New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves Wednesday for the two-day G20 Summit in Pittsburgh where he is expected to make a strong pitch for a much larger role for developing countries like India in the global financial architecture.
Apart from taking stock of the yearlong global economic crisis, he is expected to focus on the need to reform multilateral financial institutions to reflect today’s reality and reiterate India’s opposition to all forms of protectionism, officials said.
“We would also like to see the Pittsburgh Summit ensure that such a crisis that was the result of regulatory failure in the developed world in the first place isn’t repeated,” said India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao ahead of the prime minister’s visit.
“We remain opposed to protectionism in all its forms covering trade and goods and services and investment.”
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia will be the prime minister’s “sherpa” or key aide at the two-day summit that starts Thursday and is hosted by US President Barack Obama.
This will also be the 10th year of the G20 initiative, which started at the level of officials and central bank governors in 1999 following the East Asia financial crisis, and was also elevated to the summit level last November.
It brings together rich nations and dynamic emerging economies to resolve issues relating to the management and regulation of global financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the International Finance Corp.
The Pittsburgh Summit, which will bring together a group of countries that accounts for 90 percent of the global output, 80 percent of world trade and two-third of humanity, is also expected to issue a declaration or a communique.
Ahead of the summit, India has also committed to invest up to $10 billion in the IMF as part of the major thrust to wrest a greater say in the running of the international financial institution and replenish the fund to help countries struggling in the current financial crisis.
Besides India and the US, the G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, Britain and the EU.