New Delhi [India], April 4 (ANI): Former CEO of NITI Aayog and G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant participated in the G20 Sherpa meeting, emphasizing the importance of promoting global growth to drive sustainable development.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal shared the pictures of the meeting on social media platform X and said that Kant highlighted the need for G20 nations to work together to address current global challenges.

'Advancing global cooperation! The former CEO of NITI Aayog and G20 Sherpa, Amitabh Kant, participated in the G20 Sherpa meeting, emphasizing the need to promote global growth to drive sustainable development,' Jaiswal wrote on X.

'While looking forward to ambitious outcomes of #G20 under South Africa & USA's leadership as G20 chairs in 2025 & 2026, he underlined that G20 needs to work together to address current global challenges,' he added.

The G20 is made up of 19 countries - Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Russia, Turkey, the UK and the US and two regional bodies: the African Union and the European Union.

According to the official statement, the members of the G20 represent around 85 per cent of the world's GDP, more than 75 per cent of world trade and around two-thirds of the world's population.

Meanwhile, Kant highlighted the importance of building sustainable cities to urbanise the country, highlighting such projects as being centres of 'growth and and innovation' while speaking at the Raisina dialogue being held in New Delhi on Wednesday.

'It's important to realise that cities are centres of growth, the centres of innovation. The centres of great prosperity, therefore, if India is going to see 500 million people getting into the process of urbanisation in the next five decades, that means the challenge for India is to create two Americas in the next five decades. India will have to create a new Chicago every 5 years,' Kant said during a panel discussion on 'Destiny or Destination: Culture, Connectivity and Tourism.'

'You have to revitalise existing cities just to give you a perspective, the GDP of Mumbai today is more than the GDP of 18 Indian states, and the GDP of one city in UP, that's Gautam Buddh Nagar, Noida, and Greater Noida is 12 times more than the second biggest city of UP, that's Kanpur. 12 times more. That's the kind of growth, that's the kind of GDP, that's the kind of innovation, that's the kind of job creation which new cities will create,' Kant added. (ANI)