G-20 has significant role to deal with global crisis: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that G-20 has an important role to play in addressing the global economic and financial slowdown by taking coordinated and purposeful action.

He was speaking ahead of his departure to UK on Tuesday to attend the G-20 summit in London on April 2, convening to discuss the global financial downturn and ways to deal with it.

•   E-mail Article
•   Printer Friendly
•   Text-Size    

The summit is taking place for the second time in five months.

During the four-day visit, Dr. Singh accompanied by a senior level delegation, including Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, will meet US President Barack Obama, for the first time since Obama assumed office in January.

Singh said that they will review the bilateral relations and will hold discussions on important regional and global issues such as terrorism, the situation in Afghanistan, energy security and climate change.”

The Prime Minister said he would also have bilateral meetings with the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is the host of the meeting, among others. Singh will return on April 3.

Singh said that a considerable amount of preparation has been done for the Summit such as provision of coordinated fiscal stimulus by major economies to offset the decline in private demand, agreement on a set of principles to plug loopholes and weaknesses in the supervisory and regulatory arrangements for the financial institutions and the need to undertake effective measures designed to provide emerging and developing countries adequate resources to offset the effects of global slowdown on their economies.

The Prime Minister said the global crisis has affected countries across the globe; particularly Africa is facing its worst consequences. Singh said that developed and emerging countries need to work together to deal with the crisis. The time has come for the international economic and financial architecture to reflect contemporary economic strengths.

“There are some issues which require particular focus such as the need to ensure the adequate flow of finances to the developing countries to overcome the reversal of international capital flows, and not retard progress towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, the need to avoid protectionism in the trade of both goods and services, facilitation of trade finance, and reform and restructuring of international financial institutions.

Briefing reporters on the eve of PM’s visit to London, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said the Prime Minister is expected to emphasise that countries should not resort to protectionist policy to tackle the forthwith problem of major economic crisis since World War II.

India will call on the world leaders at G-20 to desist from trade barriers and ensure flow of funds do not hinder the development. Menon said that the leaders of the participant countries are expected to take decisions aimed at helping the global economy to recover from the current meltdown in accordance with market principles.

“All the developed and emerging countries would agree on stimulus packages for economic recovery. We also need to get rid of protectionist approach. We have seen some countries have taken steps which we see as protectionist,” Menon said, adding that reform of international financial institutions is a priority too to handle a crisis like this.

Protectionist barriers have caused shrinkage in the global trade, particularly after the economic crisis hit world and it has affected India too, Menon said, there should be no protectionism. Unless we act together, we are not going to solve the severe financial crisis of this magnitude.

Menon said the conference is expected to come out with a declaration enlisting measures to tackle the current situation, like the first summit of G-20 on the financial crisis five months ago in Washington.