India expects the International Finance Corporation to increase its lending to the country to $2-2.5 billion over the next two years and $3-3.5 billion over the next 3-4 years. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told IFC Managing Director Makhtar Diop during a meeting on Monday.

Diop, who is visiting the country, said the World Bank’s private sector investment arm would take a proactive approach to increase investment in the country and expand financing to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to enable capacity building to complement India’s efforts to become a manufacturing hub, the finance ministry said in a series of tweets.

Diop further highlighted the potential to examine sub-national financing for sustainable growth and to mobilize finance for women entrepreneurs.

As part of its comprehensive India program, IFC has invested an average of $1.6 billion in India to help businesses preserve jobs and accelerate economic recovery from the Covid crisis.