Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

India attacks North for unfair globalisation process

The annual World Economic Forum began in Davos on Thursday with India attacking industrialised nations for "unfair" globalisation process which has led to "win-lose' situation for developing countries.

"The globalisation process is simply not fair, nor equitable. The South does not want nor need charity. But we need the North to play fair," Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha told the opening plenary of the Week-long WEF which is being attended by over 3000 leaders including 30 heads of states and governments.

At the meeting in this Swiss Alpine Ski resort, Sinha dwelt at length on the pitfalls of globalisation saying the view from the South is that the globalisation process is largely controlled by the North and often ended up being a "win-lose situation" for developing countries.

Sinha, who heads a 40-member Indian delegation, would be associated with two key debates on how globalisation could meet the expectations of the developing countries and measures to address the backlash against this contentious process.

Meanwhile, the meeting braces itself for renewed clashes involving protest groups, despite organisers' efforts to include more critics of big business and to broaden the debate at the deliberations.

Sinha said liberalisation has empowered the poor to communicate and they have also given people the tast of markets.

"The citizens of my country and the developing world are no longer willing to tolerate poverty,"he said adding "they want higher growth and participate in greater opportunities."

However poverty is still a problem. "But, while we have problems, we have our strengths too. The west unfortunately, never seems inclined to talk about what we have,"he said.

"Debates never focus on how much better off the bulk of the population is, the strength of the bulk of the population is, the strength of the democratic institutions in south or its quality of governance", he said.

At the time of independence, India had a miserable life expectancy of 32 years. This had nearly doubled to 62 now, he said.

Elaborating on the progress made by India, he said most importantly its GDP growth rate has risen to five per cent in the 1980s and to 6.5 per cent in the nineties.

Another major inequity in the globalisation process pertained to immigration policies, Sinha said warning that during the next few decades, the North will face major shortages of young and energetic workers.

"To encourage these valuable human resources to migrate, the countries of the North have developed tailored immigration programmes. Recruiters from various counrties flock to India to hire software programmers. Special visas for IT workers make migration easy," he said.

The South could do little to stop this "human cherry picking" and suffers the economic and social costs of this exodus, he said asserting "our industries lose crucial talent and our ability to generate high quality exports is diminished."

"We also know that when the economies of the North slowdown, these same migrant workers will be subject to right-wing extremism and racial taunting. Many will come back to our countries disappointed and with their dreams dashed," he cautioned.

Though globalisation is unfair, multilateral institutions find it difficult to resolve such contentious issues, he said regretting the countries of the North control most of these institutions.

"If North's self-interest is threatened, negotiations are stalled," he said adding "my experience suggests that the South has little leverage on such important matters."

Tell us what you think of this report