the infrastructure gap, particularly through private investments, is more crucial.

"India has huge potential to monetise its brownfield infrastructure assets and upgrade it to international standards for meeting the demands of a growing urban population. IFC will offer its global expertise in attracting private finance for infrastructure to Odisha," she added.

Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra said the partnership with IFC in identifying assets can be leveraged for attracting more private sector investments in the State. "This will help us bridge some of the financing gaps by improving and upgrading infrastructure," he hoped.