French Development Agency commits Rs 20,000 crore investments in India
Jun 22, 2022
New Delhi [India], June 22 : French Development Agency (AFD) said on Wednesday it committed Rs 20,103 crore (2,512 million euro) investments to various projects in India during the year 2021.
The French Development Agency published its 2021 financial results, highlighting 995 new projects financed to the tune of 12.15 billion euros globally. This is a historically high level of disbursements for the Group, whose robust results are in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
"With 1,000 new projects supported each year, AFD Group is the constructive and concrete manifestation of France's role in the world," Remy Rioux, Chief Executive Officer of AFD Group, said in a statement.
"In a global context marked by continuing health and geopolitical crises, the annual results for 2021 testify to our commitment to a world in common," Rioux said.
The Ambassador of France to India Emmanuel Lenain, said, "The massive and consistent support provided by AFD to India in sectors ranging from smart cities to renewable energy and biodiversity reflects France's commitment to being India's steadfast partner in its urban and ecological transitions. Our goal is to demonstrate together that socio-economic progress and environment protection can go hand in hand."
In India, AFD is lending its support to public entities in a variety of sectors, such as clean urban transit, water, affordable housing, renewable energy and biodiversity.
So far, it has helped finance five metro rail projects in India with a contribution of 1,142 million euros or Rs 9,250 crore to date.
Cities that have benefitted from AFD's financial support and technical assistance in their metro development projects are Bengaluru, Pune, Nagpur, Kochi and Surat.
In Jodhpur, Rs 740.5 crore were spent on a jointly-financed project by AFD and the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) of Rajasthan to improve water supply and distribution. This project has helped make an impressive annual savings of Rs 37 million (450,000 euro) in power conservation.
Through its green finance label SUNREF, AFD supports the National Housing Bank (NHB), whose role is to ensure the regulation and promotion of housing finance in India. It has also partnered with the Indian development bank IREDA for the production of electricity from renewable resources.
In Assam, AFD has been supporting since 2012 a major programme in the Kaziranga natural park protecting fragile ecosystems while providing better, more sustainable livelihoods for the local population. Through this project, 21,000 hectares of land have been reforested, and more than 6000 people from local communities have benefited from skilling programmes.
More recently, AFD and partners in India launched the 'Green Indian Financial System' or GIFS, to devise a green finance strategy and projects, and understand how to integrate climate-related risks in the financial system.
AFD Group's action in the region is to back low-carbon trajectories and reduce vulnerabilities through the mobilisation of French and international players, in line with France's strategy for the Indo-Pacific. The group committed 3.5 billion euros in 2021 to support these goals in Asia and neighbouring regions.
AFD Group is a public financial institution that funds, supports and accelerates transitions towards a more just and sustainable world.
