Brisbane: Terming the just concluded G-20 Summit meeting as successful, Suresh Prabhu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Sherpa’ at the event, on Sunday said the latter was the most sought after leader.
“It was a first G-20 Summit for our honourable Prime Minister, and it turned out to be that he was the most sought after leader. He had several bilateral …but also, what I could see may not have been noticed, that hundreds of people wanted to have photos with him, and from all over the world, ministers and others. And, therefore, this has been a very significant entry for the Prime Minister into this global forum of G-20,” Prabhu told media persons at a press conference here.
Prabhu further said, “India has been particularly saying that G-20 is a grouping which addresses concerns going beyond the members of G-20 themselves, and fortunately, this has been now put into the centre of the agenda, that developmental issues are occupying a very key place in the outcome as well as in the deliberations.”
Prabhu looked visibly content that most of the issues of India’s core interest featured in the summit meeting.
“And, therefore, we could see that employment, which has been India’s prime concern, is now one of the central issues for discussion at the G-20. It is very significant, because we have noticed that in last several decades, we could have an unprecedented growth in global output, but absolutely no relationship of that growth with employment. So, this was a very significant demand, and this is a significant contribution India has made for her own interest, also for others, also for those who are not present in the G-20,” he said.
Prabhu also stated that India and China will contribute towards the growth of the world economy, referring to a prediction made by the International Monetary Fund.
“Then, of course, the growth, which is critical, because if you do not have economic strength, you will not be able to get as much as what you want to put into special sectors. So, growth is one of the important things; and as the IMF was pointing out, that growth though shaping up, but not as good as that should have been. And, therefore, India is one of the principal countries which will contribute significantly to the growth, incremental two percent growth rate, which will happen mainly from India besides, China of course,” he said.
“India was the co-chair of the framework working group. So, that again is a significant contribution which India made. We have the two-trillion dollar of extra global economic growth which will happen because of this two-percent growth rate that we are talking about. I think India would also benefit, but India will also contribute. India will contribute, because India’s growth rate will definitely be upwards of six percent, and definitely, India will benefit, because, when the global markets open up, we also get a significant part of that as our share of the global trade. So, that again, will be a significant contribution that we will have,” he added.
“We already talked about global infrastructure, which is a very significant outcome of this particular summit, is that infrastructure has become a very central theme of the discussion. And, there are several initiatives on infrastructure; the multilateral agencies like IMF, World Bank will also contribute towards that. There is already a global infrastructure hub which is going to be created. There is already talk of creating best practices network for infrastructure, which every country can really benefit from, as President Obama also pointed out that not only developing countries like India, or emerging economies like India, but also developed countries, may be like even US. So, this will be a very significant contribution, and the World Bank whose global infrastructure facility which also will be there,” he further said.
Prabhu also revealed that giving a re-look to global institutions was looked into.
“Of course, as you know, we have been continuously following up on reforms of these multilateral agencies, and now, it has been said that probably as soon as possible, we should try to recapitalize the IMF, and we should try to reform the institutions in a way that represent the reality that exists, because new economies are now contributing significantly to this process of work,” he said.
“We want 25 percent women employment to be also increased. India has made some very interesting contributions, which was noted by them in areas like self-help groups, in areas like animal husbandry, where we also creating jobs in informal sector, so that again is a very interesting contribution,” he said.
“We have been talking about the resilience of the global economy, and as was discussed, that maybe, global economy seems to be out of the woods, but not entirely, it could relapse into a challenge, unless we do structural changes .And, it is terms of governance, in terms of changing the structure of the economy’s globally and that actually applies mainly to the developed world, because they are the ones who are supposed to take those steps. Some of the immobility in the market places is also causing concern,” he added.
The Sherpa to the Prime Minister Modi at the G-20 Summit meeting also talked about including services into global trade as much as like the goods.
“We pointed out and we insisted that services should be as much of global trade, as the goods are because it then helps a country like India, which has a largest pool of service providers. May be professionals or others, and therefore, this could be another contribution which has also been taken on board,” he said.
Referring to his speech on reforms in general in G-20 Summit meeting, Prabhu said, “Our Prime Minister also made contribution in areas of what reform really means, and it is a very interesting and I would say a very significant statement reforms should be people centric , reforms should be benefiting people, and not benefitting corporates or the governments alone..but specifically for the people. This was again a very widely welcome statement. I think this again would go a long way in shaping the future course of thinking in G-20 in terms of what reforms really mean.”
Earlier during a G-20 plenary session, Prime Minister Modi raised the issue of the scourge of black money and sought improved global co-ordination to deal with it.
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