New Delhi, Dec 07: Asking the West to come to terms with the rise of India and China, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday asked global institutions to evolve and change for accommodating the new reality in the multilateral framework.
Addressing the London School of Economics Asia Forum here, he said restructuring of United Nations and UN Security Council was as important as reforms in global trading regime.
"We need global institutions and global rules of game that can facilitate the peaceful rise of new nations. It also means global institutions and frameworks of cooperation must evolve and change to accommodate the new reality.
"This is as true for the reform and revitalisation of the United Nations and the restructuring of the UN Security Council, as it is true for the management of multilateral trading regime, for the protection of global environment and the security of energy supplies," he said.
Singh said the West should come to terms with the consequences of the rise of Asia.
"Just as the world accommodated the rejuvenation of Europe in the post-war period, it must accommodate the rise of new Asian economies in the years ahead," he said.
Singh said both India and China were bound to regain a considerable part of their share of the world GDP that they had lost during the two centuries of European colonialism. China has already trebled its share of world GDP over the past two decades while India has doubled it.
PM also added that while Japan would continue to be at the top in the foreseeable future, the newly industrialising economies of East and South East Asia would also grow, even if not at rates witnessed in the past two decades.
"The rise of Asia and of developing countries in general presents us with new challenges - new intellectual challenges, new technological challenges, new organisational and political challenges," the Prime Minister said.
Singh said there were still many unsettled questions related to globalisation and even the discipline of economics has not addressed it in a holistic manner.
"For example, while there is an enormous and quite long standing literature in the benefits of free trade in goods and free flow of capital, the literature and policy on free movement of people remains scanty and patchy," he added.
The Prime Minister said nature would not be able to withstand the pressure if the consumption standards of every person in India and China match those in the developed countries.
"... How do we alter lifestyles and consumption patterns so that growth is sustainable in the more globalised world," he said.
Singh also favoured a need for closer interaction between academia and policy makers like the one that existed in 1950s and 1960s.
"I confess I miss that environment (of closer interaction) today. I do hope we can recreate it and facilitate greater lateral mobility in and out of government and freer flow of ideas of that both policy and research are enriched," he added.
Bureau Report