Good afternoon. We welcome the focus of India G20 presidency on Digital Public Infrastructure to promote financial inclusion and productivity.
Well-designed payment systems, digital ID, and data sharing systems have been key to target and deliver benefits to individuals and MSMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. We take full note of India’s success in this regard and its astounding advances in digital payments. We are pleased to contribute to this Presidency agenda and share our insights from our programs such as ID4D, Fast Payments, and GovTech in countries from the Philippines and Morocco to the Eastern Caribbeans. Greater investment in private sectors will be key.
On crypto-assets, many crypto-conglomerates operate their ‘border-less’ activities out of EMDE jurisdictions. The views of developing countries should be included in the design and implementation of the new framework. The World Bank is working in several countries to support them in the application of the emerging international guidance.
On International Sustainability Standards, we encourage the FSB to ensure that the implementation of the disclosure standards across EMDEs is proportional and phased-in so that a consistent climate-related financial disclosure framework does not come at the expense of slower capital market developments. We are happy to work together with the FSB as we support developing countries on this important agenda.
Finally, we welcome progress on the implementation of cross-border payment systems, including this week’s India-Singapore linkage. We are working to build regional platforms elsewhere to lower costs and increase formal flows, and are pleased to help the Southern African Development Community (SADEC) to build a regional platform.