FM calls for more ADB loans to pvt sector

New Delhi, Jun 18 (UNI) Finance Minister P Chidambaram today asked the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to provide more loans to the private sector and urged it for developing a portfolio-restructuring plan to increase the sector's share of annual loans to 50 per cent.

Addressing a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee here, he said the country's portfolio with the ADB had grown substantially to include a loan amount of 7.3 billion dollars with a 25 per cent increase in disbursement ratio.

He said the fundamental role of the ADB as a multilateral development bank should not be diluted by an overemphasis on non-sovereign loans at the cost of sovereign loans.

''This problem would be resolved if overall disbursements were to increase,'' he added.

India has a permanent seat in the ADB, whose membership today has risen to 67.

UNI MP SR RN2032