FM expects dedicated infrastructure and debt funds soon

New Delhi, Feb 5 (UNI) Finance Minister P Chidambaram today underscored the need for tapping foreign savings to meet the phenomenal funding needs of building India's infrastructure and said he expected dedicated infrastructure and debt funds to be launched within a month.

Addressing a large audience here interested in the building of infrastructure, Mr Chidambaram said the government was well versed with the problems and bottlenecks coming in the way of rapid development of infrastructure and gave an assurance that the government would attend to these.

The minister was inaugurating an International Conference on 'Meeting India's Infrastructure needs with Publc Private Partnerships- The International Experience and Perspective', whose key sponsors were the World Bank and International Finance Corporation.

Mr Chidambaram said there were weaknesses relating to policy and regulatory framework of infrastructure and said as many of the infrastructure projects have to be located in states, they ought to address these forthwith.

Besides, he said, there was a dire need for developing innovative instruments to raise debt and equity.

The finance minister said there was a shortage of credible and bankable projects in infrastructure.

Mr Chidambaram admitted that there was lack of capacity in public institutions and public offices to handle and develop Public Private Partnership projects.

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