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World Water Forum momentum to start infrastructure fund: Minister

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Badung, Bali (ANTARA) – Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on Tuesday stated that the 10th World Water Forum could be a momentum to design a joint funding mechanism or blended finance to develop water and sanitation infrastructure.

The minister emphasized that the need for big investment is a challenge to bring about improvements to ensure adequate water and sanitation infrastructure.

“The funding for water infrastructure and sanitation requires enormous investment. Funds from the government will not be sufficient, so we need many efforts, starting from the local government, national level, and the global level,” Indrawati remarked after a panel session at the 10th World Water Forum in Nusa Dua, Bali.

As the host of the 10th World Water Forum, Indonesia is one of the countries pushing for the Global Water Fund as one of the programs to accelerate the 6th Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to the minister, the Indonesian government is pursuing an effort to discuss the idea with stakeholders from various countries and organizations.

“At the global level, there are many international institutions to fund the program, such as the World Bank, ADB, African Development Bank, AIIB, or European Investment Bank,” Indrawati said.

Indrawati affirmed that her ministry would continue to support the formation of the Global Water Fund, as the realization of water security and adequate sanitation requires collaboration between the government and the private sector.

“If we talk about trillions of dollars of money, private sectors are the ones who have the money. They usually need appropriate incentives and regulations or policies to then work together with multilateral and national and local institutions to carry out the initiative,” she pointed out.

However, until now, the design, details, and mechanisms of the Global Water Fund have not been studied in detail.

Hence, Indrawati stated that this year’s forum can accommodate various parties to design correct funding mechanisms.

“Later, the Finance Ministry can help the PUPR Ministry. Similar to our experience in handling the pandemic fund. From there, we can learn the funding scheme, especially for the global level,” she said.

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Translator: Bayu Saputra, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Tia Mutiasari
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