|
PM's opening remarks at the Full Format
(Plenary)
Session at the first BRIC Summit
16/06/2009
June16, 2009
Yekaterinburg, Russia
I wish to take this opportunity to once again thank His Excellency
President Medvedev for hosting the first BRIC Summit.
We have just concluded useful discussions in the restricted format on
some of the major issues before us.
When we review the global financial and economic situation, it is worth
recalling that when we met at the Second G-20 Leaders’ Summit in April
this year we realised that the global downturn was much more severe than
what we had anticipated in Washington D.C. in November last year.
In London we were successful in agreeing on several short term measures
to infuse greater liquidity, make good the decline that has taken place
in capital flows to developing countries by providing adequate resources
to the international financial institutions, and agreeing on a broad
direction for improvement in the regulatory and supervisory structure
for the world’s financial system. We also agreed on the need to develop
an effective early warning system which can identify the build up of
risks which may threaten global financial stability.
There was a unanimous view that protectionism or restrictions on the
free flow of trade and persons are counterproductive, and pose a
particular threat to recovery in the developing world. The stark
collapse in world trade has heightened the importance of an early
completion of the Doha Round of talks keeping in mind its development
dimension.
We also recognised the continuing need to redefining the role of
institutions of global economic and financial governance to deal with
the problems of today and to reflect contemporary realities. The
broadening of representation in the Financial Stability Forum and the
Basle Committee on Banking Supervision, the two key standard setting
bodies, has been a useful development in this context.
We were able to identify areas for further improvement in the
functioning of multilateral institutions. In the case of the IMF, these
related to its surveillance function, its lending role, augmentation of
the IMF’s resources and governance reforms. In the case of the World
Bank, three specific points of action were identified - (i) a
substantial increase in lending, (ii) a review of the Bank’s lending
capacity and capital adequacy and (iii) enabling large developing
countries to access required levels of finance through increased lending
limits so that they can support recovery in their regions.
The important issue today is to implement the decisions that we have
taken. Finance Ministers and Central Bank representatives of BRIC
countries have met and identified the areas where our efforts should be
focused. Our countries should also keep in contact with each other in
the run up to the next G-20 Leaders Summit in Pittsburgh.
Our cooperation in the G-20 process must be backed up by cooperation in
the real economy. The volume of trade among BRIC countries has grown
rapidly in recent years. Intra-BRIC investments have also grown. We
should consider the establishment of a BRIC Joint Business Forum which
can identify areas for cooperation such as science and technology,
energy, agriculture, aviation, pharmaceuticals and services.
In India, we have launched a number of fiscal stimulus packages
including additional public spending, amounting to over 3% of our GDP.
Our monetary policy initiatives have been targeted towards maintaining a
comfortable liquidity position and ensuring that credit delivery remains
on track. Our banking system remains well regulated, capitalized and
profitable.
The Joint Statement and the Statement on Global Food Security that we
will be adopting later today provide a road-map for our future work.
I wish to congratulate His Excellency President Medvedev for his
guidance and leadership during this Summit, and for the successful
outcomes that we have reached today.
Thank you.
|
