Thaindian News

United Nations, Oct 12 (IANS) Noting that the world economy is in trouble, India has called for urgent reform of global economic and financial architecture in pursuit of sustained economic growth to bring the global economy firmly back on track.

“The roadmap of our global economic and financial reform agenda is clear and unambiguous,” Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha K. Rahman Khan said Tuesday during a UN General Assembly panel discussion on international financial system and development. “Let us pursue it.”

“The world economy is in trouble,” he said noting, “The shoots of recovery which were visible after the economic and financial crisis of 2008 have yet to blossom.”

In many respects the crisis has deepened even further, Khan said with the traditional engines of the global economy such as the United States, Europe and Japan faced with continued economic slowdown.

But “We should not allow the global economic slowdown to become a trigger for building walls around ourselves through protectionism or erecting barriers to movement of people, services and capital,” he said.

“Our foremost priority, however, must be to pursue sustained economic growth to bring the global economy firmly back on track,” Khan said.

“The development agenda must be brought firmly back to the centre stage of the United Nations’ priorities,” he said.

Calling for deploying effective ways and means to promote coordination of macro-economic policies of major economies, Khan said: “India fully recognizes that the global economic and financial architecture, so overwhelmingly loaded against the developing world needs urgent reform.”

He also called for early implementation of the two phase package of reforms of the World Bank to enhance voice and participation of developing countries.