Allow peaceful rise of Asia; It will help Europe, US: PM

New Delhi, Dec 7 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today asked the West to come to terms with the rise of the Asian economies and benefit from it, instead of putting hurdles to the free movement of people.

''It is essential that 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 world, it must now accommodate the rise of new Asian economies in the years that lie ahead,'' Dr Singh said.

The Prime Minister made the remarks in his inaugural address at a conference of the London School of Economics Asia Forum in memory of late Reserve Bank Governor I G Patel.

He said the rise of Asia was going to be the most important development of the 21st century. China had already trebled its share of world GDP over the past two decades and India had doubled it.

Both these giant economies of Asia were bound to gain a considerable part of their share of world GDP that they had lost during the two centuries of European colonialism. While Japan would continue to be at the top in the foreseeable future, the newly industrialising economies of East and South East Asia would grow even if not at rates witnessed in the past two decades, he said.

Taken together, the rise of these Asian economies would alter the balance of income distribution at the global level. ''This need not worry the West, since a dynamic Asia can power global growth and provide new opportunities for growth for Europe as well as for North America,'' Dr Singh said.

Pointing out that a re-assuring aspect of the on-going growth process was that it was more orderly, he said what this meant was that ''we need global institutions and new global rules of the game that can facilitate the peaceful rise of new nations in Asia.

''It also means that existing global institutions and frameworks of cooperation must evolve and change to accommodate this new reality. This is as true for the reform and revitalisation of the United Nations and the restructuring of the United Nations Security Council, as it is true for the management of multilateral trading system, or for the protection of global environment or for the security of world energy supplies.'' Acknowledging that western academic institutions played a leading role in shaping intellectual thinking after the Second World War to facilitate peaceful post-war reconstruction and development of Europe and of Japan, he said institutions like the LSE must ponder over how the world ''can now accommodate the growth aspirations of the developing world so that the rise of Asia is peaceful.'' It was often said globalisation was a reality that countries must contend with. It was also said globalization offered opportunities as much as it posed challenges. That people and nations must learn to deal with both.

''But, there are still many unsettled questions pertaining to globalisation. Even the discipline of economics has not addressed the phenomenon in a holistic manner. For example, while there is enormous, and quite longstanding literature on the benefits of free trade in goods and free flow of capital, the literature and policy on the free movement of people remains scanty and patchy,'' he said.

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