One of the burning issues at the moment relates to increasing the “voice” or representations of emerging market economies in international financial institutions such as IMF and World Bank, said TT Mboweni, governor of the South African Reserve Bank on Friday. Delivering the 13th Chintaman Deshmukh Memorial Lecture, organised by the Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai, Mboweni said the issues together with other matters relating to the reform of the Bretton Woods Institutions have also been key agenda items addressed this year during the preparatory meetings for the G-20 meeting of Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors, he said. “As we know South Africa currently chairs the G-20 Forum and it will be our pleasure and privilege to welcome the Indian G20 delegation in South Africa during November.”
There were many issues which are the centre of focus to the G-20 this year, but most prominently are the fiscal elements of growth and development and the impact of commodity prices on member countries, Mboweni said. South Africa and India not only share common policy positions on many of the issues, but have also been very active in advocating the interests of emerging market economies in this new world order, he said.
On the multilateral front, initiatives such as that involving India, Brazil and south Africa (IBSA) and Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICSA) provide useful platforms for the strengthening of ties between our two countries and the South-South economic relations in general.
In addition, over the last few years, India, South Africa, Brazil and China have been recognized as systematically important countries to the extent that they have been regularly invited to the G-7 meetings in order to countries give to these meetings.