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Financial, food crises dominate ACD conference

Sandeep Dikshit

Global compact of coordinated action needed to ensure food security: India

“Developing countries will suffer for no fault of theirs. They did not cause the contagion”
“Global effort required to review financial oversight and regulatory mechanisms”

ASTANA: The world financial crises and high fuel and food prices dominated the 31-nation Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) conference here on Thursday with leaders calling for concerted efforts to stop the twin problems from aggravating further.

The anxiety over the twin crises was palpable right from the beginning with host country Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister M. Tazhin pointing out that the world has reached a stage where jump in fuel prices has caused sharp falling demand and decrease in economic activity. And the anxiety was reflected in the declaration which called on all members of this pan-Asian body to intensify efforts to address this issue.

India, a founding ACD member, termed the food crises “man-made” and pointed out that rising food costs, persistent high energy prices, natural disasters and climate change were the “pressing challenges” facing the world. “This has been further exacerbated by the global economic slow-down coupled with the financial crisis. The specific and inter-related challenges of high oil and food prices threaten to undermine the economic progress made by many developing countries,” warned Indian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Ashok Sajjanwar. The need of the hour, he felt, was a “global compact of coordinated and collective action” to ensure food security.

“The global food crisis is not a natural catastrophe. It is man made. The fall in world cereal production, low food stock levels, and crop diversion for the bio-fuel sector have played a major role. Add to these, the role of speculation and financialisation of commodities, and we have an unprecedented crisis,” observed Mr. Sajjanwar.

Collaborative R&D

Pointing out that research and development in the public domain was critical in helping India achieve higher food grains output in the 1960s and 1970s, the Ambassador was of the opinion that countries should try to pursue the same route again. “India on its part is willing to work with all other countries, including through collaborative R&D, to evolve better seed and farm technologies,” he said.

On the financial crises, India’s position was that a global recession will sharply contract the demand for exports of many developing countries, adversely affecting their growth prospects. “The developing countries will suffer for no fault of theirs. They did not cause the contagion. Many are not equipped to face the consequences. We need a global effort, particularly in countries with developed capital markets, to review financial oversight and regulatory mechanisms,” Mr. Sajjanwar emphasised.

Formed in 2002 in Thailand, ACD began with 18 nations and is now 31-member strong with the inclusion of Kyrgyzstan at Thursday’s meet.

Its members include Japan, Korea, China, Russia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. Though the financial, food and fuel crises dominated the deliberations, the ACD meet also achieved some progress in attempting to operationalise some of the objectives by agreeing to fund some of the projects. It also prescribed the end goals of ACD cooperation which include the short term aim of creating “Asian connectivity” and in the long term building an Asian community.

Ultimate goal

Analysts here felt the impetus provided by the defining of end objectives would help move the ACD to its ultimate goal of becoming a strong multilateral political institution. With its accent on promoting seamless connectivity and cultural diversity besides encouraging energy cooperation, the forum would help melt some of distrust that has accumulated among some of the bigger Asian countries.

By focusing on the 19 projects identified by its members, it could become more effective than other regional associations in future, they pointed out.

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