'World wants India to succeed'

The world could be having apprehensions about China's rise but it wants India to grow and it is time to take advantage of the situation. Unlike China's rise, which possibly gives rise to apprehensions, the world takes a benign view of India's growth. We should take advantage of that (situation) because we don't know how long it will last. The world is not apprehensive about India and wants it to succeed. India has an opportunity to interact with other leading economies of the world on issues like global financial crisis.

Today, we need to put in place an international order that is equitable, fair and meets the legitimate aspirations of developing countries. The existing international institutions, both political and financial, needs to be reformed so that developing nations get a fair share. The global financial crisis could lead to rise of protectionism, a prospect which the Indian Prime Minister warned against at the meets. Though the global financial crisis had shown some recovery, it is weak and momentum needs to be maintained.

Financial crisis affects all countries, particularly the developing countries. The financial crisis had caused a shrinkage of 12 to 14% of global trade. There are apprehensions about economic crisis giving rise to protectionism. There is need for early conclusion of ongoing world trade negotiations to put in place a multilateral architecture which gives opportunity to developing economies. The economic recovery has been stimulus-inspired and very coordinated efforts of the governments, interventions of the governments did help in coming out of the recession. Recovery itself has been weak and needs to be carefully monitored before there is any premature withdrawal of various stimuli and interventions by the governments.