Creating Holistic Urban Ecosystems: A Focus for Future Cities

New Delhi, Nov 29: There is a need to look to the future and focus on creating a holistic urban ecosystem for ensuring last-mile access to services, enhanced operational efficiencies, financial sustainability of projects, and integration of digital technology, said Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday.

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Focus on Enhancing City Capabilities

Speaking at a national workshop organized by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in association with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Puri highlighted that Indian cities need to increase their capabilities -- individually, organizationally, and institutionally.

Key Learnings for Attracting Private Capital

The workshop aimed at bringing out the key learnings towards attracting private capital for urban infrastructure in the context of the work done by the IWG during India's G20 Presidency.

Principles for Financing Cities of Tomorrow

The New Delhi Leaders Declaration NDLD 2023, has endorsed the Principles for Financing Cities of Tomorrow: sustainable, resilient, and inclusive as one of the key outcomes of the Infrastructure Working Group (IWG). The principles encompass urban planning reforms, augmenting own source revenues, maximizing investment efficiency, improving the creditworthiness of cities, using innovative financing instruments such as green, social, and sustainable bonds, creating a pipeline of investible projects, enabling regulatory environment and capacity augmentation of city administrations and institutional preparedness.

Integrating IWG Outcomes into Policy-Making

During the context setting of the workshop, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said the purpose of this workshop is to integrate IWGs outcomes into India's domestic policy-making process and emphasize the potential and significance of cities of tomorrow as engines of socio-economic growth of the country. Seth also emphasized on the need of planning cities of tomorrow to be sustainable, resilient and inclusive.

Long-Term Urban Planning and Private Financing

During the session, Manoj Joshi, Secretary, MoHUA, brought up the need for long-term urban planning, unlocking the potential value of land, creating a conducive environment for attracting private financing and augmenting technical and institutional capacities. Joshi also highlighted the need for cities to focus on increasing their own source revenues to enable them to finance urban infrastructure development.

Value Capture Financing

He also underlined the need for 'value capture financing' of urban resources to overcome the financing gap in urban infrastructure projects.

The workshop brought together various stakeholders to discuss and deliberate on the key challenges and opportunities in attracting private capital for urban infrastructure development in India. The outcomes of the workshop will help in shaping the future policies and programs of the government in this area.