India focus of Fund-Bank meet

India is set to share the centrestage with China at the upcoming IMF-World Bank (Fund-Bank) meet in Singapore.

The last time the meet was held in Asia was in Hong Kong in 1997 when Asia was in the throes of a financial crisis which brought half a dozen east Asian countries on the brink of collapse. On Monday, east Asia is the fastest growing region with a phenomenal growth in commodity and stock markets.

The general theme of seminars in the Fund-Bank meet between September 16 and 18, spread over 37 sessions, is "Asia in the world and the world in Asia".

However, India and China will be the focus of attention of most of the seminars. In fact, the World Bank will be bringing out a book "Dancing with Giants: China, India and the Global Economy".

The list of 150 speakers at these seminars include Reserve Bank of India Governor YV Reddy, Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani, ITC Chairman Yogi Deveshwar, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia besides Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, Tata Sons Executive Director Alan Rosling, ICICI Bank Deputy Managing Director Nachiket Mor and a few others.

While Deveshwar will be talking about taking business to rural India, Rosling's focus will be Tata Group's overseas acquisitions. There will also be an "India Evening" to be organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on September 17.

The very first session on September 16 will focus on "Opening & Reforming the Financial Sectors in China and India: Next Steps and Effects on the International Financial System".

It will deal with two key issues - what are the next steps in the opening of the financial sectors in China and India and how desirable is to achieve current account convertibility in the short term?

The list of panelists includes Zhou Xiaochuan, governor, People's Bank of China; Lawrence Summers, professor, Harvard University and the moderator will be Stanley Fischer, governor, Bank of Israel.

The seminars will also dissect the nature of growth in China and India and the challenges ahead and its implications for the rest of the world.

Between 1995 and 2004, China provided roughly 13 per cent of the growth in world output and India over 3 per cent.

The key questions which the speakers will try to address are: Will China and India become major markets for exports and hence a source of growth, or will they provide such intense competition that exports to third markets decline?

The focus will also be on infrastructure constraints limiting growth and the role played by the emerging middle classes in both these countries on consumption and investment behavior.

Ahluwalia will speak on this at a session, to be moderated by Martin Wolf, associate editor, Financial Times.

Deveshwar will speak at a seminar on the need for business to reach the "bottom of the pyramid". The session will examine the experiences of firms operating in Asia that have successfully targeted poor populations. Rosling of the Tata Group will participate at a seminar on "southern multinationals" - companies from developing countries who are globalising their operations both in other developing countries and in developed economies.

There will also be a session on the "Emergence of China & India: Lessons & Challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean".

The organisers admit that the fast and sustained economic growth of the East Asian and South Asian economies, particularly China and India, offers lessons as well as challenges for Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) private sector and governments. An adequate response can maximise the gains from new opportunities and minimise the costs from new challenges.

The focus will be in which directions is China and India's growth taking LAC firms and governments and what lessons can LAC policymakers draw from the Asian experience to reduce the volatility of macroeconomic outcomes and achieve sustained periods of high growth.