Home | Finance | Credit Card
Maintaining that debt relief alone is not sufficient to lift poor countries out of poverty, India has urged the rich nations to give them access to their markets and help build their capacities. Debt relief, said Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma, needs to be accompanied by proactive approach to assist the poor to achieve higher growth, enhanced export performance, and revenue mobilization through better market access and increased related opportunities. Addressing a United Nations General Assembly meeting yesterday to review the implementation of Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Sharma regretted that Official Development Assistance for them is more than a third short of the agreed target. "There is an urgent need for new and additional commitments to fulfill the commitment by developed nations to meet the 0.15 to 0.20 per cent target," he said. "But this needs to be done without prescribing development modes, policies of actions, either directly or through condition attached to their support," he added. Moreover, aid should help promote greater foreign and domestic private investments consistent with national priorities for sustainable development, he told the 192-member Assembly, warning against a "one size fits all" approach for all LDCs. The one-size-fit approach is "not practical and is unlikely to succeed and while private sector investment is important, the physical and social infrastructure in many LDCs is too weak to attract investment, and therefore requires sequencing," he stressed. Referring to the issue of good governance being stressed in the context of development in developing countries and LDCS in particular, Sharma said it is as important at the international level as at domestic level. He stressed on the need for a supportive international environment that is stable, predictable and characterized by non-discriminatory trading, monetary and financial systems. "LDCs and other developing economies also need to be assisted in capacity-building, particularly in setting up the requisite institutional framework to help prioritise the sources and destination and to attract, evaluate and facilitate, foreign investment inflows," the minister told the Assembly. Pointing out that India is a strong votary of South-South cooperation, the minister spoke of the assistance by being given by New Delhi to developing nations. The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) has since 1964, he said, has provided technical assistance of over USD 2.5 billion and more than 5000 representatives of developing countries receive training in over 250 institutions in India every year. "We have constantly tried to increase mutually beneficial economic cooperation with all LDCs in general, and with those in our extended neighbourhood, in particular," he said. India is partnering Afghanistan in a "significant manner" for infrastructure and capacity building projects and school children feeding programmes, he said. With Myanmar, New Delhi is cooperating in infrastructure upgrading projects while its endeavours with Maldives include speciality healthcare and assistance for rehabilitation projects after the tsunami disaster. "We have special relationships with Nepal and Bhutan and a deep interest in their development," he told delegates. Africa, Sharma said, has always been a high priority for India and we are strengthening our cooperation through NEPAD and through other efforts such as TEAM-9 for Western Africa. "Our commitment in terms of lines of credit and other concessional financial assistance add up to almost USD 1 billion. "We are also working on a Pan-African Network which would be a major satellite and fibre optic connectivity mission that would cover the entire continent of Africa, enabling a network linking learning centres, universities, hospitals in every country in Africa with counterpart institutions in India that have a proven expertise in these fields," he added.
Article Source: http://www.share.onlypunjab.com
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
