New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Monday, met her Bangladeshi counterpart Mustafa Kamal on the sidelines of the G20 Finance Minister and Central Bank Governors meeting in Gandhinagar, Gujarat and discussed bilateral issues. 

Taking to Twitter, the Ministry of Finance said, “Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman

and Mr @ahmmustafakamal, Finance Minister of Bangladesh, met on the sidelines of the 3rd G20 Finance Minister and Central Bank Governors #G20FMCBG meeting in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, today, and discussed various bilateral issues of mutual interests.”

In the two-day Third G20 FMCBGs meeting under the Indian G20 Presidency, Sitharaman and the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Shaktikanta Das, jointly chaired the meeting.

The 3rd meeting of the G20 FMCBGs marks the culmination of the work on many of the key deliverables from the G20 Finance Track in 2023 carried out under various workstreams of the G20 Finance Track based on the mandate received during the first G20 FMCBG meeting held in February 2023 in Bengaluru, Ministry of Finance said in a release. 

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Mulyani Indrawati, Minister of Finance, Indonesia, and Sitharaman, announced the launch of the “India – Indonesia Economic and Financial Dialogue”.

The platform, unveiled during the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting, seeks to strengthen cooperation between the two nations and foster a shared understanding of global issues.

“The evolution of India’s ‘Look East Policy’ in 1991, followed by the ‘Act East Policy’, has facilitated a rapid development in our bilateral relations, particularly in the commercial and cultural fields,” Union Finance Minister stated.

“Indonesia has emerged as India’s largest trading partner in the ASEAN region, with our trade seeing an eightfold increase since 2005, reaching an impressive $38 billion in FY 2022-23,” she added. 

The EFD Dialogue is poised to enhance collaboration on bilateral and international economic and financial matters by bringing together economic policymakers and financial regulators from both countries.

Areas of cooperation inter-alia, include macroeconomic challenges and global economic prospects, bilateral investment relations, and cooperation in G20 and ASEAN matters.

Recognising the potential of the digital economy, the two Finance Ministers also noted the potential of collaboration in the field of fintech for financial inclusion, according to the Ministry of Finance.