WASHINGTON - Finance Minister Lawrence Wong discussed the work of the World Bank in sustainable financing, among other things, when he met World Bank Group president David Malpass and his senior management team in Washington on Monday (April 18).

"There are many projects in Asia which need private financing and government support to get off the ground," Mr Wong said in a Facebook post on Tuesday (April 19).

"Both Singapore and the World Bank have been active in this space. We discussed how the World Bank Singapore Hub can make use of our financial ecosystem to promote a greener recovery for the Asian region," he added.

Mr Wong is in the United States for meetings with international and American officials.

He will attend the World Bank-International Monetary Fund spring meetings, as well as the second Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting under the 2022 Group of 20 Indonesian presidency.

He was also announced as the leader of the People's Action Party's fourth-generation team last week, a move that paves the way for him to be Singapore's next prime minister.

Separately, Mr Wong also met US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who had visited Singapore recently.

"Trade is the lifeblood of Singapore - our trade with the world is about three times our GDP (gross domestic product)," he said.

"We discussed new models of economic and trade cooperation, and the importance of deeper and more substantive US engagement in the region, via the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework."

The framework is an initiative by the Biden administration to signal its commitment to engage countries in the Asia-Pacific, and was also discussed at a dialogue Mr Wong had at the Peterson Institute for International Economics think-tank in Washington on Monday.

He said Singapore supported the framework as a platform for the US to engage Asia more substantively and hoped it would remain open and inclusive.