By Arul Louis
United Nations, Oct 23 (IANS) Invest India has received the top UN Investment Promotion Award in recognition of its efforts to boost investments in the renewable energy sector in India.
The award was presented by Armenian President Armen Sarkissian to Deepak Bagla, the CEO of Invest India, on Monday in Geneva at the inaugurations of the World Investment Forum organised by the UN Convention on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
A non-profit venture of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Invest India promotes sustainable investment.
UNCTAD said that award recognizes "the excellence in boosting investment into sectors that will have social and economic benefits and help countries meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)".
It added that judges gave Invest India the award for its "excellence in servicing and supporting a major global wind turbines company in the establishment of a blade manufacturing plant in India while committing to train local staff and produce 1 gigawatt of renewable energy. Implementation of the project is expected to reduce India's wind energy cost significantly".
The other winners of the award were Bahrain Economic Development Board and the Lesotho National Development Corp.
More than 5,000 delegates from 160 countries are participating the UNCTAD-organised Forum to discuss strategies for major new "investment-for-development" initiatives, UNCTAD said.
Speaking at the Forum's inauguration, UN General Assembly President MarAa Fernanda Espinosa said the private sector had a moral responsibility to "contribute to sustainable development with responsible investments that respect human rights, environmental regulations and fiscal regulations".
The CEO of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), Nandini Sukumar, said that there was a growing consensus among companies on sustainable economic growth.
She said that for the private sector there was the added incentive of good returns to invest in sectors like health, cities and infrastructure.
The WFE is an industry group of more than 200 stock exchange world-wide with listings of over 45,000 companies.
UNCTAD said that private sector investments of $3.9 trillion are required each year to help them meet the UN's SDGs, but there is a shortfall of about $2.5 trillion.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)
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