Global corporate leaders, including Indian pacesetters, have asked the leaders of the G20 to foster greater private sector participation in achieving Millennium Development Goals like food security and development of infrastructure for sustainable economic growth.
The B20 Working Group on Development, led by Ficci Senior Vice-President RV Kanoria and Unilever CEO Paul Polman, has recommended a detailed action agenda to the global leadership for an enhanced private sector role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
Development issues of vital interest to India are expected to receive focused attention at the G20 Summit beginning here tomorrow, a Ficci Paper on the 'B20 Working Group on Development' said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend the crucial summit of the world's 20 leading economies (G20), during which India is expected to make a call to resist trade protectionism when global economic growth is facing a slowdown.
The group has suggested making food security a global priority and increasing private sector participation in agri-food production systems to reduce the impact of price volatility across the supply chain.
"Coordinate agricultural policies at the global level, particularly focusing on export restrictions. This requires extensive improvements in food security policies, as well as increased transparency through improved data collection, sharing and monitoring," the paper said.
The paper suggested improvement of agricultural productivity by increasing investment from public and private sources by 50% by 2015.
"With these investments, agricultural productivity should increase by 20% per decade in order to meet food and feed demand," it said.
The paper said that there is a strong need for increased investment in the infrastructure sector by the private sector, as a lack of basic infrastructure is severely impacting sustainable development of developing countries.
It also said that voluntary adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, a key element for growth and development, should be promoted.
