New Delhi: Plan panel deputy chief Montek Singh Ahluwalia said India needs to be more open to neighbouring countries even as the recently released Human Development Report said the biggest outward investor from the global South is China with an investment stock of $1.2 trillion in 2010. The Dispatch News Desk (DND) reported.
“Mechanical prescriptions of rolling down tariffs is not what we want. We want to have a sense that development consists of tapping into global markets… and if you are part of it, (others) will tap into your market too,” he said.Ahluwalia was speaking at an event to mark the regional launch of the Human Development report 2013 that was released in March. The event also saw the launch of a new policy dialogue organisation, the International Centre for Human Development.
Earlier at the event, Bangladesh economist Rehman Sobhan said India had not played as catalytical a role as China in its neighbourhood because of its “closed nature”. India’s outward investment reached $1.04 trillion by February 2012 according to Reserve Bank of India data. However, Mauritius, Singapore and Hong Kong are the only Asian countries among India’s top 10 investment destinations.
The 2013 report ranked India at 136 out of 187 countries and territories, unchanged from the previous report. The report said that between 1980 and 2010, developing countries, particularly in Asia, have increased their share of world output from 33% to 45% and their share of world merchandise trade from 25% to 47%. The report cited a 2011 study to say that growth in low-income countries would have been an estimated 0.3 – 1.1 percentage points lower in 2007-10 had growth fallen at the same rate in China and India as in developed countries.
On the other hand, it also noted that growth of exports from China has created competitive pressures. It cites the effects of cheap Chinese exports on manufacturing in other countries such as Brazil and India’s longstanding demand for reciprocal access to the Chinese automobile market as examples.
