Lucknow gears up to host global meetings this week

All roads this week will lead to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh’s capital. The city is gearing up to host the sixth Supreme Audit Institutions’ (SAI) leaders meet under the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The high profile multilateral meeting will be attended by SAIs of Pakistan, China and Russia among others.

The three day SCO SAI meet will be followed by the much awaited Uttar Pradesh Global Investors Summit (UPGIS).

The SAI meet, which will kick off tomorrow, will be inaugurated by Anandiben Patel, governor of the state.

The state has made massive arrangements for the events for this week.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) assumed chairmanship of SAI20, with India assuming the G20 presidency on December 1, 2022.

Of the eight member nations participating in the event, heads of SAIs from four countries alongside the CAG of India GC Murmu, will attend the multilateral event.

India’s 2023 theme is ‘Towards a SECURE SCO”.

The concept of Secure stands for: ‘S’ for security for citizens, ‘E’ for economic development, ‘C’ for connectivity in the region, ‘U’ for unity, ‘R’ for respect of sovereignty and integrity, and ‘E for environment protection, the CAG said in a statement.

The SAI 20 Engagement Group of G20 nations recognises the crucial role of SAIs of different member countries in fortifying governance, the statement added.

India currently holds the SCO presidency along with that of the G20.

While India was granted ‘observer’ status at the SCO in 2005, it became a full member in 2017 at the historic Astana summit.

The SAI20 Engagement Group under CAG of India aims to bring together an ecosystem wherein SAIs are active partners in governance, promoting transparency and accountability, it said.

Meanwhile, more than 10,000 delegates both within and outside the country are expected to participate at the UPGIS as the Yogi Adityanath government had initially set an investment target of Rs 10 lakh crore from the mega event. However, according to reports the state has got investment proposals of more than Rs 21 lakh crore.

“We are making arrangements for the stay of foreign delegates. We hope to have participation of nearly 10,000 persons. A tent city with arrangements for the stay of 750 participants and work on the site for the UPGIS-2023 at Vrindavan Yojana is in progress,” Hindustan Times quoted infrastructure and industrial development commissioner Arvind Kumar as saying.

Later this month Lucknow will also host one of the G20 meetings.

Overall 11 G20 meetings will be held in various cities in UP.

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