Emergence of India, China changed role of G-24: Pranab

Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi, greets Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during the G-20 Ministerial Meeting at the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington on Friday.

Emergence of member nations such as India, China and Argentina as important players on the global economic landscape has considerably changed the role of G-24, a grouping of the developing countries, said Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

“The G-24 role has considerably changed from the 70s and 80s...Today quite a large number of G-24 members are important players and their economy is very strong...like China, India and Argentina. Therefore, the character G-24 had in the 70s and 80s is no longer relevant now,” he told Indian media here on Friday.

G-24 was founded in 1971 to coordinate the position of developing countries on international monetary and development finance issues.

India has taken over the leadership of G-24 from South Africa with Mr. Mukherjee becoming its chairman on Thursday. He had earlier headed the group in the 1980s.

“I had been elected Chairman of G-24 in 1983-84 and again in 2011-12. Normally, it does not happen,” Mr. Mukherjee said.

“We are not asking for more money. We are addressing the problems which are affecting all of us,” he said.

Fostering dialogue

The Minister, in his acceptance speech after taking over the G-24 chair, had said: “I do believe that the G-24 has an important role to play in fostering dialogue amongst developing countries and in supporting a more inclusive approach in global economic and financial cooperation, including on the development agenda.

Recession

Amid fears of a second dip recession, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that “concrete steps” will have to be taken to deal with the situation as there is no ready made formula to address the problems.

“We are in a situation when international economic situation is very difficult. There is a lurking doubt whether a second dip recession is going to take place and what role international financial institutions and all the organisations (will play) to overcome the crisis,” he said.

“There has been no ready made suggestion or formula but everybody (has) underlined the need of taking concrete steps,” he added.