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Need to democratise World Bank, IMF, WTO: Gujral

Former Prime Minister I K Gujral, on Wednesday, called for "democratisation" of multilateral organisations like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organisation (WTO), saying they were "non-representative and thus lacking credibility".

"Globalisation is not likely to register the desired progress unless the multilateral organisations like the IMF, World Bank and the WTO are democratised," Gujral told a Policy Summit of the Global Ageing Initiative in Zurich.

He said that his intention was not to diminish their relevance in any manner but to point out how at the very time that the international community most needs these agencies, we find them lacking credibility.

Delivering his key note address, Gujral suggested that the US repatriate a third or so of the social security funds collected from overseas H1-B visa holders to their home governments, which, for India, would amount to about US $7 billion.

Terming the non-repayment of social security payments to H1-B visa holders on their return to India as "unfair", he said that in case India received this money, it would be more than the entire annual assistance Delhi got from the World Bank and other bilateral donors.

"Such repatriation will go a long way to strengthen the third world's faith in globalisation," the former prime minister said. Quoting a Harvard University study, Gujral said that temporary migrant labour to the US with H1-B visa from India contributed to US $22 billion per year in the form of direct taxes and social security payments.

In this regard, he also said the Indian exchequer made "hefty" investments in educating and training these highly skilled migrants. Rejecting a charge that India's commitment to globalisation was weak and half-hearted, he said Delhi had never defaulted on an international obligation or a commitment that it had freely entered into.

"On the contrary, we have been staunch upholders of the global system, liberally contributing men, material and resources to such common causes as have been sanctified through due process of the international community," Gujral stressed.

Maintaining that the threat to globalisation came from elsewhere, he said that it was very difficult to reconcile with the problems of global ageing with the position taken by developed nations in the WTO.

He said that world trade in textile and agriculture, which are the main areas in which the developing countries retain a comparative advantage, have been kept out of the disciplines of the world trading system.

"There is a double injury in this. Apart from the welfare loss to the developed countries themselves, the result has been to keep most developing countries locked out of the world economy. This is hardly a happy augury for the globalised future", Gujral added.

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