Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met Asian Development Bank President Masato Kanda on Monday in Milan. During the meeting, she emphasized that India offers opportunities for ADB to pilot new, innovative financing products and models, a finance ministry statement said.

Sitharaman is currently in Milan to attend the four-day long 58th annual meeting of the Board of Governors of Asian Development Bank (ADB).

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During her meeting with the ADB president, Sitharaman reiterated that India focuses on private sector-led economic growth and has been consistently creating a conducive policy and regulatory ecosystem through bold initiatives such as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, Corporate Tax Rate Reduction and GST implementation, Production-Linked Incentives, National Infrastructure Pipeline, GatiShakti National Master Plan, and StartupIndia, among others, for greater Ease of Doing Business.

Responding to her offer, Kanda expressed ADB‘s full support to India’s development priorities, guided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The four-day meetings will be attended by official delegations of the Board of Governors of ADB, official delegations of ADB members and international financial institutions.

The Finance Minister will participate in the Annual Meeting’s focal events including the Governors’ Business session, Governor’s Plenary Session and as a panellist in the ADB Governors’ Seminar on “Cross-Border Collaboration for Future Resilience”.

On the sidelines of the event, the Finance Minister will also hold bilateral meetings with Finance Ministers of Italy, Japan, and Bhutan as well as heads of other international organisations, besides meeting global think-tanks, business leaders and CEOs in Milan.

She is also scheduled to interact with the Indian diaspora in Milan and also address a plenary session at the Bocconi University on “Balancing Economic and Climate Resilience.”

The Finance Minister also had a meeting with Italy’s Minster of Economy and Finance Giancarlo Giorgetti on the sidelines of the ADB annual meet in Milan.
During their meeting both leaders explored ways to strengthen India-Italy economic ties, and enhance cooperation in global and multilateral platforms on issues of mutual interest.

The meeting highlighted implementation of the Joint Strategic Action Plan 2025-2029 announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Italian PM Giorgia Meloni in November 2024, which will add depth and momentum to our cooperation in priority domains.

With bilateral trade between the two counties reaching $14.56B in FY2023-24, Ms Sitharaman emphasised on the huge potential in Renewable Energy, digital technologies, agri-food processing, and high-end manufacturing and invited Italian companies to ‘Make in India’ through Government of India’s PLI schemes.

The India Finance Minister shared India’s success with Digital Public Infrastructure DPI platforms like Aadhaar, UPI, and DigiLocker, proposing collaboration on innovative fintech solutions. As G20 GPFI co-chairs, and are working together to advance financial inclusion globally.

Both Finance Ministers also discussed the importance of reforming Multilateral Development Banks MDBs to make them more responsive to developing countries’ needs, adequately capitalised, and better aligned with SDGs

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Ms Sitharaman underlined co-financing models and collaboration in green hydrogen, carbon capture, energy efficiency, and circular economy and stated that both nations can leverage their strengths to co-develop solutions for global markets, advancing our climate commitments.