G20 action plan to spur world growth

The G20 summit is expected to produce a tentatively titled “Los Cabos Action Plan” to help get the world economy back on the rails. Pramit Pal Chaudhuri reports.

The G20 summit is expected to produce a tentatively titled “Los Cabos Action Plan” to help get the world economy back on the rails. The deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said the action plan would compare the actual performance of G20 countries against “declared policy commitments”.

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Ahluwalia explained that each G20 summit had previously asked its participants to list what it could do to help the world economy grow.

The action plan would then seek to press them to fulfil these promises.

He admitted the plan’s clauses would not be “legally binding” and were really an expression of the “individual seriousness” of the respective governments. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who arrived at the G20 summit site in Mexico, on Sunday told media that “the world economy was in a weak condition”.

Besides the summit, Singh will be holding bilateral meetings with the leaders of France, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Canada and Russia. An informal “pull aside” with US President Barack Obama and other leaders are also expected, said Indian officials.

However, New Delhi believes that the summit of the world’s largest economies will have to confine itself largely to rhetoric. “The G20 will seek to give a credible reassurance about the state of global financial stability,” said Ahluwalia.