Developing countries to play role in global eco crisis : PM

Tokyo, Oct 22 (UNI) Calling for a coordinated global response to the 'great turbulence in the world economy', Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked the developing economies like India to be part of the solution as they were affected by the crisis.

''We cannot afford to risk the gains we have made in the last few years nor do we want to remain vulnerable to infirmities in international surveillance, supervision and regulatory mechanisms in the future'', he said addressing the Japanese business and industry at the luncheon, hosted by Nippon Keidanren, Japan's leading business body.

Dr Singh expressed the hope that the Indian economy had the resilience to sustain its growth momentum in the medium term saying the short-term outlook was 'cloudy'.

''We hope to build on India's many strengths as an emerging market economy that is now ready for rapid growth.'' In this context, he said India's average nine per cent GDP growth in the past four years would slowdown in the current year because of conditions in the global economy.

He, however, expressed the hope that India could regain the nine per cent trajectory once normalcy returned.

''We have a tradition of a high rate of savings, like most Asian countries and a dynamic private sector,'' he told the Japanese businessmen in an effort to send the message that the global meltdown did not alter the strengths in Indian economy.

Listing out several measures taken by his government in the last few days to ensure adequate liquidity and confidence in the economy, Dr Singh said the fundamentals of Indian economy had been and continued to be strong.

''Our banking system is well capitalised. However, we have experienced a shrinking of liquidity and we are responding by injecting additional liquidity to ensure that the rhythm of economic activity is not disrupted.'' He said the Reserve Bank of India stood ready to respond swiftly to address the needs of the economy.

The Prime Mnister said the international financial crisis, which still continued, had revealed the extraordinary vulnerability of the financial system even in the industrialised world. The crisis had choked the credit flows and predictably spilled over to the stock market.

''We have to prevent the liquidity crisis from becoming a crisis of confidence in the international monetary and financial system.'' Dr Singh, who arrived here last night, kicked off his day's engagement after a meeting with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.

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