Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government and an organisation of World Bank have joined hands for implementation of asset monetisation and recycling programme, an official release said Friday.
It is part of a wider World Bank technical assistance to support Odisha in monetising existing public sector assets and “enhance” the state’s economic growth, it said.
A memorandum of understanding was signed between the state Industries Department and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a organisation of World Bank, in Bhubaneswar on Friday.
The programme will facilitate the monetisation process in the state by “unlocking the value” from large-scale public investment in the brownfield infrastructure assets and bringing in “sector efficiencies”, Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha (Ipicol) said.
The IFC will support the state in screening and developing a prioritised list of monetisable brownfield state-owned assets for select sectors.
The list will be screened further to identify bankable pilot projects that may be taken to market for attracting private sector investments, the state agency said.
Power transmission, energy generation, including renewable and large hydroelectric ones, highways and transport-related land infrastructure assets, warehousing are among the pilot projects.
Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said the partnership would help in bridging some of the financing gap in improving and upgrading the state’s infrastructure.
“With the impact of economic shocks limiting fiscal space in many countries, the need for innovation to fund the infrastructure gap, particularly through crowding in private investments, is all the more crucial,” IFC India Country Head Wendy Werner said.
Industries’ Principal Secretary Hemant Sharma said they would reach out to each and every department to identify monetisable assets.
Development Commissioner Pradeep Jena pointed out that the Union government identified monetisation of public assets as one of its core strategies for enhanced and sustainable infrastructure financing.
Under the Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure, the central government is providing incentive to the states in the form of interest-free loan of an equivalent amount of value of assets monetised, Jena said.
Hence, the programme will create a new source of finances to fund development of core infrastructure projects, he added.
PTI
