Onboard Air India One, Nov 16 : Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh batted for developing economies at the G-20 summit.

Addressing a news conference onboard Air India One, while returning from Washington on Sunday, Singh said, the present economic crisis was threatening to spill over to the developing countries as well and that the developed countries must not lose sight of the impact of the crisis on the developing countries.

“All developing countries were united in making this demand that this crisis should not become an occasion to divert the world''''s attention from the development dimension of the human condition. There our point of view was that in a situation where private capital was not available for various reasons- market failures and all that, first of all there was need to mount a considerable fiscal stimulus to make good for the deficiency in private demand,” said Singh.

World leaders gathering in Washington DC had backed a series of measures to kick-start the global economy with better financial market regulation and more say for emerging countries.

Singh had said, before going to the summit, that he was apprehensive that the developing countries might not find a say in voicing their point of views at the summit, which would not be good for handling the financial crisis.

“When President Bush first spoke to me about this idea, I had mentioned to him that there was a risk that if the meeting was not well prepared, it could be counterproductive. Also, I was worried that the Europeans and the Americans may not be able to agree. And similarly, the emerging countries'''' point of view may not receive the attention that we would like, in which case there would be a clear picture of dissension, which would not be good for handling the financial crisis, or its aftermath, the recession that is now on the horizon,” said Singh.

Expressing satisfaction, Singh said, this was the first time there was a dialogue between major developed countries and major emerging countries and that it was the first time that the balance of power was increasingly shifting in favour of emerging economies.

“It is a clear indication that the balance of power is increasingly shifting in favour of the emerging economies. We were previously also, for the last couple of years, being invited to the G8 meetings, but consultations were merely for the sake of form. Our views were not really taken into account, while they were formulating their viewpoints. This is for the first time there was a genuine dialogue between major developed countries and major emerging countries,” Singh said.

Shedding light on the outcome of the summit, Singh added, it was agreed that as far as the developing countries are concerned, infrastructure investment and its protection will be a major contributory factor to sustaining growth rates and therefore the International Financial Institutions, both the World Bank and international Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Regional Development Banks must come out with facilities to increase their assistance to these countries.

India''''s impressive growth of around nine per cent in the past few years has attracted global attention and investors have moved in to take part in the long-term growth prospects.

Its economic clout has meant India is an important voice in major global economic and political foras and New Delhi has been acknowledged as a leader of developing countries at world trade talks. (ANI)