G-20 Seoul Summit will focus first on following up previous G-20 commitments within the established timeframe. Those commitments include safeguarding the ongoing recovery and restoring fiscal sustainability, ensuring strong sustainable and balanced global growth, building a stronger international financial system and modernising international financial institutions. While these are in the form of follow up on the earlier G-20 Summits at Toronto and Pittsburgh, South Korea, as the host of Seoul Summit has decided to bring new issues to wards addressing the needs of the developing world. Toward that end, South Korea will introduce plans for a global financial safety net system and development issues as additional agenda items.

As India sees it, the designation of the G-20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation has brought together advanced and emerging market economies at the same table on an economic footing. this has been a major step in the direction of improving global governance and shared responsibility for larger public good. India welcomes this and commends the US and other developed nations in taking and supporting this step Indeed, it is not surprising that the G-20 could concert the decisive response to enable the world economy to move on the path of recovery.

According to India, G-20 spearheaded a commitment to implement coordinated macroeconomic policies including fiscal expansion of US$ 5 trillion and the use of unconventional use of monetary instruments. It took the initiative to significantly enhance financial regulations, notably by the establishment of the financial Stability Board and strengthened the international financial institutions including the expansion of resources and the improvement of precautionary lending facilities. Indian position is that G-20 need to persist with and strengthen the mechanism as the global economy moves forward to create a more dynamic and equitable architecture for global trade and sustained growth.

With this perspective on the role of G-20, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will elaborate on India's position at the Seoul Summit to bolster the position of the developing countries.

Governance reform will be central to the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Fund's mandate and India sees quota realignment as the central element of governance reform. EMDCs now represent 47.5 per cent of the global GDP in PPP terms in 2009. But they have a quota share of only 39.5 per cent. Hence, India calls for a very modest shift of 5 to 6 per cent in quota shares from advanced countries to EMDCs to better reflect current global economic realities.

The Fund will really be seen to have changed only if the shift comes primarily from advanced economies to the EMDCs and not mainly by internal readjustment of quota shares amongst EMDCs. The burden of the committed protection for poorest countries should be borne entirely by advanced economies.

India feels that there is still enough time before the deadline of January 2011 set by the IMFC to correct the approach taken and work out a technical solution based on an enhanced role for PPP-GDP in the ad hoc allocation and with lower levels of protection for calculated quota shares to achieve the desired objectives.

Apart, the size of the quota increase should be calibrated to achieve the targeted realignment. The possibility of future realignments of quotas should not be precluded by too large a quota increase in the current round. The more immediate governance issue which has to be resolved on a much shorter time frame is the election of Executive Directors. India expects the process would result in enhanced representation of EMDCs

As regards World Bank restructuring, first, through Voice reform, G-20 have secured an additional chair for Sub-Saharan Africa, a commitment to move towards parity for DTCs and a periodic realignment beginning in 2015. On the capital front, G-20 have managed to enhance the lending capacity of IBRD significantly so that it continues to be a source of knowledge and resources for developing countries.

But India has concerns for the future. The World Bank is stretched to the limit and needs more resources to be a multilateral buffer for poorer countries. There is need for an ambitious IDA16 replenishment with out-of-the box thinking to make it more sustainable in the long run. The Bank needs to continue to maintain its core focus on poverty alleviation without a proliferation of goals. In the context of climate change, it should focus on providing access to energy to all at the cheapest cost. The Bank needs to refocus on agriculture and infrastructure. In all these areas, the G24 can be an effective forum to coordinate actions and secure results that benefit G-20 development goals.” (IPA Service)